35907¥272 suppose Toyota decides to produce the

PERFECT CAR? It sets up a committee of experts from various fields:
it hires the best engineers and designers, brings together the finest physicists and economists,
and even consults with several sociologists and psychologists......
To be on the safe side, they throw in a Nobel laureate or two, an Oscar-winning actress
& some world-famous artists... After five years of research and development, the unveil the perfect car.
Millions of vehicles are produced, & shipped to car dealerships across the world. Yet nobody buys the car.
Does it mean that the customers are making a mistake, & that they don't know what's good for them? No.
In a really free market the customer is always right! If customers don't want it, it means that the car is no
good. It doesn't matter if all the university professors and all the priest and mullahs cry out from every
lectern & pulpit that this was a wonderful car - if the customers reject it, it's a bad car! Nobody has the
authority to tell customers that they are wrong, and Heaven forbid that a government would try to force
its citizens to buy a particular car against their will! What's true of cars is true of all other products. Listen,
for example, to professor Leif Andersson from the University of Uppsala. He specializes in the genetic en-
hancement of farm animals in order to create faster-growing pigs, cows that produce more milk, & chickens
with extra meat on their bones. In an interview with the Haaretz newspaper, reporter Naomi Darom
confronted Andersson with the fact that such genetic manipulation will cause much suffering to the animals
because already today 'enhanced ' dairy cows have such heavy udders that they can barely walk, while so-
called 'upgraded' chickens cannot even stand up! Professor Andersson had a firm answer: 'Everything comes
back to the individual customer and to the question of how much the customer is willing to pay for meat ...
we must remember that it would be impossible to maintain current levels of global meat consumption
without the [enhanced] modern chicken ... if customers ask us only for the cheapest meat possible - that's
what the customers wìll get... Customers need to decide what is most important to them - price, or some-
thing else.' Professor Andersson can go to sleep at night with a clean conscience. The fact that customers
are buying his enhanced animal products implies that he is meeting their needs and desires and its there-
fore good. By the same logic, if some multinational corporation wants to know whether is lives up to its
'Don't be evil' motto, it need only take a look at its bottom line. If it makes loads of money, it means that
millions of people like its products, which implies that it is a force for good. If someone objects and says
that people might make the wrong choices, he will be quickly reminded that the customer is always right
and that human feelings are the source of all meaning and authority. If millions of people freely choose
to buy the company's products,who are you to tell them that they are wrong? Finally, the rise of humanist
ideas has revolutionized the education systems too! In the Middle Ages the source of all meaning and
authority was external, hence education focused on instilling obedience, memorizing scriptures & studying
ancient traditions. Teachers presented pupils with a question, & the pupils had to remember how Aristotle,
King Solomon or St Thomas Aquinas answered it? In contrast, modern humanist education believes in
teaching students to think for themselves. It is good to know what Aristotle, Solomon & Aquinas thought
about politics, art & economics; yet since the supreme source of meaning & authority lies within ourselves,
it is far more important to know what you think about these matters. Ask a teacher - whether in kin-
dergarten, school or collage - what she is trying to teach. 'Well,' she will answer, 'I teach the kids history,
or quantum physics, or art - but above all I try to teach them to think for themselves!' It may not always
succeed, but that ìs what humanist education seeks to do. And again, myDi too does these things:
not a fictional 'Jehovah', strong conspiratorial specialist, evil clever violent dictator or Ali Baba,
Ceausescu, Duterte, Erdogan, Putin, Trump or Boris J. decides but 'the voice of the people'
as exercised in "anarchy, barbershops, cooperation, democracy" &
'economics'! Free speech, free writing, free singing,
free recreating, experiencing & sharing
makes our world
turn around
'endlessly'?