Can humanity be saved?

Having joined the work force for a number of years now, i have to say my view on humanity have changed completely.

I used to believe in the goodness in people then I joined work and meet all the stupid people, idiots, full of conciet and ugliness. They are the architects of their own failure. imagine a 60 yr old ugly clerk, and why is she the way she is, because she is a loser through and through. some people can’t be changed, in fact none of the people I know can be changed. every idiot is responsible, lazy, plain stupid. If humanity is composed of these elements, can it be saved and elevated to a higher morality. In short, can everyone become philosophers.

Jesus died in vain, no one is saved from the cruel fate of life. There is no hope for people because most people form back drops to history.

“We exist in the simulacrum…simulacrumb…That’s the way the cookie crumbled…So where is the cookie?”

[size=150]HEY GUYS IT"S ME THAT FISH I’M BACK!!! COOL, HUH? DO ANY OF YOU REMEMBER ME? I USED TO BE ON THE FORUMS DAY IN AND DAY OUT!! [/size]

The truth, my friend, has largely become irrelevant, at least to all those that you have mentioned in your post. We here at philosophy.com try, but out there in the cold, cut-throat universe…I wonder. Life, old timer, is a movie. People have told me it isn’t. But I think they are wrong. We act, every day we act, some of us don’t even know it, that’s how well they act. Some of us win Oscars, some don’t but should. Let’s face it, the more you act, manipulate, shrug stuff off, pretend it’s normal, pretend it’s real when you know it insn’t…the more you get ahead in life. It’s not a question of being saved from yourself, it’s a question of pretending to be. The universe is entirely messed up, but to save yourself you wake up every day and say it’s great. Momma once said to me “You can brainwash yourself with negative stuff, but you might as well brainwash yourself with positive stuff”. Jesus died, so he can be resurrected in movies…not in vain…So, let’s pretend we can save ourselves so there can be false joy in the world, at least.

Dear sir,
I fear that things are bad and getting worse.

My opinions on what is occurring and why can be found here:
ilovephilosophy.com/phpbb/vi … p?t=143894

Stupidity is the natural product of socialization and its need for harmonizing and conformity.
With lesser organisms the process is easier as there is less self-awareness and identity to deal with and to suppress. With other social animals instincts suffice to deal with the conflict between collective interests and self-interest.

With humans the process becomes complicated, requiring social engineering and repression and often resulting in insecurities and discomforts, due to a growing awareness of what is occurring and what it entails.

You can’t be that much of an “old timer” then :wink:

I sympathise with what you’re saying (ditto Satyr). My good-news-then-bad-news summary of “the people” is that 1) most of them are alright, but 2) most of them are boring - little more than sophisticated animals. The best you can do is minimise the time you spend with the “low” ones, and maximise it with the “high”.

Well, things are not going to get better in your head when you develop too much ill will towards others Old timer.

Some of these people are low capacity and it is the best they can do.

We are all here to help each other out are we not?

We all share the same breath.

But I agree that things look bad for future generations.

I noticed there are tons of fat people working at Walmart mostly young and middle age women.

Fat is big problem all over.

They make the junk food like drugs and people get addicted to it.

The it ruins their health.

Who is going to pay for all this future sickness from fat?

…My discussion of a similar topic from an earlier post.

I think that the earth is overpopulated and things can only get worse. (unless we change our course somehow) The more people born, the more heat is produced from all their cravings and the warmer and more polluted the earth gets and the more energy they all use.

I was told to expect $10 a gallon gas in the future.

When I first took notice of gas prices in the early 70’s gas was .23 cents a gallon.

No one would have thought that gas would take a 1360% rise in price in 3 1/2 decades.

But in fairness to gas prices, they have not been as inflationary as California real estate, which on average has gone up about 3000% in that same time.

A small 2 bedroom run own house that sold for $20,000 in a poor area of town in the late sixties sells for $600,000 now. (again…a dumpy area to boot!)

If gas prices maintain this trend it would put it at $42 a gallon in the upcoming decades.

And what about everything that is delivered by truck, air or otherwise pegged to gas prices? Just in the last couple of years I can see prices of common products go up 20% to 30%. (Yet the government claim inflation is next to nil…they must use the same accountants that Enron used!)

I was at Kroger today and looked at some wild caught salmon for $17 a pound. (look is all I could afford to do) Now, salmon is not always this high. And you can get farm raised salmon much cheaper…polluted with PCB’s and other carcinogens.

The fruit and vegetables are getting out of sight as well. One large apple $1.58. The world is getting to be a very tough place to live unless you are rich. In the old days before genetically modified food the fruit and vegetables had some taste to them. Now the produce tastes like rubber and many time rots before it ripens.

Sure you can still find produce that has some flavor, but at what price? Organic Yams were going for $4 a pound - that translates to $4 to $6 per avenge large yam. If you wonder why the corn on the cob tastes tough or chewier than a few years ago it is because it is genetically modified corn. It has been genetically engineered to kill insects that eat it.

I hope we come up with alternative and practical energy sources soon.

Maybe the US will be making a tradeoff with China?

We all will be riding bicycles someday?

(BTW… India may be even worse than China as a future fossil fuel glutton.)

My faith in humanity took its greatest dive, not when I realized our common crimes, but when I became well involved in the work force.

I now work retail. I am CONVINCED beyond any reasonable doubt that my main job is to recognize the fallacy in people- particularly customers. Only at the end of the day do I have the privilege to recognize fallacy in the company. Philosophy is nothing new, but in terms of work ethic, it is very sparsely seeded within the public. A great deal of management arises because of accidental, special circumstances. Not so much because of employee conviction.

So I begin the day remembering exactly what I am obligated to stand up for. There are government mechanisms that make assurances. But on the negative side, no one seems to solve our problems of survival outside of theory. (Are you certainly not going to starve to death? Are you certainly going to remain sane with your means to survive?) On the positive side, our role as reasoners is still very relevant, rather than mundane servants to a decision-making core. Nearly all employers, like parents, like teachers, like caretakers, boast their simple ultimatum of goodwill with compliance. But because all these authoritarians fail to work well together, we naturally must be disobedient.

Then your goal at work is left to reason, not complacancy. Including the reasoning that when people push, you may have to push back.

I’m have complete faith in humanity. The next generation is full of geniuses.

I agree with Zoos.

The potential in humanity is actually being carefully, and even more calculatedly suppressed and hindered (See: Chemtrails). The fact is it’s about to burst forth into the public realm, and it is going to happen quite soon.

‘Miracles’ in the sense that we view the word now will be frequent.

I suggest those of you who’ve resigned to a Chuck Palaniuk style cynicism to at least be prepared for said miracles. The end of Fight Club is actually only the beginning.

I agree. I think the ability of a group–whether family, group, tribe, nation or planetary–to aid the growth/development and the actions that must be condoned for the maximal abilities of each individual (depending on the potential of their idiosyncratic style of receieving signals from the environment and outputting them into one’s response) is as successful as few the number of action-restricting rules, or laws.

This amounts to less specific forms of conformity.

Of course, one may say that without any rules man would kill itself, it would be an extinction in no time, but I am not proposing that it would be best if any and every action were permitted; if the Universe as a whole worked by no rules then we would not exist anyway. The simple fact that we are human, and able to be self-conscious/knowingness of something that is not coming currently being physically perceived, implies that a mind can predominantly be concious of the “outside”/shared stuff that we all call “the world”(and anything in it) at a given moment, or an opposing world that does not exist outside one’s body (memories are not stored physically in the brain), tells us that there is at least one rule of organization/preservation (how one arranges the ideas of each physical or “imaginary” reality) at work in the universe.

One can, for example, focus on acting out of the illusion/fact (depending semantics) of individuality, or focus on the illusion/fact of something bigger which one tries to properly integrate with by adapting their behavior.

“Lower” animals do this in a sense, but they focus more on their own survival.

Humans have the ability to ensure everyone’s survival, if only they could unite as humanity and stop fighting over the clash of opposing cultural elements.

In the Old Testament God created man last, the tend his garden.

We are a kind of specialized stem cell of the earth, and be picking up in information from our environment on how to act, we alter ourselves.

Too much culture, too many rules, it makes us too robotic. We aren’t taking advantage of the “Wise” in Homo Sapien.

  1. Act in ways that do not harm the life on earth.
  2. If one is not acting in such a way that harms the life on earth, do not infringe on their proclivities.

Of course, all this is not an easy thing to transition too, considering those in power got there by accepting a great number of norms, by becoming what they had to to succeed in their goal.

Is one’s goal to develop themselves, to build their talents, and slowly strive for an image of your idealistic (yet realistic) image (of both yourself and “reality”)? Or to make money?

Idealists are usually considered unrealistic, inpractical, but while their heads are often in the stars, their daydreams can be trained to create breakthroughs that aid those he shares his life with.

The world MAY be the way it is now, and actually thinking the world can immediately accept and make the alteration from the present world to a global utopia is certainly childish, is it childish to imagine the most peaceful, the most creativity-conducing, emotionally fulfilling and personally-developing environment for man to live in, and begin to work towards that, no matter how many steps one may have to take?

Everyone should be fed for free each day, have free housing, healthcare, everything. There could still be a money system, but it would be used as a form of trading luxury items, nothing needed for survival (all that is taken care of).

Each person, depending on their age, will receive different amounts of money at different time in their life.

Once a person dies, this money goes back into this system, to be given to another person.

If one ran out of money, they would not be allowed to ask anyone for money for free–such a thing would be seen as someone who has a psychological problem, what is the person using all their money for? Why do they need such material excess?

Computers would be free, as would the tv/monitor. Transportation would be free.

Money would mostly be used for the exchange of gifts, which would often be made by an artist (only man-made items, and not all of them, would be worth money).

If one runs out of money, and feels they need it for some reason, they speak with state bankers, who ask why they don’t have any money and why they can’t wait until the next money handout. If they believe the person can pay them back, by a agreed future handout(s)–when one hand-out will be deducted, then they will be given money.

If the person is excessive with their use of money–asking the bank for help–to many times then the person will be required to speak to a few therapists in order to be considered for another loan.

School, and all needed supplies, would be free, and as long as gets passing grades he can continue moving up on his studies (which, once he’s decided to stop stopping) will place him into a corresponding job, with a corresponding salary.

Teachers, Counselors, Doctors, Scientists and Philosophers would be paid the most.

The health of the planet–the being that allows our existence, the body to which we are cells–needs to be our prime concern. Physical damage = Damage to the earth. A body’s cells are meant to survive while simultaneously preserving and repairing the body. At this moment we have become parasites on the earth, growths of cancer.

By not working towards a stable, life-supporting future we are, with every decision to go against preservation we write ourselves into a future reality in which billions of lives, and perhaps one day the entire body itself, end before their time; by not overcoming a primal culture-clash and the resulting redudction to savagery far beneath our abilities, we waste a life that could be made much richer, whether that life be your own or the earth’s itself.

Well, I typed quite a bit there, but it comes to my point: More freedom to act (but following at least the two guidelines I numbered above)= More intelligence, more fulfillment, more growth, more happiness

This is the difference between a cell and a stem-cell. The human can will itself to evolve throughout its lifetime. Each human is a unique species that evolves with every moment.

Having read all the intelligent answers, I just want to say I’m glad I’m back!

can u explain plz?