Utilitarianism

Everyone wants to live a long, healthy, happy life. This is true for most people throughout the world regardless of race, religion, age, or sex. There are many organizations worldwide whose sole purpose is to help the sick, the elderly, and the impoverished to live longer and more fulfilling lives. These organizations, most governments, and just about every structured religion, all practice utilitarianism.

The main concept of utilitarianism is The Principle of Utility which states to always act in such a way that you benefit the majority and society as a whole. But if we look a little deeper into the true meaning of "benefit the majority," and "society as a whole" while looking at the concept of utilitarianism, should we not also include the future members of society and the conditions they inherit from us? Won't our great-great-grandchildren's lives be affected by our actions today? Is the majority really benefiting? And who exactly is the majority?

Looking back in history, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, from the Neanderthal to the end of the 19th century, the human life span averaged between 20 and 35 years. However, since 1900, the average life span of humans has taken an incredible leap forward. In the United States, the average life span has increased from 49 to 77 years. China, the most populated country on the planet, has increased their nation's average life span from 35 to 71 since just 1950. Likewise in India, since 1950, the average lifespan has risen from 32 to 64.

Much of this sudden increase in the human lifespan is due to medical science and a very large decline in the infant mortality rate. Other major contributors are the shrinking of the economic world, increased importing and exporting, and modern convenience and technology. And yet another major contributor to the longevity of the average life here on Earth is due to the utilitarian obligation to make all people as happy as possible.

However, if one believing in utilitarianism were to factor in this sudden surge of the population on earth, coupled with the average individual living almost twice as long as those from the previous 3000 years, and the ever increasing consumption of natural resources needed, one might start looking to the Eskimo culture where there are certain utilitarian sanctions in place that may seem to be against the ideals of other utilitarian organizations or societies.

The Eskimos, when the season requires the tribe to pull together and survive a treacherous winter, often leave their sick and elderly to die. They know that food will be in short supply. The elderly, who have already lived a full life in the eyes of their society, would be consuming food and resources that were needed by those that have not yet lived a full life. To the Eskimo, it is better to let the old and the very sick die so that the young and healthy can live more prosperously. These seemingly inhumane acts ultimately allow their society to function better, more productively, and survive into the future.

With the population increasing as rapidly as it is and people living progressively longer, more and more of the world's natural resources are being used up. We need more room to house all these people and more resources to help them survive. We destroy more natural land, build more buildings, more towns, and consume more natural resources while forcing wildlife to relocate, or in many cases, become extinct.

So the common viewpoint of utilitarianism is an obligation to cure all disease and end hunger because it would be the "right" thing to do for the majority of the people. Yet another viewpoint might be that to truly accommodate the most people, to give the true majority of people the best chance to find happiness with their lives, the future needs to also be considered. If we continue to delay death, if we continue to take from the rainforests and destroy the land and less dominant species of the Earth in pursuit of more space and resources for the needy, we will ultimately out grow this Earth and sooner than later, no one will be able to survive happily as opposed to most of us.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that we adopt the ways of the Eskimos and start leaving our sick and elderly to die with no hope of improving their life or trying to find happiness, as is stated our most basic right in the Constitution. But maybe we can compensate in other ways. Maybe we need to be more tolerant of things like assisted suicide, abortion, mandatory capital punishment for murder and rape. Maybe we can stop helping those that do not wish to be helped.

I'm not going to pretend to have any of the answers to this growing problem here. Nor am I revealing my own take on any of the hotly debated topics of today mentioned in the previous paragraph. But I do believe this is something that needs to be noticed, considered, talked about, and debated. For if this problem is ignored, it might be too late to do anything at all about it later when our children's children's children are left with a depleted world where long life and happiness is no longer a right, but a rare privilege.