Is Humanity Hopeless?

[Daviddaman91]

Okay so I just got done watching "Avatar" and first off I loved it. Secondly, it was very eye opening (Not that my eyes were closed before). I mean I have known, as all of you have, that humans can be both good and evil. Also that evil things can be forged into good if done under the right circumstances. Such as someone killing another in protection of his family (cliche example but it's meant to be nothing more then what it is). I believe the uppers(President, members of Congress, etc.) are the ones who are brought about to be leaders of the world. And basically what a select few people (in proportion to the world's population) determine the outcome of every large ordeal. They are the one's who are responsible for where the human race is (for the most part) today. Good or bad. I also pretty much live by the quote, "The end justifies the means." But before I say that I always weigh the costs and what results on the other side of the equation.

I personally think humanity will self-destruct. I understand that war will exist so long as two parties differ, so I am not an advocate for peace and the ideals that go along with it. And human greed grows every day. But I am wondering what will happen when we have nothing to take from one another any more? What the movie "Avatar" showed is just that. They predicted once Earth is in its final stages of life, after humans have drained it, is we will move onto another planet and begin the process of our continued self-destruction on a new planet. Now I know in our solar system there are no planets with life on them as we know of, so I am not suggesting we are going to make our way to and destroy another planet in the near future, but at the rate humanity is going, we will destroy ourselves.

Boy, I am tired of typing. Things would probably be a lot more organized if I did this in more of a question and answer type thing. If you have an opinion on any of what I said or if you think humanity will be the cause of it's own downfall, by all means give your input. I enjoy having intellectual conversations grant it I can find the people to do it with. So if you do post with a question or comment I will defiantly respond.

[Oblivia]

Ah, the future... always gives me the grim thoughts. Not that I am pesimistic or anything like that, quite on the contrary, but because it is obvious where we'll get if we continue going in this direction. I don't agree that the politicians are to be blamed the most for where we are now, human race should be blamed equally. I mean, it is not politicans who, for example, are throwing garbage in our rivers ( I don't know what's the situations in other countries, i am speaking about the place where I live). That's only a small example of many others, but still doesn't make it less important. I remember the stories of my parents saying how the rivers were crystal clear, how they could drink from it whenever they wanted. Now, i think i will catch some disease if i ever try to do that. Trash everywhere, especially in the countriesides where the water should be clean the most, and i am lucky if i can discern a bottom at all. The other example would be, going everywhere by cars, using cars always even if you don't have to. Sadly, even some of my relatives do that. One of them is even going to the store by car, the store which is only 5 minutes away by foot! C'mon! And then complains how the fuel is so expensive and that it never lasts him long! It's a little thing, I know, but do you know what that 'little thing' is doing to our ozone layer? So I dont' think that humanity will self-destruct, I know that it will! And about wars... Human beings are idiots leading unnecessary wars. My country was bombarded in 1999. and even now it isn't quite clear to me why...At that time civilians only knew that they should run for their lives and pray, they didn't know why their beloved ones were dying, they heard only lame explanations unworthy of so many deaths. I know that there will be wars as long as human beings exsist, so i will not say anything else on that topic. So much from me...

[Daviddaman91]

Maybe I gave a misconception that the higher ups are the ONLY ones to blame for where we are today. That is not what I meant. However they do control a lot of what is put into our atmosphere through laws and regulations. Needless to say that there are people who just don't care and will do what they want as far as pollution is concerned. But it is the higher ups who say it is OKAY to do these things such as in the industrial revolution when the burning fossil fuels hit an all time high. The governments across the world promoted the burning of the fuels not knowing the effects that it would have on our atmosphere. Our world leaders are in part responsible for our continued downward spiral as a planet because of their ignorance of making decisions without first looking at possible repercussions the act could have. The reasons this was done without checking into the atmospheric damage burning fossil fuels could have on the world is, in short, it gave way to making a lot more money very quickly (among other reasons). This is just one of example of how human greed is destroying our planet. Now, in the 21st century, we realized we made a boo boo back then and are trying to resolve the problem, even though we cannot lessen the damage the Earth has endured.

I know that people today, each and everyone of us, are to blame just as much as the people before us. And we will continue on our path. But what difference would it make for, say, my city to just stop polluting the Earth, stop the gluttonous greed and just stop everything that is destroying our Earth, both the planet and the people in it? I'll tell you. It would make not one ounce of a difference. Because the world is not concerned with affairs on a micro scale. If our inevitable future is to be hindered in its path, it is going to be by only extreme measures. But we all know, no such measures will ever be taken to fix humanity before it's too late.

I know I got a little into pollution and environmentalist ideals, but I am not an environmentalist. I am more concerned at chopping the tree at its trunk then just trimming the branches. In other words I am looking to address the root cause(s) of the problem and not what has stemmed out because of the cause. And the cause is unsatisfied greed.

[SenSei]

This feeling is a symptom of a world that openly accepts contradictory ideas.

The human mind cannot handle a contradiction of any kind, (for example) if I hand you a spoon and say, "Here is your fork." and then proceed to argue with you when you correct me it will confuse you momentarily until you realize I am wrong and reject the contradiction I am trying to force on you.

Now imagine this on the grand scale of American politics. Both the Repubilcans and Democratic parties agenda is full of contradictions, the hopeless feeling comes from your mind seeing so many over whelming contradictions that is just freaks out and shuts down.

The law of contradiction means that two antithetical propositions cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense. X cannot be non-X. A thing cannot be and not be simultaneously. And nothing that is true can be self-contradictory or inconsistent with any other truth.

All logic depends on this simple principle. Rational thought and meaningful discourse demand it. To deny it is to deny all truth in one fell swoop.

Any person that feels like the world is doomed needs to simply start looking for the contradictions that people try to jam together and reject those ideas that are logically impossible. When your brain tells you something is bullshit you need to pay attention and not step into the bullshit. Being able to keep yourself from stepping into the piles that are all around you will make you feel better about the world around you, because you will understand what is causing all the problems.

In the end humans are the ones who will destroy Mother Earth...

We will live and see...

[Daviddaman91]

It's really sad. When you think about it simply, humans have not gotten any further then when the Bible story of Cain and Able. Humans still cannot resolve anything without the use of war.

Also Sensui, I understand what you are saying and agree mostly. However, in your last paragraph you state that people will basically contradict each other if that means they will get what they want. I agree with this, but you go on to say it like I am the one believing them and cannot decide who is telling the truth (by me I mean people). But people are too weak minded to decide who is right or wrong. They are too busy looking for the solution that best suits themselves instead of the one that best suits our dying Earth. I personally am sick of all the lies in our society. Every day I go on living with a mask of lies and deceit on, just in order to "fit" into society. And for the people who don't they are the ones who are wrong (in societies eyes). Now what kind of message does that tell people exactly? And the ones who are fighting society and its mold are admirable indeed, however they will not get anywhere by just being themselves. They will not make any changes in society. No changes will be made until something extreme is done(sorry for re-iterating).

I still find it completely disappointing that humans have yet to change. In all this time. I will give a simple reason why we haven't changed. It's because no one and nothing has given us reason to. In all this time humans have been on Earth nothing has been extreme enough to make us rethink anything. Interesting...

[Renzourin]

(please excuse the lack of grammar i suck at it)

humans are basically a virus upon this world we seek not to coexist but to spread we long ago exceeded the planets capacity to support us probably after we reached about a billion and the thing that allows us to do it is the very thing we are so proud of and that is our intelligence and sentience that allows us to defy natural instincts, do you see any other animal or specie in this world that steps outside its natural boundaries? why? they can't if too many wolves breed in the forest there isnt enough rabbits to feed on and they starve till they get back to a sustainable population, but put the humans as wolves and what do we do? we farm the rabbits so we can keep multiplying beyond what we should've been able to naturally sustain and that reason is the very core reason why humanity will die, we defy nature we spread like a virus and ruin all we touch when the funny thing is that humanities intelligence could turn this world into a thriving utopia if it wasn't for greed,

As for spreading out well at our current technological advancement its impossible the only colonizable planet at this point would be mars but the supply line would be an issue that would have to be solved as its a 6-9 month journey to mars forget about intersystem colonization the nearest star to ours is 2000 light years away even managing light speed it would take 2000 years to even make it there and there is no habitable planet in that system colonizing/terraforming the moon is impossible if you add soil trees buildings animal life you add mass to the moon you add mass to the moon and its gravitational field gets stronger affecting earths tides so unless we somehow in the next 100-200 years either massively clean up our act or develop much faster then light travel were doomed to die simple fact

[Stuy]

Renzourin I couldn't have said it better myself but a virus isn't that going a bit to far...

well we are to smart and evil (that includes greed) for our and the world's own good.

[Justin23L]

Something will happen SOMEDAY...but until then...

[CWArishou]

Well, I just want to question what we as human wish to do, and what we as individuals wish to do.

For now, I have no intention of war nor do I wish it. Granted, I enjoy fighting and competition but I hate hurting others.

If I were to go around and ask every human, and they gave an honest answer, would most of them say war, to hurt or other wrong things?

[seirachan]

First they will see what mineral's and stuff they can get from the dead planets around us and we will colonize space stations, moon ect. But by people standers Our race is becoming very bad. I cringe when I see politics, there will never be anyone I will ever vote for or agree with. There are no good people that make it that high, you have to be a bad person to make it to the ranks. But the entire human race is bad to me. It's so rare to find good people in the mess of shit. We are fine on these forums mostly, because we all like anime and chat like this but there's millions of trash out there or just bad people in general. There is no proper way to deal with bad people at a scale. We can't just murder everyone and leave good people behind. It is enviable that the human race will fall if it continues the way it is.

The differences between country's is something that will never change as well. I don't agree with anything that goes on in 3'd world country's but we can't change that. Some country's woman are still below men and must obey them and the man can marry as much as he wants. There is no way to stop this. We can't just kill them all and make the world in our image. The world is hopeless.

But for now lets hold on to the people that are wroth everything and try to survive through hardships and the wrong doings of these bad people that affect us.

[DragonSpirit]

the problem will get serious when intelligence is at war wether its biological or mechanical.

Biological being another species is born or evolved that is either equally or more evolved that the human being.

Mechanical being good old Artifical Intelligence. Robots and machinecs are bound to evolve someday to the point of them questioning their own existence and purpose. Asking for their share of the world.

As of right now we still gots plenty of baddies that drag a terrible stench of hatred but in time they wil be gone. For s much as they try hatred is not genetic along with everything else.

Whats important is that the few of us will remain and fight the good fight to have someday inspied others.

peace out

[bey_tops]

All i can say is that if humans continue the way they are then chaos is bound to arise worldwide.

But at the end they will be corrected.

[Avith]

Yeah most likely. Watch a movie called Idiocracy. It's a comedy ... but it kinda scares me.

[shyguysteve]

yes and no.

Humans are quite simple minded, no more different then a bird who is attracted to shiny objects. We're also very petty. But even though humans are destroying resources and destroying each other, we all have the capacity or ability to make the world so much better. Even if we never do this doesn't mean we can't.

[lemmingllama]

Of course humanity will be responsible for its own downfall. After all, each technological advance has slowly began to corrupt us and destroy the planet. So i believe that when humanity finally dies out, it will be because we caused it. As a good example, we have created enough nukes to completely destroy the world multiple times over. Why? Because its human nature, which is almost by definition hopeless! And even if one person overcomes the nature or appears to, they still wont be able to do much about changing the minds of others. It wont make enough of a difference.