| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/21/2007 1:07:45 PM |
So is the real threat a sense of hoplessness and resignation?
No, I think the real threat is human nature. It's not me, it's not you, it's not anyone--it's everyone...which is why saying I should kill myself is utter nonsense. Offing myself won't change the fact that all humans are filled with the same negative traits that work against our survival as a species. In fact, I'd say I have a purpose to live in trying to get people to see that these negative traits are killing us. I think the optimists who say everything will be fine--they're the ones we have to worry about because they can't see what a difficult road we have ahead of us. They will leave us woefully unprepared for what we must face. But the pessimists--nay, the realists--are warning us.
And forewarned is forearmed. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/21/2007 3:41:37 PM | Dan.. at leat a realist! Absolutely and totally agree, it's the one's that complain (not whinge), its the ones that take a stand, it's the ones that have the ability to see what lays ahead and the obstacles that have to faced are the ones that are the true survivors.
Positive people ignore what lays ahead of them, bleeding hearts, good and sincere people and all great traits to have but they dont have the ability to forsee what needs to be done. They are quite happy to stroll along and go with the masses (sounds a bit like the Matrix) and do nothing. The very few who take a stand and are willing to put themselves out there are the few that will ensure the survival of our spieces.
I used to run very large training programs and one thing I was taught was when it was going well, my mentor would say, "I would be very worried if I was you" and I would respond "why it is all going really well" and they would respond "that is why I want you to worry, because it is going too well and it aint over till the fat lady sings."
That is not to say one cannot be happy or content, it's just having the foresight to see what lays ahead and doing something about it. In this country we have a saying "she'll be right mate." lol... yea perfect example.
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/21/2007 7:40:33 PM | Everybody is a realist, it's just that everybody has a different reality.
Positive people ignore what lays ahead of them, bleeding hearts, good and sincere people and all great traits to have but they dont have the ability to forsee what needs to be done.
There are those who are very positive when facing challenge instead of fretting over it and reinforcing their fears. An army is a team and so is society. Those with a reality of fear and hopelessness are bad for moral. Those who help their mates move ahead will arrive with their whole army intact. At the same time, intelligence and planning enable an army overcome the greatest of challenges. An army that underestimates its foe is in for trouble. Those that face challenge know this from experience. Nothing can make a person more positive than facing a challenge and overcoming it. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/21/2007 8:21:11 PM |
Those with a reality of fear and hopelessness are bad for moral[e].
See, there's the problem. You think that our negative comments mean that we're afraid of the future and we hold out no hope of things getting better. You think that we look at the problems we face and think nothing can be done.
But I look at the problems we face and think nothing SHOULD be done. That is, I don't think an advancement of technology should necessarily follow an advancement of knowledge. I think that when we try to make things better we only make them worse. What needs to be done is to learn to be content and stop thinking that everything can be improved. That is facing the challenge and overcoming it--it's just not the way you want to do it. Fair enough, but that doesn't make me fearful or hopeless. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/21/2007 11:53:39 PM | I think the greatest threat to mankind is...................... mother nature.
Looking at the global timeline over 4 billion years, with ice ages, earth quakes, near earth asteriods or comets, volcanoes (K2 boundry layer), weather changes, flooding, imbalance in nature like viruses/plagues, green house effect and other things like this....
I think that any species has to come to intelligence very quickly, to have even a slim chance of making it. We have this opportunity to do what alot of other species have failed to do on this earth, which is to become the caretakers of it.
There is such a small window of time between each of these cycles of destruction and they happen quite frequently, whether they be earth or space bound. Between fighting ourselves and battling against nature, the odds are not in our favour. 
Then again, its only a matter of time.... :) | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 2:21:46 AM | I think it's devolution.
In the same way that generations of people prior to this century have been rewarded by evolution for being smart (avoiding danger) or talented or strong, suddenly we live in a cushy, protect-everyone, safety-label-or-I-sue world that no longer punishes stupidity with its risks. So the deciding factor becomes who has more babies, and this means that the people too dumb to plan ahead and use contraceptions, or too dumb to know that f*cking your girlfriend's friend is wrong - THOSE are the people now being rewarded by evolution. If it continues, and I see no reason to believe it won't, it will lead to a world populated by total morons.
(I saw it in a movie, it must be true! ....but really, the movie Idiocracy does a better job of explaining how this is coming to be than I did) | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 3:25:42 AM |
Those who help their mates move ahead will arrive with their whole army intact.
That is my whole point, how many are willing to put themselves out on the line to move ahead, put others instead of themselves. It's those people who are courageous and silly enough to take anything that is handed out to them, the negativity, its those that stand their ground no matter what anyone else is saying that will make the difference needed to move forward. How many of those people exist, not too many, for most people want to be nice, sincere and good warm hearted. Personally they are all great personality traits to have and society needs those people, but they aint going to be the ones that are willing to put themselves out there and make the change that is needed or required.
our negative comments mean that we're afraid of the future and we hold out no hope of things getting better
Depends how one looks at that statement, one can be fearful and lose all hope and do nothing but complain and winge. Others may be feaful and it's that exact fear that will swing them into action and do something. It's the lack of action that causes fear and hopelessness. Action is movement, action is bring forth a reality that was created in the mind first. Sometimes there is nothing to be done, no action just the simple belief that it will turn out. It takes a wise person to know the difference.
. Great debate btw.. love it!
that will put themselves out on the front line to ensure the survivial of the unit and take | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 11:02:24 AM | I have the opportunity to see it from the perspective of leading boy scouts, working with special olympics and other youth groups. These kids start out as fearful, lazy, self-absorbed etc. We challenge them and put them in uncomfortable environments but what we do next is the most important step. We recognize them for the success no matter how small that success is. Schools and even parents so rarely do that, it is no wonder there is such a sense of hopelessness. In the end, I have seen boys go from whining wimps to Eagle scouts on to industry, public service, and military careers. They are positive, they value honor and service, they are eager to face challenge, and they plan ahead to win. If you are seeing something different with the people around you, I would suggest you find different people to hang with.
The day after 9/11, a flag I put up in my front yard was stolen. (Volumes of editorial comment here.) I went to the hardware store to try to find a replacement. I ran into an old man saying he was afraid kids nowdays would turn and run. I said I suspected the opposite. At the next scout meeting, several scouts said they had decided to join the marines and have since. One of those is now an officer on Marine One. I would like to find that old man and ask him what he thought now. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 11:23:44 AM | I got one question for you all.
Why is that pain and suffering brings about the largest changes in society and that the positive people do very little but exsist or try to gain more?
Being positive is nice...ill agree. But when it comes to the point that you lose focus to what is happening to the entire planet versus finding the nearest location for your next starbucks fix...there is something slightly wrong there. If you read articles about Al Gore...youll actually find hes not a very positive guy..hes not overly negative guy either. He is fast becoming a catalyst to change for dealings with the enviroment and society..wether some of you like him or not...hes having an impact. Those people like myself and Al dont run around all day smiling at every person that walks by...we are out trying to find solutions to the problems. We take time to smell the roses sure...but what good will that do if there is no more roses??
Im glad to see that some of you still fear/deny that we are still a threat to ourselves....fear is good...fear is the largest catalyst of change.
Mankind is its greatest threat...but it is also its greatest savior. Which side do you choose to be on? | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 2:00:01 PM | I'm encouraged by some of the responses. While others make me think harder on the topic of how mankind can ever survive.
King Nosmo i can honestly admit i am part of the problem when it comes to misanthropy. I try to be accepting but i find it very difficult to like those who see no problem with behaviors that contribute to environmental degradation, or putting themselves over others to feel more powerful. Which was one of the main reasons for starting the thread.
ItsMargo I enjoyed your response. Its amazing how many of us think and act with the premise that we are separate. I was thinking that most people would talk about impending dangers that are out of our control so it was nice to read your post.
rune3 your post got me thinking as yours always seem to. When i was a counselor we had intervention teams for addicts. The idea was that we would try and raise a persons rock bottom. We would work with the family of an addict and skillfully and somewhat manipulatively stop the destructive behavioral patterns they were on by making it intolerable for them to continue. It was seen to be ok as the method saved lives and much emotional distress of family who supported the addict. I am a strong believer in people, the good within them, however the damage even one person can do before they hit rock bottom is astonishing. Without the direct and intimate knowledge of what their behavior is doing to the people they love they will continue, and even sometimes with that knowledge they will still continue, why? Often the behaviors people choose that are against their own survival and the survival of those around them or even the world at large is because they see themselves as separate and that they don't or can't impact the world around them positively or negatively. They mostly think the world impacts on them and they are in competition to survive or life is so painful that they must kill the pain at any cost.
Its hard not to be upset with people and companies that are destroying the world whether it is slowly or much quicker. I see them as addicts that are acting in their own interest because they feel completely disconnected from the world. Impending or not the reality is that we are not working together as a global community, we do not feel connected to each other or nature and because of that we can do horrible things to each other and the environment. As our numbers grow each person has even a greater responsibility for the impact they have on the world around us yet the opposite is happening.
Some times i wonder if activists and people who work to lessen the effect on the world personally and through money's given to organizations are actually enabling people to act independently longer. When crisis hits humanity seems to show up band together for the common good for all, unfortunately not in the long term. We allow companies to rape and pillage while giving fifty pounds to some organization to save an acer of rain forest from their greedy hands. Yet some how the company that just destroyed 50 hectares is still able to do business without being held accountable. Some how the work of activists have not raised the rock bottom of the perpetrators or the society that buys their products or uses their services.
In counseling youth I worked with what would be considered the worst by society they stole cars, prostituted, did drugs, sold drugs destroyed property and peoples lives. I'd accept them as individuals and take care of the underlying pain whilst trying to get them to see and understand what they are doing was not only hurting others but also themselves in hopes that they would stop the destructive behaviors and begin healing the underlying causes. Some died, some became mentally ill or destroyed their brain functioning for life but every so often someone was saved. It was always scary to see how far they would go before they hit rock bottom and i wonder if this is what our global society needs to do, find rock bottom...
crazylilting | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 2:24:59 PM |
It was always scary to see how far they would go before they hit rock bottom and i wonder if this is what our global society needs to do, find rock bottom...
Arguably the greatest fear people have is their fear of change. Even if they acknowledge the situation isn't working, and change is necessary, out of fear they seek incremental changes... keep as much the same as possible, while tinkering with some minor changes slowly and carefully.
Change is largely only possible in times of crisis. That is when you see the amazing things humans are capable of. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 2:31:58 PM | | Ahoytheredave, apparently I haven't made myself clear. I do not consider the belief that we should do nothing to be the same as a fear of doing anything. Sometimes the best action is to let something run its course. Sometimes the best action is to backtrack and take a different route. I think that is the kind of thing we need to do with our civilization: stop, take a deep breath, and rethink the way we've been doing things, which so far has been to do as much as we can as fast as we can. And that, I contend, will lead to our destruction. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/22/2007 5:12:10 PM | | Well, I guess we are almost all agreed, since almost all the reasons given necessitate a lack of reason! | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/23/2007 11:30:03 AM | Why is that pain and suffering brings about the largest changes in society and that the positive people do very little but exsist or try to gain more?
Not exactly true. I would say fear is more a motivator than pain and suffering. Pain and suffering may not indicate any change is necessary. Fear askes for action. Some choose to run, others ignor the threat, and some plan to accept the challenge.
Sometimes the best action is to let something run its course.Sometimes the best action is to backtrack and take a different route.
Without a doubt. If you cannot prevent something negative from happening or lessen its impact, then the best course is to adapt.
Change is largely only possible in times of crisis. That is when you see the amazing things humans are capable of.
So the internet and computer revolution, cell phones, birth control pill, Starbucks, and Reality TV came in times of crisis?
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/23/2007 12:16:13 PM |
If you cannot prevent something negative from happening or lessen its impact, then the best course is to adapt.
The problem is that people don't even consider whether we can prevent something negative or change it. They just go ahead with whatever they want to do and figure they'll deal with the consequences later. What I like now is that people are looking at the proposed alternative fuel sources and pointing out potential problems. That's great! Hopefully then we won't royally screw things up like we have with coal and oil. Looking ahead and identifying potential pitfalls is far better than simply embracing technology because it's there. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/23/2007 1:27:35 PM | The greatest threat to mankind is the period at the end of this sentence. It is really a tiny black hole that will suck out the life of your computer screen and keep absorbing and growing until it eats the entire universe. What? You mean this was a serious question? LOL
The greatest threat to anything is that danger which it doesn't see coming. We haven't recognized it yet.
(Close with theme from Jaws) | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/23/2007 4:18:57 PM | Greatest threat to mankind -- Bad Threads. Oh, you meant mankind beyond our little world of makebelieve here in computerdom?
Being small minded and unaware of large scale changes. The neanderthal man went extinct because it while it was a great hunter it could not adapt as well as our current species.
Our current species thinks it has mastered so many things because of some rudimentary technology but we have been threatened by many minute disasters... what about when a sizeable one comes along?
Katrina is a pretty good example -- a lot of lives could have been saved with a single shipment of a backpacker's emergency straw, for example. I've carried one as a backup for more than a decade while backpacking, camping, and canoeing.
http://www.campingsurvival.com/sustcowapusy.html
(I said this during the disaster too, on a different forum! I have no connection to the above website, I'm just using it for educational purposes.)
We have to see outside our own humancentricities whether they are x boxes, porn, politics, music, idols, money, etc... get the picture?
THAT requires wisdom. I have always felt we need to make sure our level of wisdom matches our level of technology in our culture. I think this mismatch could very well be the biggest threat to mankind because it puts our focus on too many things that while they seem external are really internal because they came from us and we made/invented them. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/26/2007 10:30:11 AM | | I think the greatest threat to mankind are bad parents. I know so many parents who are in no way shape or form prepared to properly raise a child, yet they have children. Then, as they "raise" these children, they use these poor parenting skills that don't usually get much better because usually they end up resenting the children they are raising. As a result you have children growing up under chaos and without order of some kind, whether that be from humanist, theist, taoist, scientific or other beliefs/philosophies of life. These disorderly children have more of the same, eventually outnumbering children with structure and consequently parents adequately equipped to raise them as assets to society. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/26/2007 12:25:00 PM | The greatest threat to humanity is humanity.
The earth is a school to learn about creation and the energy that creates and sustains it. This energy, in non-scientific terms, is called love. As humans become more self aware, i.e. self-love enabling them to become more awake and aware to love others of their own species as well as all sentient beings, we will eventually stop the self destructive path that we have been on for millennia. This is what evolution is really all about. Humans mirror what is going on inside of themselves through the physical world. As we evolve, learn, and become more apart of this creative energy flow called love, we will increase the capacity to mirror that which honors and sustains all life. Not rocket science here, ya all :) | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/26/2007 5:03:23 PM |
While others make me think harder on the topic of how mankind can ever survive.
Regardless of how much damage we do to each other we will survive. The basic desire to preserve ones own life is probably one of the most primal desires that we have. You can argue that suicide proves otherwise but I believe that even those who take their own lives intentionally truely did not want to die, they just did not know where to turn for the help that they needed to get through the situation that pushed them past the point where it was easier to die than it was to go on living in turmoil, and suffering.
We might be able technologically able to destroy every living being on the planet, but It is highly unlikely that we will be able to do so beacuse of a little thing called conscience. We know that in civilized society that it is wrong to kill. Unfortunately there are too many others out there that do not believe the same way. Reason has left those that would take up arms to destroy a way of life that is not the same as their own. Short of destroying every organic molecule on the face of the earth, we will find a way to survive no matter how great the odds may be stacked against us. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/28/2007 7:26:13 PM | Yep I agree. Biggest threat to mankind is mankind. Why? Mankind already has the power to destroy itself completely off the planet in an instance and massively wipe out the world. It's kind of Ironic that mankind has created a greater opportunity to destory itself in war againts itself.
2 words: nuclear weapons
Every time mankind learns, grows and advances. It creates and learns a new way to hurt or destroy itself it seems. | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/30/2007 5:12:21 PM | The greatest threat to mankind is itself.
As Pogo put it ... "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
samfool | |
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| Greatest threat to mankind?
Posted: 8/30/2007 6:21:29 PM |
Author "Sam Harris" thinks that the greatest threat to mankind would be the lack of reason. He says things get really scary when people make decisions and determination without reason being the number one factor. We all get emotionally attached to certain things we think are important. But how do we attach importance to things or ideas? Conversely to this would a society that only sees reason as its decision making be a good society to live in?
But aren't most logical theories rooted in our emotions? I mean, if you're going to try to logically prove something its because your emotions give you the initiative to do it. | |
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