So, I came up with a new URL name and will mull it over before checking to see if it is taken or not. It may become my new blog site title for when I finish my doctorate and have more time to write on topics I really want to cover… Adoptee Philosophy…still giving it some consideration…
Anyway, last night was a lot of fun. I attended the conference for a while, but as with all conferences the best part is meeting up with friends.
I had lunch with a friend from both graduate school and work in Japan. He is here applying for jobs and considering whether or not he’d like to move to this region. It was so wonderful to see him and to catch up. It’s hard to believe we met so long ago (about 8 years!) and still keep in touch. π
Then, I met some work colleagues/friends and we had a drink together, which was relaxing. Afterwards, we met up for drinks which led to dinner and so on. It was really nice. The weather is a perfect temperature for sitting outside and taking in the scenes of life. I will post some pics of that later.
However, the main point of this post was about one of our stimulating conversations about the world. Equality for all.
Usually, I prefer to sit and listen to people because I know that I don’t often agree with thoughts on life and the world coming from a different perspective. However, someone at the table asked me my thoughts and so I shared. This turned into a deeper discussion which I will try to re-tell here….
My colleague stated that he thinks that everyone should have their basic needs meet – food, water, shelter and education. That in providing for their basic needs, then everyone would have an equal opportunity to allow genius to reveal itself. Because so many people struggle for basic survival, society is preventing possible creativity and innovation to be lost.
I said that I disagree with any idea of equality. I believe that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and that many of the greatest so-called geniuses are such because they took nothing and made something. So, we discussed on this extensively.
My further point is that I think it is naive to say that everyone should be the same. It’s idealistic and unrealistic. The world is not fair. It hasn’t been since man separated from God. If you don’t believe in God, then it hasn’t been since the very existence of man or animals. To me, it is very much a privileged perspective to think that the world should be better, yet also extremely hypocritical unless one is actively working towards making that equality happen. It’s a first-world luxury to be able to sit around a table at a 5-star hotel with our drinks and stomachs full and then say that the world should be more fair….
There is a great deal more I want to say about this, but I will save it for another post. π
-T
