Tuesday 17 September 2013

The Balanced Society

The Balanced Society

When we think about the society that we want we often have an idealized vision of what it would be like. And its perfectly fine to have that dream, that aspiration of a better world, a world in which you fit and people do the right thing. But in our ideal we imagine a society in which people agree with us and they live their life in a certain manner. They speak and behave in a way that we approve of and again that is a fine thing to desire. But it does leave a question, what happens to those people who do not fit our vision?

In our dreams they are transformed, they see the world though our eyes and they begin to appreciate us a bit more. They abandon their old ways and adopt our way of thinking. It is a dream that is both selfish and selfless. It is both about us and our place in society as well as the want to keep society vital and functioning. It is this twin desire that keeps us on track and not wandering off, the need for a society that works is deep within us. We see the need in the lives of those around us as well as in our own lives. We notice the frayed edges within society and we want answers, we want a better managed world that still lets people make their own decisions.

Of course many of those we believe need to be more like us, simply will not change. It is not a part of their nature and it would become an impossible struggle to force them to change.  We can either fight the impossible fight or we can modify our idealized vision.

On thing that distinguishes us from our opponents is that we know we do not have all of the answers. We do have answers, just not all of them, we accept that sometimes our vision and the real world conflict and that sometimes we must accept that our vision is wrong and the real world is not wrong. The real world may suck, but that doesn't mean it's wrong.

So what is the answer?

The answer is the balanced society, a society in which we do all within our power to promote and protect the traditional family. That includes the traditional marriage of one man and one women, it includes supporting traditional sex roles, that men are better at some things and that women are better at other things and that together they are better than when they are separate. That children are an integral part of both the family and of society, a society without children is a dying society. It is not glamorous to be childless, it is a deep sadness.

It must be accepted, even if reluctantly, that there will always exist extremes within society. There will always be people who are devout and there will always be Atheists, just as there will always be those who are prudish and those who are promiscuous, to give but two examples. We cannot change that even if we wanted to and nor will those we oppose be able to change it. Human nature will defeat anyone who tries to change it, they may try, they may seem to be successful but it will fail. Just as all such ideas and schemes have failed before.

The balanced society would not seek to change human nature but to limit the effects of such behavior. To allow people to make their own decisions and to hold them accountable for when things went wrong. That may or may not involve punishment depending on how wrong things were.

One of the great evils of modern Liberal society is that huge swathes of society are surplus to requirement. The working class and even most of the middle class. But the biggest are the unemployed who are ignored and forgotten, given a handout and left to try and survive as best they can. They do not live, they do not marry, they may have children but most do not form families because the resources to do that are not available to them. To form a family you need a regular job with a regular paycheck at a decent rate of pay. For large amounts of men that simply doesn't exist.

A balanced society would not allow that to happen, because it is an attack on traditional marriage. Male employment should not be an afterthought of economics. The only economics problem bigger than this is the creation of wealth. But we have had for decades the idea that some portions of society can be in boom times whilst others are in depression. That is not a balanced society, that is an exploitative society. Male employment would be a vital part of a balanced society.

When I talk of a balanced society I am not suggesting that everyone be equal as that is impossible. Different abilities and skills will mean that different people get paid different wages. There is nothing wrong with that, but wages should be living wages, wages that are enough to live and raise a family on.

Within the balanced society there must be room for all, not that we must like everyone in society, or approve of them. That is abit much. But we still must give them a reasonable chance to actually have a life. To be a functioning member of society. To have structures in place to help families form and stand upright. Not a structure that keeps them from forming. That is not right nor has it worked and we insist on a functioning society.



Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future

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