Does Every System Create People Underneath? Sylvia Eze   © Copyright 2026 Sylvia Eze

Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash

There are people in prisons and shackles so that some can be in royal houses and glory and ever since then, I have not stopped asking myself this question: Can humanity truly create a system where everyone benefits? But the movie seems to suggest that maybe a perfect system is impossible because the world itself is imperfect. Somewhere, someone gains power while somewhere else another person sacrifices something. History repeats this pattern repeatedly. Some people's best days are other people's worst days. If you have read some of my earlier writings, then you already know I come from a Christian background, and a lot of the way I think has been shaped by faith.

One day in my English class, a friend gave me a piece of constructive feedback that stayed with me deeply: "The building block of every progressing society is to protect the weak and reward the strong. "At first, I thought the statement sounded beautiful. Protect the weak so life does not destroy them. Reward the strong so society can continue moving forward. It sounds balanced and fair. But then I remembered a Christian song we used to sing back in high school: “Let the poor say, ‘I am rich.’ Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’”

That line always fascinated me because nobody truly wants to be weak or poor. Even the Bible constantly encourages strength: “Be strong and courageous. “So, then I started wondering: Why does weakness even exist? Why do suffering, failure, fear, poverty, heartbreak, and injustice continue to exist if nobody desires them? Sometimes I think these struggles exist because humanity lives with the consequences of its own actions. In the story of Adam and Eve, the Earth became cursed because of human disobedience, and humanity was told it would Labor and struggle from that moment onward. Maybe many of the world’s problems are inherited from human choices.

Maybe life itself is work — not only physical work, but the endless work of fixing brokenness. Because honestly, what would life even be without problems to solve? At my age, one thing I have slowly learned is that life is less about “solving every problem” and more about learning how to manage problems. Life was never designed to be perfectly smooth. Maybe these negative things exist for a reason. Maybe they exist to challenge positive things, so they do not become corrupted themselves.

Because even good things can become dangerous when they exist without limits. Still, that phrase continued to stay in my mind: "Protect the weak and reward the strong. "And eventually I realized something important. Rewarding strength encourages people to grow. Protecting weakness gives people another chance to rise. In theory, it sounds like the ideal system. But then another problem appears. What happens to the average person? Not everyone is exceptionally strong. Not everyone is weak enough to receive protection either. Most people exist somewhere in the middle. Average and Ordinary; Neither celebrated nor rescued. Even the Bible speaks harshly about being “lukewarm” — neither hot nor cold.

Revelation 3:16 says: "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. “Growing up in a Catholic school, excellence was always the standard. Being average felt terrible. You were not failing badly enough for people to help you, but you were failing enough for people to admire you either. You simply existed quietly in the middle. And yet, most people in society are average. That realization changed the way I viewed systems forever. Systems often focus heavily on the people at the top and the people at the bottom while forgetting the majority in between. The exceptional is praised. The struggling is discussed. But ordinary people quietly carry society every single day without recognition. Sometimes I wonder if systems simply reveal the hearts of the people who created them. Every system reflects what its creators love, hate, reward, fear, and value.

Does God despise average things? And that thought brings me to another uncomfortable idea: modern slavery. Let me give my favourite country a fictional name: “BibliaBabylon.” Traditional slavery may officially be abolished in many places, but sometimes I question whether newer versions still exist under different names. When people work endlessly while others collect most of the reward, what should we call that? When someone creates something valuable but receives little recognition while another person claims ownership through status or power, is that not another form of exploitation? Power without fairness begins to resemble slavery. Even in creative spaces, this happens constantly. One person imagines. Another profits. One person creates. Another receives credit. One person works.

Another becomes celebrated. Society often praises ownership more than contribution.

Ironically, even this article passed through another system. I wrote it, but OpenAI’s ChatGPT helped refine and edit it. And honestly, that realization itself says something powerful about the modern world. Increasingly, people no longer want to simply work for others. People want collaboration. Partnership. Mutual recognition. People want to feel seen. That is why I sometimes jokingly call BibliaBabylon “the glorious thieves. “Not because people openly steal possessions, but because systems can quietly steal recognition, identity, effort, culture, and voice while still appearing successful on the surface. Another thing that fascinates me about BibliaBabylon is this strange feeling that it has no single identity of its own. Every country usually has indigenous food, traditions, clothing, or culture deeply tied to its roots. But BibliaBabylon thrives as a point of many cultures instead. It absorbs pieces from everywhere.

And sometimes I wonder: Who gets celebrated inside that mixing pot?

Who gets erased?

Who gets remembered?

Maybe inside that pot, we have various spoons and sections and instead of them mixing, they just stay glued to their own section. If that is the case, are things truly mixing? So again, I return to the original question my English class pushed me toward: Can humanity truly create a system where nobody suffers? Honestly, I do not know. Even systems built with good intentions leave someone unseen. Even “protect the weak and reward the strong” struggles to make space for ordinary people in the middle. Maybe no system can ever be perfect because the people designing them are imperfect too. Or maybe humanity constantly moves through different systems, each reflecting different fears, desires, and values. And perhaps the real challenge is not creating a perfect system at all. Maybe the real challenge is creating one where people are at least seen, valued, protected, heard, and remembered.

Sometimes I think the reason humanity struggles to create the “perfect system” is because human beings cannot see the full story of life. There are too many hidden things, too many invisible consequences, too many emotions, histories, and struggles beyond what the eye can understand. And if I were to imagine my own system, I think it would look like a ladder. A system where people start low and slowly climb upward. But then another question appears:

What happens when someone reaches the top? What happens after the upper limit? They die.

This is when death should claim their lives And honestly, human nature already answers that question for us. People would immediately begin trying to beat the ladder itself. People would want shortcuts. People would want everything at once. Well, if they do achieve all this, then they should die, I guess.

Maybe humanity needs “problem management software” more than perfect solutions. I am an engineer, and engineers are taught to solve problems. When I was younger, I used to wonder why STEM fields are not treated with the same celebrity status as entertainers. But then I started reading about the 1800s and 1900s — eras filled with brilliant but dangerous minds, where some scientists pushed experiments beyond morality itself. Take for example, the case of the experiment by the Soviet scientist, Sergei Brukhonenko where he kept a severed dog’s head alive with a mechanical device. And maybe that is the difference between entertainers and engineers. Entertainers help people emotionally survive problems. Engineers try to solve them. But the truth is, whenever one problem is solved, another problem is usually created.

That does not mean we should stop trying.

It just means we should stop believing every problem can disappear forever. Learning how to manage problems may be more important than solving all of them. And honestly, as I sit here thinking about all of this, I do not believe even the most advanced countries on Earth can ever achieve complete satisfaction. Because human beings will always desire more, question more, compare more, and search for something beyond what they already have which is solving all the problems on Earth. Maybe that endless searching is both humanity’s greatest strength and its greatest curse.