Meditation 396
Free Market Society; Secular Society
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Quite a few years ago, I went out a few times with a woman who believed in socialism. Not a promising relationship in view of that, but we did discuss the issue.
She felt we should live in an entirely socialist society. Unsurprisingly, I disagreed. I pointed out that in the existing free market economy, she already lived in co-operative housing, she did her banking with a credit union, she did her grocery shopping at a co-op, bought her sporting gear at another co-op, and was insured through a co-operative insurace company. To a large extent, she was already living in her own socialist paradise. The free market did not get in the way of her living the life she chose for herself. She was free to live as she pleased.
On the other hand, should she and her fellow socialists succeed in their wish that the entire country became socialist, those of us who believed in a free market would not be able to live the way we wished. She could not see that this should be considered a problem. She just thought that non-socialists would learn to live the way she considered right for us.
To me, the secular society is equivalent to the free market society. The secular society does not impose a religious point of view on anyone. Contrary to what some believers claim, secularism is not atheistic or agnostic. It is religiously neutral, favouring no-one. It leaves everybody free to pursue their own belief system. It imposes nothing on anyone.