by James Johnson

Created on: June 01, 2008

There is no such thing as Cosmic Justice. Nature, in its infinite wisdom, created biological diversity as a means to protect species; some individuals get immunity from predation or other harm while most of their kind perish, but the species survives to fight another day.

Nature diversified our brains, too; there are as many kinds of brains as there are people. Consequently it's impossible for any two people to experience the world equally alike. It's impossible for two people to think alike. Every brain is different.

Diversity also thrives in our social and political organizations. What works on the Arctic tundra is different from what works in the Amazon jungles or on the Sahara desert. People adapt to where they are and sculpt their surroundings and society for their satisfaction and needs.

Diversity makes a flat world impossible because there is no inherent or guaranteed fairness with diversity.

Nazi Germany manufactured more military weapons and munitions at the end of the war than it did at the beginning. Using slave labor Albert Speer was able to produce high quality airplanes faster than the air force was able to train pilots. Speer's system was amazing, but how many societies want to be slaves to a murderous, totalitarian regime?

Communist China uses prisoners for a significant portion of its manufacturing labor. Other nations use their children in the work force. And plenty of nations use the labor of impoverished masses who live in squalor.

Flat Worlders never define what fair means. They never define the standards. That is, is slavery the standard for fairness? Or is the West the standard?

The other relevant issue Flat Worlders ignore is the market. Who is to buy the produce of slaves, criminals, children, and destitutes if everyone is the same?

Anthony Daniels wrote a revealing book about such a fair system: UTOPIAS ELSEWHERE. Daniels made a visit to communist Albania in 1989. Albania was then a workers paradise where everyone got the same. Daniels observed that everyone wore the same plastic shoes, drank the one beer the nation manufactured, and ate the same brown fruits and produce from leaking cans. He then traveled to North Korea. The stores were filled with everything a consumer might want, but you couldn't buy any of it. The public schools were palaces of learning, but no one attended them. The whole show was a cosmetic fraud to deceive visitors. Daniels discovered the same in Cuba. There were stores but you couldn't buy anything. There were clinics for everyone but you couldn't get medical help. Public transportation consisted of hitching a ride in a police car or army truck. Every restaurant served the same menu: black beans and rice.

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