Is this the best we can do?

[anarch]

Humanity, I mean. Is this it? 'Cause it's totally pathetic.

This is supposed to be the space age, with flying cars, clean air, peace, and plenty. Instead we've got this ridiculous hell-pit that we've made for ourselves. We're no better than a bunch of cave men, hitting each other with sticks and rocks, fighting over a water hole.

Pathetic. Maybe we deserve what we're all sure to get, if this keeps up.

[bryant69]

1. We probably deserve worse than what we are getting

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Swamp Rat]

2. The worse is yet to come

[Marnieworld]

14. Wow Swampy

That is one very disturbing image. I mean this in a good way. Really captures the nightmare of this reality. The face of evil. :applause: :yourock:

[Swamp Rat]

18. Thanks. Here's one to go with your avatar:

:D

[Marnieworld]

23. Fan freakin tastic!

It's like you have a special camera that captures their rotting souls. I'm pha-klempt! Once again :applause: :yourock:

[ladjf]

6. Yes. Nature punishes those with disabilities, especially cognitive

ones. The biggest problem is that the "sick" are on the verge of killing us all.

[bryant69]

8. Yeah but we all deserve it

We are all guilty for Americas Crimes - that's the nice thing about living in a Democracy.

It's nice to believe that Bush's crimes are his own, and we aren't responsible. But it's a lie.

[ladjf]

11. Personally, I don't hold those who fought to elect someone other

than Bush guilty. I think most did all they could to stop the Republican coup d'etat. Bear in mind that Americans put in more hours at work than those from any other County. They are busy trying to survive, a bit too busy to take off for a week to attend political rallies in Washington.

But, you are certainly correct in one sense, we are all paying for the "sins" of our governments' policies.

[bryant69]

13. You mean people who failed to elect someone other?

We failed to elect someone else. Bottom line; we failed. And now we are paying for our failures. And, if there was justice, we would be paying a LOT more.

Morally we are probably a step up from the bastards who put Bush in the White House, I suppose. I'm not sure how big a step it is, however.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[ladjf]

16. How could we have stopped Nader from running? How could

we have known in advance that Florida has disenfranchised 150,000 voters? How could we have known of the numerous irregularities that were going to occur at the Florida voting places? And last, but definitely not least, what could any of us have done about the fact that the Supreme Court was rigged?

There may be solutions to all of these problems. What would be your suggestions as to how we could rid ourselves of the vermin that now runs our government?

[Dora]

3. For now, yes it is.

I was thinking thoughts similar to yours, this morning.

We live in barbaric and mythic times. This is our curse and our blessing.

[ladjf]

5. What else could we expect from societies that are controlled by

people who fabricate their their basic beliefs, buttressing their beliefs with arguments that are equally subjective, without benefit of a shred of objective evidence? The "sick" are busy trying to infect the healthier ones.

[ladjf]

4. You are correct. Here's my theory on what is transpiring.

For the past 2,000 years, several monotheistic religions have spread and prospered throughout the world. The values held by those religions worked to their advantage. However, with the world population reaching a saturation point, weapons technology advancing exponentially, communications and transportation creating new sets of variables and the continued serious degradation of the global environment, the previous survival dynamics that have served the religionists well have been replaced by a new set of circumstances HIGHLY unfavorable to the followers of philosophies that are anti-science, philosophies that are fabricated from out of the desires and fears rather that the objective observance of prevailing conditions.


I do not mean to say that religious philosophies are the sole cause of the new malaise. But, they, more than any one thing are the primary source of most of the dangerous behavior that you alluded to in your post. Sorry if my post is a bit cryptic. But, I doubt that anyone would be interested in a more precise exposition of what I was attempting to say.

[anarch]

12. ah...but it seems that the religious impulse is inherent in humans,

maybe other animals as well, depending on how you define religion. I mean, in every culture there is some kind of religion, whether it's primitive animism, or the monotheism of the various Abrahamic religions, or some kind of pantheism or other, it's always there, and usually pretty popular. The problem as I see it, along these lines, is that those who would selfishly hold onto wealth and power tend to use the prevailing religion, especially when the elements of hope and fear are foremost in its tenets, to control their populations.

So what we need is a real paradigm shift...getting rid of the mind-control that is imposed by goading based on religious hope and fear. A religion based on objective reality. A new Aeon, one might say. Maybe it's coming...hopefully instead of the orgy of destruction that seems to be facing the world unless cooler heads prevail, not after it.

[ladjf]

22. Good thinking. For survival, organisms must be able to

recognize what is bad and good for their continuation. In that sense, even plants can think, i.e. search for and find water and nutrition in the surroundings. Higher animals develop a database of survival knowledge based on (1) experience and (2) certain inherited memories.

The human problems that when faced with life threatening conditions that don't offer objective answers as to their cause, humans will fabricate the cause and effect sequence. (The volcano erupted because the volcano god is angry. Solution: sacrifice a virgin annually to appease the God. Voila, religion makes up the answers and satisfies the need to "know" what causes things.)

When the human race changed over from being hunter-gatherers to farmers, they were able, for the first time, to accumulate wealth. Then those who accumulated enough were able to hire others to help accumulate more wealth. That's when the capitalistic spiral toward fascism started. Certain major advantages accrued to those who had managed to accumulate wealth early on to the marked disadvantage of everyone else.

Superstition coupled with the natural tendency toward greed, (which itself is as survival instinct) is ultimately dangerous for life on Earth.

[LWolf]

7. No.

If you want to see something better, go a different way. Start at home, look at the way you live, and simplify. Less stuff, less activity.

Find one or two things to be involved in with your community; not to be "busy," but to connect to people in a positive way.

Find some truly visionary people running for local, state, and federal offices. They're out there. Find them, and make sure the time and energy you spend on politics is pointed towards a new vision, and not old, failed rhetoric and policies.

Humans are capable of incredible beauty, inspiration, and empathy. Be those human qualities in every breath and thought, and help heal the damage done by the worst that humans are capable of.

[MamaBear]

9. Einstein

Einstein was once quoted as saying: I don't know how they'll fight World War III, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Just sayin'.

[blue sky at night]

10. Please.....

if you want to change the world, start with yourself. If you judge others it means nothing more than you are a person who judges. We are all the same, stop blaming, stop being offended, work on your own mind. BTW, stop listening to all the garbage in the news, you will feel better.

[anarch]

15. yeah, you've got a point there about the news

I need to at least take a break from it...it's just making my blood boil. As to judging, I'll leave that to future generations, if there are any, or to whatever higher intelligence there may be in the universe. If we as a species are worthy of surviving, then we will. If not, life will go on one way or another.

[porphyrian]

17. Merit is not rewarded.

Fairy tales and romantic comedies have convinced many that it does in spite of the reality. When merit appears to be rewarded, it is either by sheer coincidence or human design. However, our culture doesn't reward merit, either. It only rewards profitability. What we deserve only affects us as much as it influences these factors.

[anarch]

19. so, "deserve" has nothing to do with it, in other words

Maybe so, but what I mean is that humanity seems intent on inflicting as much pain as possible upon itself. I'm not looking for fate, karma, or any supernatural force to step in and either save or destroy us. It would be nice if people could just refrain from killing each other. It would be even better if enough of us actually could get along with each other that we could focus some of our energy on making things better for the lot of us. I dunno, I mean $300 Billion dollars spent just to destroy Iraq, for instance? Probably 100,000 killed in that exercise alone, and nothing of any real value accomplished? Sheesh.

[porphyrian]

20. Most people share that goal.

We just can't agree on what needs to be done, how to do it, the order in which it should be done, who should be doing what,...

In the mean time, they're stealing our hubcaps.

[anarch]

21. yeah, that's what's really maddening about it all

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. As a "social animal" we are a monumental flop.

Other "social animals" may squabble and even whack each other, but we "superior beings" have made an art of murder.

[Generator]

25. I know it takes so long for humans to truly evolve

And I get so angry and frustrated with America. Think of our riches. Our brain power. And instead we get bogged down in gay marriage, and voting for idiot cowboys out of fear. We haven't evolved much at all. And the last two elections STILL seemed about keeping Black folks from voting.

Still driving cars that are ruining the plaent. With all the money and brain power in this country we could have been off of oil twenty years ago. But no! It's still war, death and GREED by the top s.o.b's. Not that much advancement from the days of Rome. No more slaves except the third world that makes all our shit that we can buy so cheaply. I'm with you-I visioned a world that went forward instead of backwards. We have an America on the verge of turning it back to the 1950's, illegal abortion, hatred of Gays, and more world wars. Heck maybe we will have our "greatest generation" afterall. But instead of just fighting the Nazi's we have to fight the fascists in America.

[MadJohnShaft]

26. I think we're doing just fine - it's the War Machine and it's greed

[bdamomma]

27. to answer your question

No, but we can pull ourselves out of this if we all get our acts together, and easy to say, try to stop these idiots from taking everything away from us. Everybody's nerves are on end right now, I would not like to offend anyone, just my opinion.

[Greyhound]

28. We have been enslaved and the beneficiaries have stifled

progress for generations. Just a cursory glance at, say, alternative energy sources. If you are to believe the propaganda, we have lost some arcane knowledge that we had back in the 70's. We were a decade or two away from energy independence, then came raygun and the rest of the cabal, now 25 years later we are 50 years or more away from that same goal.

Hmmm, :think:

[coalition_unwilling]

29. Stop insulting "cave men". We're no better than a bunch of

scorpions circling one another in a relentless death match. (Actually, I just realized I'm insulting scorpions. My apologies to any DU entomologists.)

[anarch]

30. "I'll have the roast duck...with the mango salsa."

[coalition_unwilling]

31. Hunh? Not sure I follow your post . . .???

[anarch]

32. sorry, I thought everyone on the planet had seen that commercial:

here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVvBXBZEhkw&search=geico%20cavemen

[coalition_unwilling]

33. PC I'm on right now can't play the video. But I noticed your

tag line by William Blake. Oh, were he alive today to witness what is happening.

"I went to the Garden of Love
And saw what I had never had seen
A temple was built on the round
Where I used to play on the green

And the gates of that temple were shut
And "Thou Shalt Not" was writ on the door
And priests in black gowns
Were making their rounds
And binding with briars
My joys and desires."

(Written from memory, so I may have slightly mis-quoted.)

[otherlander]

34. Nothing we build can ever let us escape our own human nature.

I don't think it's even human nature as much as it is the nature of everything that's alive: to compete, to destroy, to survive and to hell with the weaker ones. But I also think that, even though each one of us has the potential to be incredibly destructive, most people also have good intentions. It's not that people are evil, just that all of our good intentions can be overridden by desperation, or just obedience.

We're not like cavemen, we're like lemmings, "Leader! Leader! Take us with you! Weeeee!!! *crash* Aw, FUCK! Well, we're not doing that again! New Leader! New Leader! Where are we going? Weeee!!!!" ad infinitum. How can we be so smart and so stupid at the same time? :shrug:

[anarch]

35. then we must evolve beyond these tendencies, or we must die.

[otherlander]

38. Or it might possibly just go on like this for several thousand more years.

But I think you're right; we might be able change. When Milgram was running his experiments, it showed that most people would bring someone close to death just because an authority figure told them to. But there were other results that were shown: how less people were willing to follow authority if the person they were ordered to hurt was given an identity, how if one person disobeyed, more started to. So people who are too intimidated to speak up will do so if given an example to follow, and wouldn't put their consciences aside so readily if the others weren't dehumanized. That gives some hope that the human race might improve.

[northernsoul]

36. The history of the 21st Century is being written by mental 12 year olds

Remember the 90's when the adults really were pretty much in charge? This whole century sucks so far.

[DistressedAmerican]

37. I Though We Were Supposed To Be Reporting For Termination

at age 30! Glad that didn't happen.

Seriously though, we are a pitiful species. If any other animal acted the way we do, humans would have hunted them to extinction dcades ago.

[anarch]

39. Heh. If I'd been terminated at age 30, though, I would have been spared

all this amazing horribleness that Cheney and his gang of happy fascists have wrought upon the planet. It would have been a mercy killing.