A Perfect Society?

I think that any rules that we make for ourselves should be based on the belief that we're not perfect, that we're going to screw up, and that when we screw up there should be a prescribed a way to get back on course.

I think it's not possible to achieve a perfect society - there will always be people with different values and beliefs and this will cause them to view events in a different way and to disagree on how things should be done - because not everyone will agree on the same definition of perfect.

For some people, perfect is when the government takes care of the elderly. For others, it's when sons and daughters take care of their own elderly. For some people, perfect is when the government sends billions of dollars a year to other countries in different forms of assistance because it's the right thing to do. For others, it's when the government spends all our money fixing things at home because it's the right thing to do.

So I think the best thing we can do is to consider things very simply. There are people who say the world is complicated and you have to do what they say in order to survive because they are the experts who know something about this complex world. I say the world isn't any more complicated than the people who live in it. I say that our actions should be guided by simple, straight-forward values. I say that we should not lie to ourselves - we should accept the truth, however inconvenient or embarrassing or distasteful it is - because when we deal with our world honestly, wisely, and courageously we can always make something beautiful happen.