If we assume the best in people, we can radically redesign our democracy and welfare states.
Interpretation
Believing in the goodness of people can transform society's systems.
This quote suggests that by starting from a position of trust and optimism about human nature, we can fundamentally improve our democratic systems and social welfare programs. It emphasizes the potential for positive change when we believe in the best of what people can offer, rather than focusing on their shortcomings or weaknesses.
In practice
During a discussion on social policy, this quote can inspire a more hopeful approach to reforms.
Since long workdays lead to more errors, shorter workdays could reduce accidents. Overtime is deadly. Tired surgeons have been found to be more prone to slip'ups, and soldiers who get too little shuteye are more prone to miss targets.
My hope is that the corona crisis will help bring us into a new age of cooperation and solidarity and a realization that we're in this together.
This is what a crisis does: It makes you question the status quo. That doesn't mean that after a crisis we move into some kind of utopia. But it is an opportunity for political change.
While it won't solve all the world's ills - and ideas such as a rent cap and more social housing are necessary in places where housing is scarce - a basic income would work like venture capital for the people.
Believing in the good of humanity is a revolutionary act - it means that we don't need all those managers and CEO's, kings and generals. That we can trust people to govern themselves and make their own decisions.
We so often tend to think our democracies are ruled by procedures and laws, but they are also governed by implicit rules and assumptions and one of them is the ability to feel shame - that you can be shamed.
The truth is balance. However the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.
These days everyone was insisting on their identity, coming out as a man, woman, gay, black, Jew - brandishing whichever features they could claim, as if without a tag they wouldnβt be human.
There is in the universe neither center nor circumference.
While I've found many of the religious shows I've viewed over the years not to be to my liking, or in line with my own beliefs, I've never considered it my place to exert any greater type of censorship than changing the channel, or better yet - turning off the TV completely.
Living creatures possess a moving soul and a certain spiritual superiority which in this respect make them similar to those who possess intellect (people) and they have the power of affecting their welfare and their food and they flee from pain and death.
I like imagination -- and the way I think things could be, had been, or should be -- better than reality.
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