Socialism - part 2: Equality and injustice.

Equality is the opposite of justice.

We live in a world where no two people are born equal: not in talent, nor in abilities, nor in character, nor in beauty. Each and every person is unique and every man has different, limited potential. And yet we are all equal in the eyes of the law, and that is what we are most proud of in democratic countries. Blindly applying the law on all citizens regardless of their circumstances would be the embodiment of injustice, as it was revealed to us by the study of ancient societies which applied the Bible by the letter, or modern societies that outrageously apply outdated laws taken from sacred texts; and that the reason behind the creation of the judicial branch of the government.

Nevertheless, in every society nowadays (even the most corrupted ones) we all can (formally at least) agree on the most basic piece of legislation: all men are equal in rights and in the eyes of the law. As our fathers struggled to put through this piece of law, others tried to absurdly extend it into what came up to somehow be the exact opposite of what was initially meant.

We are all entitled to living under a roof, we are all entitled to receiving a proper education, and we are all entitled to proper healthcare. All that is quite true, as long as we EARN IT, with minimum effort.

Socialism, though a wonderful and humane doctrine, somehow managed to ignore that last part. One might say: What can be more perfect from the citizen's point of view? Well, nothing really, that is for the citizen in the bottom of the social pyramid. For he would be living a life he didn't earn: he was forced by the law to finish middle school and after that he went and searched for a mediocre job (best case scenario), and he was satisfied, and he lived happily ever after off the money which his country gives him in order to make things more "fair". One can't expect such a citizen to complain. As the system congratulates itself for this good deed, it fails to hear what the people on the other end of the social pyramid have to say: those great and bright people who chose to go through years and years of education and hard work to arrive to their current social and intellectual position, and who have to pay a greater percentage of what they earn every year so that the less-than-average citizen can afford luxuries he wasn't entitled to.

Humans are after all natural-born passive leaches, who will always take more than they give if they ever had the chance to do so. Socialism is only a way to encourage them to embrace that side of them.

Now that that's out of my system, anyone for more coffee?

Toxic time.

As you navigate through adulthood, life sometimes hands you more time than you need. Though at the first sip it might seem like a great gift, in the long run too much time on your hands might lead intoxication.

It started with the beginning of the new semester: since then I didn't have to make one cup of coffee.

Phase 1: Euphoria.

You start enjoying every minute of your time, squeezing in activities that you didn’t have time to do when your schedule was packed.  These activities range from partying to total inactivity and idleness. Being the lazy man par excellence, I caught up on some series, played video games and spent whole days in bed with occasional going-out-getting-dead-drunk soirees a few times a week.

Phase 2: Guilt.

As you start getting used to this lifestyle of doing nothing, your conscience kicks in and starts making you feel guilty about spending so much time doing nothing productive. It happened to me as I was not used to having this much free time on my hands: my schedule had always been jam-packed. You may start looking at your books from the corner of your bed, and you might get the urge to get dressed in the morning, saying to yourself “I’m going to get things done today!”, but worry not, that is a short phase that you will immediately shake off.

Phase 3: Boredom.

There is nothing left on the internet, there are no more video games for you to play, there is nothing left in the world that you could possibly do. So, you clean your room.

Phase 4: Panic.

You get things done. You decide to finally take care of that pile of official bank papers that has been on the corner of your desk for an eternity now, you settle on living a healthy lifestyle, you shop for healthy foods, you join the gym, you do everything your parents tell you to do in your free time, make resolutions that you will not break…

… at least not until the next day, when you decide that you deserve a break, and go back to doing nothing.