Heaven On Earth!

Back in Junior High, my brother was asked to write a persuasive paper for his literature class, he chose to write a paper on: Given the choice between eternal life in Heaven or Earth, I choose Earth! Now the paper was as provocative as the title in which he thoroughly and ingeniously explained why would he do that.

The first part of his main argument was: According to all biblical religions, Heaven is a reward to true believers, where they will live for eternity, with every request of theirs fulfilled. Basically biblical religions paint Heaven as a place where you wont need to work for anything, everything you would desire is at your service. The second part of his argument was: Happiness is relative, you can't feel victorious without loss, you can't feel hot without ever being cold, you can't feel happiness without ever being sad. So if I am never denied anything in Heaven, how can I EVER feel satisfied?

I do not have to go into the amount of criticism he received from everyone for having such an open mind because just like 90% of people on Earth, he lived within a society of brainwashed, narrow minded crusaders (pun intended).

The main idea of his argument that intrigues me is relativity. I want to take that idea and apply it to our society here on Earth. Everyday you hear on the news that politicians are promising their constituents safer and better living or they declare a war on crime or they declare a war on drugs; however the idea of relativity begs the question: Will anything ever make you feel safe?

Lets take a sample city with a population of 500,000 people. Lets assume there are on average 7 murders, 5 robberies and 18 assaults a week. Lets say that the mayor of said city cranks up the police power and within 5 years those numbers now are 4 murders, 2 robberies and 11 assaults a week. This change might be praised for a short while but soon people will once again complain that their crime numbers are too high. Even if the city quells the murders to 0, people will rant on how their robberies numbers are too high, their assault numbers are too high, their drugs sales numbers are too high, their DUIs are too high, their high school parties are too high and so on. People will always have something to complain about no matter the situation.

If you are a cop in Harlem, NY, you might think a good day is when you do not investigate a murder, while a cop in the Hamptons, NY, would think a good day is not busting a cashier selling a bottle of whiskey to a 20 year-old.

Let the cop from Harlem transfer to the Hamptons and watch him raive about how much nicer and safer the Hamptons is, but wait 5 years for him to get used to the Hamptons and you will catch him complaining about the "crime" rate. And by crime rate I do mean the number of drunk 20 year-olds. Some people call that society's never ending pursuit of perfection, I disagree. I call that relativity.