I, Rule (part III)

(And now back to a series that I stopped writing because my mate Anson would always destroy my ideal society in the comments. As he rarely comments here anymore, I thought it’d be safe for me to go on to part III. Here is part I and here is part II)

Welcome back to Sim Pixelonia. Today we have to discuss something that most of you probably find rather dreary: taxes.

Sim Pixelonia has a flat tax. Ten percent of everything you earn or consume is reserved for the government. This means that there is no tax forms you have to fill out and no precious money is wasted processing poorly rendered forms. Enforcement of taxation is automatic in most cases.

Should a non-student adult be unemployed for 6 months, a qualified social worker will be sent to see if he needs help. If the citizen is having difficulty finding a job, the social worker will assist in any way possible. This way we will be better match our workforce to our job market and catch any potential problems before they start.

If you wish to donate your tax money to charities, we have a list of nearly 1,000 approved, apolitical, non-religious, charitable organizations. If you go online, there is a form which allows you to specify where up to 50 percent of your tax money will go. This form will ensure that publicly supported organizations and charities are not at a lack for funds due to government mismanagement.

In return for your taxes, as part of our perpetual ‘agreement with the people,’ we will release details of all government expenses and income every year to curious journalists or bloggers. This way you can be sure where your tax money is going and we eliminate excess expenditures.

Donations to political parties are in a blind trust which is then sealed for 10 years. You can donate the amount of money you wish, so long as no political candidate is aware you donated to them.

Politics will be publicly funded with a two-term limit, and a psychological test and an educational requirement for all positions. The education required will vary depending on the position but will generally include economics, biology, management, political science, world history, philosophy, logic and geography. It is hoped that this will ensure a fair and representative democratic system with qualified, intelligent leaders.

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The Meaning of Life is so Absurd

The struggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

— Albert Camus, in his 1942 essay of the absurd, The Myth of Sisyphus

John Cottingham says that we must act in the [[praxis]] consistent with a belief in God. Only then can our life have meaning. We cannot make a meaning out of our own lives, for that would just be arrogant. We’re born into circumstances we didn’t create and we have to find value in our current cosmos, not any we create. Thus: religion. However, since we cannot have belief before religious praxis (because belief would be a result of the praxis rather than a prerequisite), we must just go to church, meditate and be religious first. Only then will faith come. He’s a modern Blaise Pascal.

There’s probably more to his argument than that, but I’m a lazy man and the reviews on Amazon didn’t make me want to post post the book cover, let alone read the book.

I’m not going to bother replying to the claim, because it commits the naturalistic fallacy, begs the question and completely misrepresents the naturalistic life. I will add, however, that I am currently fasting for Ramadan. Not because of praxis or anything, just because it seemed like a good idea at the time (famous last words).

I do have meaning in my life. To a certain extent, I think we all do. It just so happens that what I deem meaningful is deemed meaningless by a lot of people.
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