Worried about the future? What about you all?

[lotusch]

Hey all,

We all have some good stuff going on here on this great platform.
I think CM has been praised enough by many many people and I am glad to be part of this awesome community.
I have vowed myself to attend the next Meistermeeting so I can finally meet some people in person while enjoying a few drinks and talk about the things that do interest us all here.

Anyway,on a more serious note I was just wondering how you guys and galls look at the current situation in the world.
If I look at all the misery that is happening around the globe it just makes me really really sad.
The wars, the killings, the terrorism, the corrupt governments, the poverty in general in the world etc etc.
Not a single day goes by without the news of some terrible events in the world.
Sometimes I think some humans really have lost their minds all together.
The cruelty that some people lay upon their fellow humans is beyond my biggest imagination.

I know this is something from all times and happened as early as we humans set foot on this earth.
But lately it seems all to only get worse and I think a lot about it.

I personally hate violence and I condemn war in any form.

My 2 kids are only 5 years of age and I wonder what our generation will leave behind for them.
In what kind of a world will they live.
The world is so full of messed up people that wherever I go with my girls, I will never lose sight on them.
Maybe 30-40 years ago it would have not been as bad as now.

But at the moment I feel that humanity is at the brink of destroying themselves.
The world is a big barrel of TNT,ready to blow big.
And for what?
For those government orchestrated wars to keep the war machine going?
To keep the weapons industry going?
To go and steal oil and other precious resources in other countries that don't even belong to us?
It is a bloody shame if you ask me.

Money Greed Money Greed Money Greed to the cost of millions of innocent people's lives every single year!

Maybe I am wrong but my gut tells me most conflicts in the world are all worked out behind closed curtains by our so called governments that are supposed to run our countries and protect it's people.

I have seen many documentaries about war zones and in ALL of them 1 thing always came out very clear.
The people in those war zones do not want these wars and just want to live in peace.
Ask any normal Muslim, Christian, Jew, Atheist, Afro American person, White person, Chinese person or whatever person if they have issues with other thinking people and the answer will be NO!!
I think we could live in peace and harmony together.
We the people do not want all these wars but the people who run the show on our globe do!

And that is what worries me because what legacy will we leave for our kids?

I think war is a foul thing and so is racism, there should be no room for these things in our modern society.

I am born and raised as a Christian but I have no problems with my Catholic brother, my Muslim brother, my Black brother, my Atheist brother, my Poor brother, my Buddhist brother etc etc.
I respect you all because each and every person in this world is unique and no one needs to be the same.

This is what I try to teach my kids also, that is all I can do.
I wish everyone would do the same and stop getting brainwashed by their war loving governments and so called "religious" terrorist groups.
Ignore them and let love lead your lives NOT HATE!

So for you all here on CM I wish:





Mark.

 

[Harry_BKK]

Evolution has given us the great gift that is called intelligence on top of the usual survival instincts, yet it staggers me how little that is used in our so called modern world. Maybe we need another 150.000 years to get to the stage where we use more than just 5% of our brain and actually be really intelligent.

If that would be the case today we would not:

- build higher walls then ever because we feel not safe
- waste the vital and precious natural resources on producing weapons, maintaining huge armies; things a really intelligent being would not see the need for
- fight each other as in prehistorical times when mainly survival instincts were leading our thinking
- let nearly 50% of the population go hungry day in, day out, while the other 50% waste a large part of their food.
- let 1% of the population own 90% of the global financial resources
- ...... list by far not complete

Ultimately, the human race is destined for extinction, it is only a question of when, not if. Only if our thinking and actions change dramatically can we stretch our presence in this universe much further. One day will be though the E-DAY, be it natural or human made. And lets be honest, it will not make an "iota" difference to the universe considering the small part of the infinite that our planet is.

Just a simple, trivial example: Until this day i do not understand why some people need a huge house with 10 bed and bathrooms, yet the next person goes hungry or is homeless. Any intelligent being would say that is the least intelligent way of keeping the human race alive. Instead we mostly still go by the natural way: "the stronger will survive easiest and best", all the time forgetting that we are supposed to be more intelligent than that.

My son is 7 years old and it worries me just as much as you when i see in what terrible state we will hand over this planet to them.

Personally i am completely anti-violence, never had even a fist fight in my life, let alone anything else more aggressive. Until today i am convinced that my words and the use of my intelligence are the strongest "weapons" (for lack of another word).

Just a few words regarding governments. They do not control a country, they are just marionettes to give the normal folk the impression that by voting them in or out we have a say in this world. In reality each and every country is controlled by just a few families which goes back to the early days of colonialism and industrialization. E.g. Germany has 5 families, the UK 8 IIRC, the US just over 10. These families control the vital industries, finances and political direction. As long as that is allowed to carry on we will not see any significant change in how this world is progressing into the future.

 

[Steviedoo]

Our world is not any more violent or ugly than ever before.

We are probably living in the safest world in history.
"The violence is not new...the cameras are new" don't know who said this but they are correct. the Internet, social media etc...reports the good, the bad and the ugly. I read an article way back....and it talked about a book and about this feeling that the world is spinning out of control but really it isn't....Don't remember the title but....it talks about the decline of violence in the world....very well documented.....as for corruption and greed....that's a different story and has always been there..

The article addressed Why we feel like the world is more violent and more crazy than ever before? And basically attributed to it to the fact that we live in a world where all news, good news, outrageous news and bad news is all accessible 24 7. The awareness of all of the bad things are ever so present in the news cycle...which isn't the 6 or 11 o'clock news anymore its all day long...minute by minute news gets reported....more than ever before.

Anything outrageous gets reported...we live in an era of constant awareness of every fault and flaw in humanity...it becomes too much and we are left with the feeling that the world is effen going crazy.

..I am of the belief that humanity is kind and peaceful....we just need to turn off our news feed and social media every once in a while to feel that the world is a safe place again.

S

 

[syrus2]

My old man told me once : << Enjoy every minute of your life. bcuz you may not be still alive at the next minute >>

Try to be a good person in heart and soul. drink as much as you can.
And of cors, hit the jackpot as often as you can ( remember : No mercy for those T-rexes in Jurassic Park )

 

[geordiecolin]

What a fabulous OP.

I too believe that most of the worlds people are simply pawns in the world leaders chess game that are viewed as disposable assets.

I too had your concerns 21 years ago when the first of my two daughters was born. As a result I found myself guilty of wrapping them in cotton wool too much in order to protect them from harm. But what results are kids that become a little too protected. Stop them from going through some experiences at a young age then they may not have the tools to deal with things when they experience them when they are older and expectations of them are higher. If they never fall out of a tree when young then their fall when older is much harder with possibly worse consequences.

An example. My eldest was watched very closely prior to starting school and was never subject to the worst of how other small kids could be. She started school with a very happy disposition,was able to read a little,knew her colours and was very friendly. Within no time she was targeted by other kids who did not like that so she withdrew into herself at school a little.

Being a parent is a very difficult balancing act and the more you worry about them the worse it can get.

PS. My two girls can now give as good as they get in life

 

[Sovietsky]

"If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them"

Think it was from Dali Lama and if everyone would try to live by those words, world would be better place.

 

[MissRuthless]

It is said that in 2040 we are going to be out of power.
As we cannot sustain or create enough compared to consumption especially now more then ever with the digital world.

I barely watch the news anymore, might read it now and then on the net, but not much as I cannot handle the everything BAD always mentioned.

 

[petro]

Even without having children, there's moral reasons to be concerned for future generations.

"But lately it seems all to only get worse and I think a lot about it."
Most philosophers seem to agree that the world is getting better slowly because of things like; modern medicine, economic wealth, moral progress, and so on.
If my memory serves, the late Karl Popper held that belief.

One philosopher, Noam Chomsky believes that more violence is committed now than it was in Neanderthal times because of the huge wars we have. WW1 & WW2 being the examples.

"We the people do not want all these wars but the people who run the show on our globe do!"
I think there is such a thing as justified war. Take WW2 for example; non-action would have been catastrophic.
Ideally, I would like to see countries justify it in a world court before they declare war.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Part of the problem is that we are still strongly influenced by instinct. There was a lab experiment done with rats that looked at how their behaviour would change as their population was increased, but not the space. It was found that as they were forced to live ever closer to each other (due to fixed space and increasing population), they became ever more aggressive and territorial when it came to protecting the diminishing amount of "personal space" each had.

Funnily enough, we see that "road rage" in humans is sharply increased when there is a severe lack of road capacity and everyone is being held up on their everyday journeys, but are under pressure from their bosses to overcome everyone else and be the one that fights their way to work on time. If you drive in a quiet rural area, suddenly everyone is polite, letting you out into the flow rather than doing their best to close off even the slightest gap that might lead to someone squeezing in front.

Those who live in big houses with a decent garden tend not to be so aggressive as those crammed into tiny houses in dense estates where you are lucky to have a communal patch of grass, let alone a garden. Still, the governments of the world are welded to the idea of perpetual economic growth of a couple of percent per year. This means we have to buy 2% more than last year else there will be global catastrophe. One easy way to achieve this is to drive a 2% per year global population increase, so that each individual simply has to buy what they did last year, with the growth being driven by population increase.

The UK is a case in point, we have too many people for the number of homes, capacity at doctors, schools, and on the roads. This has been the main driver for Brexit, as many feel that it will reduce immigration and thus reduce the population of the UK to match the capacity of our infrastructure. Then, we have another government quango bemoaning the fact that our population distribution is too "top heavy" and that younger people need to start having more children, a problem that is actually down to the fact that young people can't AFFORD to start a family until they are well into their 30's and 40's due to the need to secure a home and progress in their careers to a point at which they can meet the repayments and afford to bring up their family.

What the planet needs is a decrease in the population of humans, yet economics demands a perpetual increase. When humans get aggressive as a large group, we don't just fight our neighbours for personal space, we start a war to grab the extra resources needed from a weaker country.

 

[dunover]

Part of the problem is that we are still strongly influenced by instinct. There was a lab experiment done with rats that looked at how their behaviour would change as their population was increased, but not the space. It was found that as they were forced to live ever closer to each other (due to fixed space and increasing population), they became ever more aggressive and territorial when it came to protecting the diminishing amount of "personal space" each had.

Funnily enough, we see that "road rage" in humans is sharply increased when there is a severe lack of road capacity and everyone is being held up on their everyday journeys, but are under pressure from their bosses to overcome everyone else and be the one that fights their way to work on time. If you drive in a quiet rural area, suddenly everyone is polite, letting you out into the flow rather than doing their best to close off even the slightest gap that might lead to someone squeezing in front.

Those who live in big houses with a decent garden tend not to be so aggressive as those crammed into tiny houses in dense estates where you are lucky to have a communal patch of grass, let alone a garden. Still, the governments of the world are welded to the idea of perpetual economic growth of a couple of percent per year. This means we have to buy 2% more than last year else there will be global catastrophe. One easy way to achieve this is to drive a 2% per year global population increase, so that each individual simply has to buy what they did last year, with the growth being driven by population increase.

The UK is a case in point, we have too many people for the number of homes, capacity at doctors, schools, and on the roads. This has been the main driver for Brexit, as many feel that it will reduce immigration and thus reduce the population of the UK to match the capacity of our infrastructure. Then, we have another government quango bemoaning the fact that our population distribution is too "top heavy" and that younger people need to start having more children, a problem that is actually down to the fact that young people can't AFFORD to start a family until they are well into their 30's and 40's due to the need to secure a home and progress in their careers to a point at which they can meet the repayments and afford to bring up their family.

What the planet needs is a decrease in the population of humans, yet economics demands a perpetual increase. When humans get aggressive as a large group, we don't just fight our neighbours for personal space, we start a war to grab the extra resources needed from a weaker country.

Thomas Malthus pointed that out in the 1800's and was correct then too.

Another thing is perspective. Add up all the bombings, murders, war casualties, suffering in the last 5 years and it's all there in glorious technicolour via the internet, everybody rich or poor seems to have a phone to film it on, and it's distressing and what's worse we are aware of it.

Compare that with WW2 when say the RAF wiped out 100,000 in a few carpet-bombing raids on Dresden and Hamburg, families burned alive, rivers boiled. All the public saw was a few aerial films of fires taken from aircraft and read some eyewitness account afterwards - no instant technicolour news here, yet the horror was worse in those few raids than the last 5 years I mention above combined.

So it may seem worse but look deeper and ask: is it really?

 

[danidavidson]

I think that there is a serious problem now mostly because of all the crap that we are dealing with. Plus, the one really crappy thing about the world now is that if you're a college student you still may not be able to get a job after your done. That's one really sad thing. Also, it will only get worse from here because it will end up being worse for our children unless something changes.