as one who spent his time in a foxhole, i can also tell you that that expandability is in itself something of "value". the problem, really, is that all those divisions of esteem are just our social constructs. they are essentially meaningless. perhaps my thoughts on the matter are overly influenced by my time in the service. it was pounded into my head along with the rank structure, that all civilians essentially outranked me. as i climbed the ranks, i was taught to make the hard kind of decisions you have to make in the military about the value of a man. who is the most expendable, who do you save when you only have the resources to save a limited number? who is too important to expose to the line of fire?
the starting point, the deeds, the resources, the position, the legacy of either hods no more or less worth than the other, regardless of the contents of any of those factors. they are both human. worth in society does not really mean much. nothing does other than that simple fact of their humanity. that really isnt worth much in the grander scheme of things, anyway. barring disability, disease, or defect, there is little that any one human not capable of doing, compared to another human of the same level of physical development. we all can learn, and also learn to do.
any individual human is actually of little value. individual accomplishments can be seen as an eventuality of the life cycle of the society that spawns the development. or as human society as a whole, for that matter. but i suppose im now examining the issue from an inappropriate scope. and even though i seem to hold our society in such low regard, i still feel compassion for my fellow man. i suppose i would help even the people i hate the most, if life limb or eyesight was at risk.
character is of little importance, for character, like every aspect of human mentality, is mutable. a "sinner" can reform, a "saint" can backslide. it amazes me that many self professed christians (in whose religion forgiveness is one of the central tenants) forget this simple fact that i, an agnostic, acknowledge. every human has the potential to change. thus, yet again, no man is any better or worse.
what is a shame is that barely any human realizes their own potential. especially their potential in groups. many people take for granted that we were on the moon what, 50 years after the first powered flight? and that wasent even a significant portion of humanity that accomplished this. our artificial divisions have held us back for our entire history. imagine where we'd be, what we'd know, if we hadent wasted so many resources on fighting each other or gaining meaningless status.
