Humanity and the Future
I'm sorry, but yes I'm going to continue on my writings about the flaws of humanity. Before you label me as a pessimist or an apocalypse-preaching ass, I'd appreciate it if you'd at least try to read whatever I say with an open mind. It may be hard to believe, but please understand that I am serious when I say that I have the highest hopes for humanity. That said though, I don't believe that humanity in its current state is guaranteed a bright future; effort may be required. Attaining a greater future is not necessarily going to come easily or freely. More than anything else in the world today, I believe that human ignorance and unwillingness to subdue its ego in any way is going to prove to be the greatest obstacle to our greater future.
Much in reality is subject to chance, or if not chance, than to calculations and effects coming from causes that are beyond our ability to perceive, understand, or predict. Basically, bar any unforeseen catastrophic event that is out of human control or human cause, humanity has the potential to survive in this universe indefinitely (at least until all matter decays, but if that is how things work, than we still have billions, maybe trillions, of years left). Since we all have that basic survival instinct branded into our DNA, we all have some desire to see humanity continue in some way, shape or form.
Here comes one of our first problems: individual ego. Even though all human beings work more or less towards the same goal, because our processes and methods for achieving those goals differ, we all too frequently perceive others as having drastically different and opposing goals. As a result, we have been in a process of killing each other for millennia. The sadness in this is that collective human strength right now has potential, but given our inability to see each other as equal human beings wandering down the same general path, we are in some ways doomed to continue our species suicide. If this is not the embodiment of insanity, I'm not sure what is.
Our individual egos are what cause us to spiral into ignorance and stupidity. When our ego flares, we focus on ourselves, and all too often we get defensive and believe that only we are right and that everything is wrong. When this happens, we shelter ourselves in a veil of our own stupidity, and like an infection, our stupidity spreads to others, causing them to further wall themselves up in their own stupidity. When multiple people are dealing with a similar situation when they are at their least intelligent state of mind, the outcomes are usually less than desireable (unless some randomly fortuitous event occurs that prevents the more or less inevitable outcome). In short, stupidity begets stupidity which leads to stupid events and stupid outcomes.
From any reasonable standpoint, it does not make sense for us to decrease our general productivity. Put another way, if human reactions and actions due to stupidity are hindering a greater and more prolific output, then stupidity is the enemy of our biological and societal industry. Though the massive tree of stupidity has grown to epic proportions, the seeds of it can be seen in humanity, and thus the focal point of our assault can be discovered. The solution though, to the problem of human stupidity becomes a hard one, mostly because we will try to think of something specific and immediate, when in reality, the solution will be something general and long-term. This is something most people aren't willing to accept.
The only real way for excessive human stupidity to be decreased is to force people to accept the existence of other people (believe it or not, but when your ego is dominating your actions, other people are less people and more a variable, and putting their words on an equal level as your own becomes impossible). This is a hard task, mostly because when you make people acknowledge the existence of other people equal to them, they hate you. Nobody wants to be told that as an individual, they don't matter more than anyone else. In reality though, this is the truth. At a both cosmic and practical level, none of us matter anymore than anyone else; fundamentally we are all equal because we all start the same and end the same (we are all born and we all die).
Think long and hard about this. When we become self-centered in our thought processes, it becomes impossible to truly consider anyone else on equal terms with your own interests. It is only when you become disinterested (at least for a period of time) in your own personal interests as they relate to your own needs. Unfortunately, many credible theories (like psychological egoism) make this kind of thing impossible, since they support that people can never truly act without some personal motivations playing a factor (basically, altruism and certain other things become impossible and unattainable). Luckily, these are not necessary for some version of this basic concept to work.
Though we may never truly be able to act outside of our own interests, if we can act without focusing on ourselves, then some measure of success can be achieved. Remember, the goal is not to eliminate stupidity, but to minimalize the damage done by human stupidity. Unfortunately, prescribing some specific method for learning to not focus on our ego is either impossible or unattainable at this present moment (at least for me). Luckily though, the general goal is the general way, and a general pattern can be followed.
In any situation we act out of our general internal thought patterns. Occasionally we can, with effort, observe our own thought processes. The challenge with that is that most people can't stand to witness any flawed part of themselves (which is half the damn problem here anyways), and thus refuse to utilize any form of introspection. Introspection (as I've discussed in previous articles) is crucial, and is really the only way for a person to find ways to contain the rampant ego. Once we actually begin to analyze ourselves though, we can cultivate the disposition to analyze our minds from a disinterested perspective (meaning, we aren't interested in ourselves from an ego standpoint, but rather from an analytical standpoint).
When that ability is attained in some form, we can try to treat others more like we'd like ourselves to be treated. Most of us don't usually aim to treat others as inferior, but it's a result of ego-focused thinking, and when we can get around that in some amount, we can begin to treat others as are true equals. Also, understand that most people don't mean to treat others as inferior, it's just a natural result of our general thought processes. When we have a mission that is important to us (such as survival or any other goal), we perceive things in terms of variables, and anything that seems to be a hindrance is immediately either ignored or becomes an object that must be circumnavigated, attacked, and in some excessive cases, destroyed. Basically, when we become too focused on a goal, people become less than human, they become variable. Other persons and their interests are reduced to the mere x or y in the calculations made to assess and achieve one's interests.
Unfortunately, I have no prescriptive statements or methods to give. Treating other people better is more a frame of mind, one that everyone (myself included) needs to work on. The world is facing desperate crises right now because of basic but crucial misunderstandings between cultures. The sad part is that most of these misunderstandings are unavoidable. If we can improve on our fairer treatment of each other as human beings, then we will have accomplished a satisfying goal. Rigorous self-improvement is the goal here, not perfection. If we were perfect, we'd either have nothing to live for or not live at all. As long as we constantly strive to regard and love the human in all of us, with some advancements over time, then we have done well and met this basic and yet necessary goal.
So we have three basic choices here: we can take the hard route and work to improve ourselves as a species; we can continue to wage war and creat conflicts until we destroy ourselves; or we can rely on nature or reality to determine whether humanity will survive past its infancy on earth. After all, we are but children, with a potentially bright future ahead of us. Why toss that away to the drug of the human ego, to the temptation of laziness and indolence, when we can work and unlock the full of our potential. Out of many species that earth gave rise to, we seem to be the only ones capable of looking to the sky and reaching what is there. I can think of no greater evil than for humanity to be snuffed out so early in its life cycle due to its own ravenous stupidity. Rather, let us look forward with a determined will, and steeling our resolve, move to improve and create a future we all want to have had a part in.
Much in reality is subject to chance, or if not chance, than to calculations and effects coming from causes that are beyond our ability to perceive, understand, or predict. Basically, bar any unforeseen catastrophic event that is out of human control or human cause, humanity has the potential to survive in this universe indefinitely (at least until all matter decays, but if that is how things work, than we still have billions, maybe trillions, of years left). Since we all have that basic survival instinct branded into our DNA, we all have some desire to see humanity continue in some way, shape or form.
Here comes one of our first problems: individual ego. Even though all human beings work more or less towards the same goal, because our processes and methods for achieving those goals differ, we all too frequently perceive others as having drastically different and opposing goals. As a result, we have been in a process of killing each other for millennia. The sadness in this is that collective human strength right now has potential, but given our inability to see each other as equal human beings wandering down the same general path, we are in some ways doomed to continue our species suicide. If this is not the embodiment of insanity, I'm not sure what is.
Our individual egos are what cause us to spiral into ignorance and stupidity. When our ego flares, we focus on ourselves, and all too often we get defensive and believe that only we are right and that everything is wrong. When this happens, we shelter ourselves in a veil of our own stupidity, and like an infection, our stupidity spreads to others, causing them to further wall themselves up in their own stupidity. When multiple people are dealing with a similar situation when they are at their least intelligent state of mind, the outcomes are usually less than desireable (unless some randomly fortuitous event occurs that prevents the more or less inevitable outcome). In short, stupidity begets stupidity which leads to stupid events and stupid outcomes.
From any reasonable standpoint, it does not make sense for us to decrease our general productivity. Put another way, if human reactions and actions due to stupidity are hindering a greater and more prolific output, then stupidity is the enemy of our biological and societal industry. Though the massive tree of stupidity has grown to epic proportions, the seeds of it can be seen in humanity, and thus the focal point of our assault can be discovered. The solution though, to the problem of human stupidity becomes a hard one, mostly because we will try to think of something specific and immediate, when in reality, the solution will be something general and long-term. This is something most people aren't willing to accept.
The only real way for excessive human stupidity to be decreased is to force people to accept the existence of other people (believe it or not, but when your ego is dominating your actions, other people are less people and more a variable, and putting their words on an equal level as your own becomes impossible). This is a hard task, mostly because when you make people acknowledge the existence of other people equal to them, they hate you. Nobody wants to be told that as an individual, they don't matter more than anyone else. In reality though, this is the truth. At a both cosmic and practical level, none of us matter anymore than anyone else; fundamentally we are all equal because we all start the same and end the same (we are all born and we all die).
Think long and hard about this. When we become self-centered in our thought processes, it becomes impossible to truly consider anyone else on equal terms with your own interests. It is only when you become disinterested (at least for a period of time) in your own personal interests as they relate to your own needs. Unfortunately, many credible theories (like psychological egoism) make this kind of thing impossible, since they support that people can never truly act without some personal motivations playing a factor (basically, altruism and certain other things become impossible and unattainable). Luckily, these are not necessary for some version of this basic concept to work.
Though we may never truly be able to act outside of our own interests, if we can act without focusing on ourselves, then some measure of success can be achieved. Remember, the goal is not to eliminate stupidity, but to minimalize the damage done by human stupidity. Unfortunately, prescribing some specific method for learning to not focus on our ego is either impossible or unattainable at this present moment (at least for me). Luckily though, the general goal is the general way, and a general pattern can be followed.
In any situation we act out of our general internal thought patterns. Occasionally we can, with effort, observe our own thought processes. The challenge with that is that most people can't stand to witness any flawed part of themselves (which is half the damn problem here anyways), and thus refuse to utilize any form of introspection. Introspection (as I've discussed in previous articles) is crucial, and is really the only way for a person to find ways to contain the rampant ego. Once we actually begin to analyze ourselves though, we can cultivate the disposition to analyze our minds from a disinterested perspective (meaning, we aren't interested in ourselves from an ego standpoint, but rather from an analytical standpoint).
When that ability is attained in some form, we can try to treat others more like we'd like ourselves to be treated. Most of us don't usually aim to treat others as inferior, but it's a result of ego-focused thinking, and when we can get around that in some amount, we can begin to treat others as are true equals. Also, understand that most people don't mean to treat others as inferior, it's just a natural result of our general thought processes. When we have a mission that is important to us (such as survival or any other goal), we perceive things in terms of variables, and anything that seems to be a hindrance is immediately either ignored or becomes an object that must be circumnavigated, attacked, and in some excessive cases, destroyed. Basically, when we become too focused on a goal, people become less than human, they become variable. Other persons and their interests are reduced to the mere x or y in the calculations made to assess and achieve one's interests.
Unfortunately, I have no prescriptive statements or methods to give. Treating other people better is more a frame of mind, one that everyone (myself included) needs to work on. The world is facing desperate crises right now because of basic but crucial misunderstandings between cultures. The sad part is that most of these misunderstandings are unavoidable. If we can improve on our fairer treatment of each other as human beings, then we will have accomplished a satisfying goal. Rigorous self-improvement is the goal here, not perfection. If we were perfect, we'd either have nothing to live for or not live at all. As long as we constantly strive to regard and love the human in all of us, with some advancements over time, then we have done well and met this basic and yet necessary goal.
So we have three basic choices here: we can take the hard route and work to improve ourselves as a species; we can continue to wage war and creat conflicts until we destroy ourselves; or we can rely on nature or reality to determine whether humanity will survive past its infancy on earth. After all, we are but children, with a potentially bright future ahead of us. Why toss that away to the drug of the human ego, to the temptation of laziness and indolence, when we can work and unlock the full of our potential. Out of many species that earth gave rise to, we seem to be the only ones capable of looking to the sky and reaching what is there. I can think of no greater evil than for humanity to be snuffed out so early in its life cycle due to its own ravenous stupidity. Rather, let us look forward with a determined will, and steeling our resolve, move to improve and create a future we all want to have had a part in.
posted by Andrew McKenna at 10:26 PM
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