My Articles

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Towards An Ethical Society

Freedom

There are two kinds of Freedoms.  They are:-

(a) Positive Freedom and
(b) Negative Freedom

 Positive Freedom

Positive Freedom is freedom that is motivated by generosity, kindness, equanimity and compassion. 

Positive Freedom is respectful of the freedom of others.

Here, we have the chance to see and encourage the good traits in others, helping to improve other people’s lives and appreciating others’ good fortune, without jealousy or malice.

When we use these positive traits, we know that we have reached “adulthood” and that we can progress in our path toward becoming truly enlightened citizens of the world.


Negative Freedom

Negative Freedom is selfishness, defeating others, taking advantage of others through cunningness and arrogance.

Here, we always put ourselves first, and expect other people to obey our orders, to satisfy our own needs.

We only see other people’s faults, blaming them for our misfortune, and if they are more fortunate than us, we are jealous and try to compete or try to take away their happiness.

If we do not get our own way, we brutally punish others and seek revenge in the most barbaric form.

If we use the above traits, it will be obvious to civilised peoples of the world that we have not evolved much as human beings and as “adults” of society. 

We are not grown up yet at this stage, and we pose a great danger to society and to the world.

Society

There are two kinds of societies:-

(a) An Ethical Society and
(b) A Tyrannical Society.

An Ethical Society

An ethical society is built upon the goodwill of human relationships toward each other.   It is built upon doing things in order to benefit other human beings.
It is a society that cares about its own values, traditions, language and national characteristics, but at the same time embraces and is tolerant of other groups of peoples’ values, traditions, languages and national characteristics.

This is a society which encourages spiritual values, religions and faiths which are helpful to each individual and allows religious freedom.

High standards of education and moral values are encouraged in an ethical society, to promote intelligence, a strong sense of self-worth, and skills and knowledge of the arts and sciences.

It is society built upon an agglomerate of wills directed to good purposes to be socially beneficial. It is a society which practices positive communication and promotes good relationships, realizing that interdependence exists, and should exist in harmonious communities.

It is not built upon fear of punishment or persecution but is built upon the positive will of peoples to live peacefully together.

In order to live peacefully together, we need to renounce violence and hatred and promote goodwill (metta) and compassion (karuna) toward each other.  In this kind of society, metta and karuna should be encouraged and practiced together. 

To have the belief that doing good for all is a virtue, putting it into good use and investing it to promote a peaceful environment helps to create an ethical society.

Without the general willingness to live peacefully, and without all the sacrifices and renunciations, civilization would not exist.

There is room and opportunities for all groups of people to evolve to their full human potential.

In this society there is no fear of poverty, because people will have the opportunity to learn and manage the economy, how to make a good income and be wise in their investments.

In an ethical society, taking another person’s life is regarded as murder and society should side with the victim.  Killing should never take place except in self-defence.

As some of the most tragic cases of violence and offences are committed by tortured minds, society needs people who can help these people such as good spiritual teachers, psychiatrists or priests, to prevent them from committing these harmful crimes.

Faith is ethical success, and ethical success is nourished not by organizations who claim they know best, but by organizations which are credited by other ethical organizations.  The ethically committed will recognise others who work for the same cause as themselves, and be ethically treated by them, not by having their intelligence paralysed by propagandas and slogans.

An ethical society needs an authority that is made up of wise builders and guardians of their society, and their natural concerns would be to ensure that all matters affecting the community are made public and decided upon with public approval. They see that no member of the community is denied freedom of initiative and criticism, to represent and defend the interests of the community and of each of its members in dealing with economic, mediating, cultural and other local authorities and making sure that no member of society is being exploited or taken advantage of by any authority member.

The leaders would be carefully chosen by the people and these leaders are the ones who would have the intelligence, wisdom and knowledge to benefit and safeguard their civilians.

A TYRANNICAL SOCIETY

A tyrannical society is ruled by any illegally established power, an absolute power cruelly administered by oppression.

Tyrants are possessed with a kind of madness that leads them to believe that they have the right to overstep beyond common standards of decency, ethics and morality. 

A tyrannical society is ruled by force, by a power without any rights of authority, subjugating its people into slavery and subservience.

The power uses fear and extreme kinds of punishment on its civilians, it has an anti-social disposition, it assesses people in terms of victory and defeat, and the only way it allows for finding out whether one is right or wrong is by fighting.  It is based on animal aggressiveness and continual tests of strength.

A tyrannical society is jealous and intolerant of other kinds of society but its own, and cares only for its own race, culture and society. It has a superiority complex, is chauvinistic and has contempt for other races and anything that is different from itself.

This kind of society is intolerant of other religions other than its own, and no religious freedom is allowed. They give their own religion a bad reputation since they do not understand the true meaning of the sacred teachings, and interpret them for their own benefit.

They do not believe that humans need to evolve to their full potential morally and spiritually since they themselves do not possess any moral code of conduct or true spiritual belief.

The tyrants of this society do not believe that a high standard of education is necessary or beneficial to the welfare and social awareness of a human being, so they do not encourage good schools to flourish.  They resent those who have developed their minds through education, and persecute intellectuals.
Tyrants seek total submission from their civilians and use all kinds of violent crimes against them, if they take the initiative to rebel.

In order to strengthen their rule, they isolate people who rebel against them, and use them as tools for their own benefit.

Tyrants are tough and cunning, and join forces with others who are also tough and cunning to exploit the weak and gullible. Thus, the tyrannical society is made up of the tough and cunning and the weak and gullible.

In a tyrannical society, the helpless become more helpless and the strong become stronger.

In this society, the authorities are greedy and care only for their own wellbeing; they create poverty for the civilians by robbing, by cheating, by heavily taxing them, and destroying their livelihood.

These tyrants are often incompetent in managing the economy of their country, thus wasting away the natural resources, in exchange for weapons of war and destruction.

In a tyrannical society there is no legitimate authority because a person who has power without the consent of his people has no authority at all. 
A leader is not a leader without devoted followers, and an illegal authority needs its people more than the people needs it.

Personal Responsibility

By making good use of the traits of the positive freedom we can create an ethical society and avoid as much as we possibly can the traits of the negative freedom which the SPDC are using in abusing their power toward the civilians of Burma. 

The above description of a tyrannical society is how I see the present Military regime, and the description of the ethical society is my personal view of an ideal society for a democratic Burma, which I hope our political leaders will take into account, to create a peaceful, caring, and a socially aware society.  I would like to stress that it is not only our leaders’ responsibility to build a better society but also the responsibility that lies with and within all of us.

 

Feraya

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