The RGS 4000 Characters Competition Winner Joe Coltons

The RGS 4000 Characters Competition Winner

Joe Colton, Lower Sixth

STUDENTS IN THE LOWER SIXTH WERE ASKED TO EXPLAIN WHOSE WORKS THEY WOULD SAVE IN THE EVENT OF AN APOCALYPSE LEADING TO A COMPLETE RE-BUILD OF SOCIETY.

When considering the issue of the preservation of the works of a single author we have to be conscious of the purpose of this preservation. What are we aiming to preserve when we preserve this author’s work? We should be aiming to preserve what gives people joy; maximising peoples’ quality of life should be the fundamental aim of every world leader. So how best to maximise a future civilisation’s quality of life? In accordance with the Easterlin paradox the most reliable indicator of happiness is income, a correlation which holds constant until very high-income levels. However, we cannot preserve income even as we know it today never mind what a future civilisation may perceive as income. It would also make no sense to attempt to preserve modern economic theory as it is rooted in the pre-conceived notions of states and industrialisation. Instead, what if we could preserve the values that underpin modern economic theory, which underpin our modern prosperous society, that we hold so dear. The values which are universally comprehensible. The values which we find in the work of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The pinnacle of Roosevelt’s scholarship and the integral reason for why her work should be preserved is her role as the chief creator of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the comprehensive document for creating an open, tolerant society with the happiness and wellbeing of its citizens at the heart of it. The inalienable rights within it are set out in absolutes which can be easily grasped, and the rights are applicable within every society under every imaginable condition. This universality, the document being written without pre-conceptions or assumptions, is what propels Roosevelt’s work above all others when considering what should be preserved. Key to her primacy is also the fact that her most important work, the UDHR, is clearly the preeminent one when compared to her other works. Its use of imperatives and formal layout distinguishes it from her other works. This is of paramount importance as with other scholars which work a future civilisation should pay particular attention to or disregard is not immediately obvious or not obvious at all. There is an ideological coherence throughout her work in favour of openness and tolerance and whilst it has been reported in her earlier years, she was a closet anti-Semitist not only did this not impact any of her works, but she also revoked this opinion well before she created any of her key pieces of scholarship.

To conclude, to preserve the values we hold dear in our open, equal, tolerant society; to preserve our modern age of prosperity we must preserve the work of Eleanor Roosevelt. For values which lay the framework for a better, kinder society without pre-conceptions or assumptions which can be applied to any society, past present or future, and transform it into a more just and equal society there is no scholar more effective than Eleanor Roosevelt. For values which are universally comprehensible and already accurately translated into over 370 languages and dialects there is no author on the same level as Eleanor Roosevelt. To preserve a more just, fair and equal world for the future preserve the work of Eleanor Roosevelt.