Individual Merit

One of the things that has always annoyed me is the premise that all people are of equal merit. That may sound like a horrible statement, but think about it a minute - the people that you encounter on a daily basis, are they really and truly of equal value? Is a serial killer for instance of equal value as a altruistic paramedic that spends most of their time on call to help people at a moment's notice? Were the terrorists that piloted airliners into the World Trade Center of equal value to the firefighters that died trying to help people when those buildings collapsed? Yes they were, or at least this is what the Abrahamic religions tell us. I see things a different way though.

In my view, merit and worth must be earned. There is nothing intrinsically sacred about the individual life, this is apparent from even a cursory look at history and reality. People die all the time, even by the millions, and the world goes on turning without blinking an eye. Life, as a whole, continues regardless of the individual and the majority are only remembered by those few that knew them. Only those individuals who make something of themselves, who make a splash, who achieve something beyond the norm are remembered. As above, so below.

In this view of the value of human life then, it is our own merits that give us value instead of some arbitrarily vague standard. Our own strength, knowledge, drive, caring, zest, dedication, courage, spirituality, or whatever. Unlike arbitrary merit, which leads to uniform mediocrity, this view of life prompts the individual to constantly strive to better oneself. It is this type of virtue then that does us merit, and this type of virtue we must cultivate if we desire to go beyond this life rather than fading like dust in the wind if reality proves to be consistent.

That may seem an odd statement, but think about it for a second. In physics or in group dynamics the same principle applies - weak field effects or groups that are impacted catastrophically tend to disperse, while stronger effects/groups can weather the storm. If the individual soul is seen as a matrix of subtle energy (and there is really no plausible alternative if one considers the soul a real "object"), then if the Hermetic principle holds true only a strong soul can survive catastrophic impact. And what can be more catastrophic than death?

So nourish your strengths my friends...