Written by David Desautel   

For a moment, step back from all the political issues, from Conservative and Liberal arguments, from the class warfare being waged in America, and from all your personal wants, needs, and opinions. Pretend you are nothing but a logical, thinking, common sense entity analyzing the human race on Earth.

Welcome to my world! I have an extremely logical and analytical mind, and everything I do and think is born of this condition. I did not become a Liberal through emotion, desire, or some warm & fuzzy feeling decision-making process. I became a liberal in the same manner that I do everything – logical analysis. Logic is nothing more than a journey. It is a journey that begins with the facts, with what is known, with our understanding of reality. The journey ends with arriving at a goal or some condition or state of being that we want to reach. Something that we value and want. Logic is the process of examining the facts of our current reality, and determining the actions that need to be taken to reach the desired goal.

So, if you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Conservative, a Liberal, or any other category of American, and regardless of your religious beliefs, income level, skin color, or sexual orientation, I believe that, in general terms, the goal or desired state of reality we all want does not differ that much among us. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, a strong economy and country, freedom, and other American ideals are the basis of what makes us American. These general concepts are something we should all be able to agree upon.

So, why all the hate and derision between the political parties, and why the apparently very deep and wide gulf between Conservatives and Liberals? If we have some commonality in what the end of the logic journey should look like, then our differences must stem from either our perceptions of the starting point (the facts and current reality), or the logical steps and actions that will best bring us to the desired end point.

So this brings me to the topic of this essay – what I call The Humanity Formula. There are two parts to the formula, and the first part deals with what I believe are the facts and current reality – the starting point of the logic journey. The second part of the formula deals with the journey of logic – the actions and policies that will move us to the desired end point, given the facts and reality established in the first part of the formula.

PART I – Individual Human Beings

The variables for this part of the formula include Potential (P), Opportunity (O), Hardship (H), and Accomplishment (A). The formula applies to individual human beings, and is as follows:

(P*O) – H = A
Potential multiplied by Opportunity, minus Hardship equals Accomplishment

I believe that this formula applies to all human beings, regardless of gender, race, social status, nationality, or income level. Of course, the values for each variable changes from person to person. The first variable (Potential) is an innate value that we are all born with. Everyone’s Potential is different and unique, but I believe we all have it. Every human being has some potential. Opportunity and Hardship are variables of circumstance and situation. They are imposed upon the individual by his or her environment, and the individual has very little control over these variables.

PART II – Societal Units

This part of the formula builds upon Part I to extend from the individual to a societal unit. A societal unit is any group of two or more individuals. A partnership, a team, an organization, a neighborhood, a town, a city, a state, a nation, and the entire earth are all societal units, and The Humanity Formula applies to all of them.

Part II of the formula begins with the result variable from part I, Accomplishment, but it ends with a result variable that could be one or all of many. Accomplishment of the societal unit is the variable I will use here, but you could replace it with Success, Strength, Health, or any other measure of a societal unit’s positive outcome. The other variables include Individual (I) and the Societal Unit (SU). The letter ‘M’ stands for Maximization. The formula is as follows:

SUM(M(A of I in SU)) = M(A of SU)
The summation of maximized accomplishments of all the individuals in the Societal Unit equals the maximization of the Accomplishments of the Societal Unit.

So, what does The Humanity Formula mean for society, politics, America, and Conservatives & Liberals? Let’s start with the second part of the formula. This simply says that the accomplishments, the success, the health, the strength, and the well-being of ANY societal unit is directly related to the summation of the maximized accomplishments of the individuals in that societal unit. But it is deeper than that. Because all individuals have potential and because all individuals have a limit to their possible accomplishments, maximizing the accomplishment of the societal unit requires the maximization of the accomplishments of EACH and EVERY individual. No matter how successful some of the individuals in a society are, the society as a whole can become even more successful by maximizing the success of those who have not yet been successful.

Therefore, it is the job of those who control the societal unit, be it the federal government, state government, or city councils, to do what they can to maximize the accomplishments and success of EACH and EVERY individual. Looking back at the first part of the formula, it is the job of government to maximize opportunity and minimize hardship, for all individuals being governed. And THIS is how logic and analysis brought me to the Liberal side of the political fence.

The Humanity Formula takes a long-term view, while many already successful Americans take a short-term view. The short term view causes them to ask “why should my taxes go to help the less fortunate?” They do not want to see their hard-earned money being used for the benefits of others. This outlook is understandable, but self-defeating. In the long term, the strength of the economy and the strength of the country depends of the success of ALL individuals, and takes into account the fact that potential not realized because of a lack of opportunity or a severity of hardship (or both) is not potential that shows up somewhere else. It is WASTED potential that is gone forever, and it is a loss to the entire societal unit (the entire country), not just the individual.

Taking the short-term view, which many of the wealthy and well-off do, also ignores the fact that the success they have obtained during their lives (or that they inherited from some ancestor who obtained it) would most likely NOT have been possible without opportunity and/or a lack of hardship. They should not deny this opportunity to others who have not yet achieved success, if not out of gratitude, then out of selfishness (the success of others will increase their own success). As you increase the number of Americans who obtain some measure of success and affluence, so you will also increase the success and affluence of ALL Americans.

So, I believe that it is the job of government to provide opportunity to all and reduce hardship everywhere. Not because this is nice or compassionate or the human thing to do, but because this will benefit us ALL, including the wealthy.

Back to the differences between Conservatives & Liberals, or Republicans & Democrats. Assuming we all want the same reality for America as explained above, I posed the question as to why we have such violent differences in opinions. I said it has to be a different understanding of the facts of the current reality, or logical journey based on those facts and designed to reach the desired goals. It can also be a combination of both.

So like any opinion or argument, the only two ways someone can validly disagree is either to attack the facts and reality upon which the opinion is based, or attack the chain of logic leading from the facts to the conclusions. The facts on which my argument is based is that all people have potential, that potential is not transferable, that lack of opportunity and hardship work against potential being realized, that realized potential results in accomplishment and success, and that maximized individual success means maximized success of the society. My logical conclusions from those facts are that, it is best for the society, and all members of that society (including those who have already maximized their individual success), if the success of all is maximized. And thus it is the job of government to reduce hardship and increase opportunity for all citizens.