My ideal society would be a society which valued education in all its aspects (psychological and spiritual, as well as technical and political).
So, we would be raised and trained to see life as a huge learning ground where we progress through its challenges to become more cultivated and grounded.
Work would not be geared towards the cultivation of wealth and money, but would allow us to explore our interests while also allowing us to contribute our talents for the greater good.
I don't think this would mean some type of government regulated economy; it just means we, individually, would have a different relationship to money -- seeing it more as a means than as an end.
Love, respect, and compassion would be more valued because everyone faces challenges in life, and the best way to overcome challenges are through those three things.
So our approach to crime would be different -- we would treat the motivations for why people turn to crime instead of locking people up in jails. We would measure the health of our society by the people in its prisons -- the more prisoners, the more society is failing. (by this metric we are currently a very failed society)
Our approach to technology would be different -- we would stress research which truly made human lives easier and more leisurely, instead of the current approach, which is geared towards the development of products that will be sold in the market (consumer gadgets, weapons, etc.), or else geared to science for science sake (cloning, unregulated bio-technologies)
We would value our time more because we would see life as a journey that one day would have to end; so we would treat Death as a teacher, and not something to be feared.
Because we would cherish learning and life experience, we would start to combat fear in all its aspects.
We would really value liberty and freedom, because we would see those things as necessary components of education. Freedom means the freedom to make mistakes, the freedom to get hurt, the freedom to make a bad decision, the freedom to be rash and unsensible even -- you can never grow and learn if you always stay perfect. So, we would honor mistakes as well.
In terms of getting to such a society - well, I guess that would require some consciousness raising. I am ready for such a place, but it's not a place only one person can want. I think there would have to come a point where a lot of people awakened to how harmful and toxic our current society is and wanted to make a real and lasting change.
