Our political environment throughout the last few years has become so insanely "Individualistic" that it is actually driving me insane. I tried hard to avoid getting into it but the GOP primaries intensified the insanity to such a point that i could no longer bear it. So I must say something that has been on my mind since this insanity started after Obama's election.

Once Obama declared his candidacy for the Presidency, everything turned personal. Not only about Obama but about everyone of us individually. No one talked about "US" as a people of one society without being declared "class warfare" monger, "wealth distributor" scoundrel, "socialist" commie, "Un-American" intruder or, worse yet, traitor ... etc. You can see that now on full display during the GOP primaries. No one discusses policy anymore... what is discussed is what the policy implies about the person.

For any nation, there are two kinds of "Policies": Foreign Policy and Domestic, i.e Societal Policy. No one disagrees about our Nation's, the USA, need of having a "Foreign Policy" but it seems from what i see and hear that the GOP does not believe that we as a Nation need a "Societal Policy". They, The GOP, say that we are a "Capitalistic" society who believes in the "Free Market" and "Freedom of Choice" in everything under the sun. Very few in the USA disagree with those principles, i.e. Capitalism, Free Market and Freedom of Choice. The disagreement is, and always has been, about what does that mean.

The Conservatives say that it means we do not need a "Societal Policy", Liberals and Progressives say No, it does not mean that; they say Free Market and Freedom of Choice do not relieve individuals (people, Corporations, Organizations, Clubs, Institutions ..etc) from their "Societal Obligations".

It boils down to this question then: Is there such a thing as "Societal Obligation"? and If so, to whom is it Owed?

To answer these two question let me, first, point out few no-brainer "Facts" that no one among us disagrees with since we all know them very well and in fact the people who deny the existence of "Societal Obligations" repeat them much much more than those who believe in its existence as a must for the foundation of our own "Exceptionality" of which we are ALL proud.

Fact 1- Americans' freedom, all kinds of freedom, is the most wide-ranging in the world even by Western-Democracies' standards.

Fact 2- America's Democratic and Public institutions are the most stable and powerful in the world.

Fact 3- America's Society is the world's best creator of Innovators, Developers, Improvisers and Imaginative Researchers in all fields of knowledge.

Some might say it is mere arrogance of me to state these things and claim them to be "Facts". But, i am just describing what i see and, at the same time, realizing that these facts have not necessarily benefited us all the time. Sometimes, they led us to crazy, even harmful, ideas. But that is what we are. Just look at the things that transformed our world in the last 200 years. Most of them started here .... we didn't benefit from some of them as much as others who made better use of OUR ideas ... but they still are OUR ideas.

Let me also add another fact that i also honestly believe, that is: Americans are no different from any other people on Earth. We are not smarter, more intelligent, more courageous, more freedom-loving, more honorable, more educated than other people.

The proof of this last fact is this: Multitudes of our Stars in many fields of Knowledge, Business, Innovation, even Politics are or were of "Foreign" origin .... from coutries many of us do not even know or heard of. ... I think ONE example is enough .... Steve Job. His parents came from Syria .... a country no one knew till recently when her people are now involved in a death-fight with their dictator. These "Foreigners" come here and flourish and make all of us proud of "Our" "Exceptionalism". They leave behind in their own native lands many like them, even better and smarter than them, who never contribute anything meaningful.

If, in principle, we are no different from any other people on Earth, why then are we "Exceptional"? The answer to that is the Three Facts listed above. It is "OUR System", "OUR Institutions" and "OUR Society". These facts are the ONLY reason for our "Exceptionality".

You invariably have to ask then, Who or What created those three facts?

The obvious fact is this: NO INDIVIDUAL Or ANY GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS no matter how genius or powerful or rich he/she/they are could ever manage to create these three facts which constitute the foundation and the reason for "Our Exceptionality".

IT IS ALL OF US SIMULTANEOUSLY who created these facts and CONTINUES to sustain their existence. But how do WE act "SIMULTANEOUSLY" to be able to achieve this co-ordinated positive results?

The answer is so obvious, and so vilified nowadays that no one likes to admit it. But it is the reality .... It is through "OUR GOVERNMENT" that we created those three facts which made us so "Exceptional" among the nations of Earth.

If we are to sustain our status in the world we, then, must sustain "OUR GOVERNMENT" and enable it to continue its job of sustaining those three facts above. In other words we have an obligation to support the continuation of those facts.

This obligation to sustain those three facts is what we call "SOCIETAL OBLIGATION" and is achieved by two means:

1- Paying Taxes to an Elected Government and supervising its performance to ensure that it performs it duties toward those three facts .... AND

2- Paying "Our Society" back, directly, for what it provided us in terms of means and facilities that enabled us to excel in an exceptional way.

The contribution of each of us through these two means should obviously be based on the degree to which we benefited from those three facts that we are trying to sustain.

Most of us enjoy and benefit from the first TWO facts above i.e Freedom and Stability. But few of us are talented enough and able enough to USE, BENEFIT FROM and ENJOY the Third Fact and it is their "Societal Obligation" to pay their dues to the Society, that enabled them to achieve and "Realise" their potential and excel in their fields, without which they would have never succeeded in doing that.

What does that mean?

It simply means that those who are given much, much is required to sustain the "Society" that has given them so much. Case in point:

As we all heard recently, Apple, the Great Giant Innovation of Steve Job, manufactures most of its products outside the country that made it possible for him and his company to achieve that status. It employs 43,000 people in its own country while employs 400,000 people in foreign countries.

While it is true that manufacturing most of its products in foreign countries makes it possible for Apple to sell those products at a lower price while making certain amount of profits. But, is it not an obligation on the shoulder of Apple and its owners to sustain the "Society" that created and maintains them?

I say yes it is Apple's obligation to pay back its own society by decreasing their profit margins for items manufactured inside "Their Country" in order to make them still affordable for their own fellow citizens.

Those Citizens paid taxes to create that society which created Apple. If Steve Job's parents stayed in Syria, no one would ever have even heard of him. Someone else ... another Steve, or Mark or Bill would have made it .... It was Americans and Their Society that made it possible for Steve Job to achieve what became the brilliant giant we know as Apple.

Same applies to ALL other great giants of manufacturing and service corporations like GM, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Google, Intell, Texas Instruments, All Chemical, Steel and other basic manufacturing corporations who have left their Country in search for "MORE" profits ignoring their own responsibilities toward their "Own Society" without which they would never have existed and they will never be able to sustain their success without its support.

The Citizens who paid for that Society, the maker/creator of all those who outsource their life line of jobs to others, must demand their dues.

Post A Comment