If one were to ask those people who are not beneficiaries of today's unhealthy conditions, who think about the meaning of life in general, and who are independent enough to be able to express their opinion:
"How do you imagine an ideal world to be?", one would be surprised not at the diversity, but at the very similarity of their answers. Be the person concerned a staunch communist or a manufacturer or a businessman in the western world, be he a dialectic materialist or spiritualist, anthroposophist, staunch Catholic, Protestant or Muslim, a supporter of western democracy or a representative of antiparliamentary views, a scholar, craftsman, laborer or farmer, Chinese, Hindu, Pakistani, educated Negro from Africa or America, Eskimo, Indian, White man or whatever, basically his answer would be this:
"Naturally it would be best if the schools were to try to meet the children's natural desire to be busy and to learn, if one were not to force them to sit still and pay attention to things in which they are not at all interested at the moment, at least not in the form in which they are presented, but instead where everything is made appealing through the use of appropriate visual aids; where they must learn everything that every modern person should know (but no more than that) and where they, beyond that, also are allowed to do and learn all those things which most interest them.
"Ideally, students should be able to observe first-hand the actual work done in the various professions which await them and then later be given the opportunity, regardless of social standing or origin, to train for that profession which they find most appealing.
"It would be ideal if jobs were granted only on the basis of the applicant's qualifications; if no one is hindered in the use of his own language; if moreover everyone masters a common international language in which anyone can communicate with anyone else; if everyone can travel freely, see the world, and settle down in the place that he likes best; if all people have what they need to develop their own talents, but no one has more than his share.
"I would prefer a world in which wealth, class, and social standing are of no consequence when two people are married, a world in which any young man may be married to any young woman and vice versa, as long as they just like each other. On the other hand, however, it should also be easy to get a divorce and, in such an event, the future of the children should be secure enough so that no one has to stay married against his will, yet where everyone should be so well prepared for marriage and the choosing of a spouse that incompatible marriages are rare.
"I wish to live in a world in which justice prevails rather than the letter of the law, a world where legal difficulties exist for no one who is not harming anyone else, but where the law also provides the means of punishing every offender.
"I would prefer a world where no one must tremble before the arbitrary will of a sovereign, where all are free to state what they believe to be right and true, but where precautions will be taken against the falsification of history; a world in which anyone who is reasonably well-informed may play a part in politics, and yet where politicians are not obligated to cater to a herd of ignorant people without whose support they would not remain in power; a world in which all can vote who know for whom and for what they are voting.
"A world in which there are no wars, crime, economic crises, and unemployment, where no one need worry about getting old or sick or becoming an invalid as well; rather, where all retirees are provided for in a just and adequate way; a world in which work and money are so well distributed that no one must slave away at a job he does not like, and where everyone has ample free time to spend as he sees fit.
"I would like to see all unearned revenue vanish, be it from usury, a killing on the stock market, bribery of a public official, or any kind of income whatsoever for which the public does not receive a service of equal value in return," and so on.
An excerpt from the book Primer For Those Who Would Govern by Prof. Hermann Oberth.
Translated from the German by Lynne Nibbelink-Kvinnesland and Dr. Benjiman D. Webb.