Our future is largely ours to control, but we have not yet achieved a self-control and theoretical understanding viable enough to optimize civilization in a peak mobilization, quality of life, and general prognosis for human individuals and their collectives. — Enrique
Can human beings have enough free will and rationality to make widespread self-control based on sizable commitment to reflective decision-making even conceivably attainable? — Enrique
So I'm afraid the Western capitalist economic and political system will have to be dramatically and indeed radically transformed to cope with what is coming. — Wayfarer
Value systems will need to be changed to encourage frugality, sustainability and re-use instead of flagrant over-consumption and waste. But the materialist culture of capitalism will be completely unable to deal with this, as it challenges its entire raison d'etre.
It’s interesting how everyone keeps pointing to the targeting of the Western capitalist economy as the solution. China has a Communist government and operates in a global economy and produces more co2 than any other nation is the world. Is there a reason for this focus?
How do we make the necessary adjustments to intrinsic human psychology without dangerously destabilizing it as commercialist enculturation seems to prove very possible? — Enrique
...the Enlightenment also has a shadow side. And that is the abandonment of what is generally designated as 'the spiritual'.
Can human beings have enough free will and rationality to make widespread self-control based on sizable commitment to reflective decision-making even conceivably attainable? — Enrique
I am of the opinion, if people didn't have something to struggle for we would lose the will to live. — ovdtogt
I think one of the greatest challenges facing mankind would be boredom and loneliness and general nihilism. — ovdtogt
In Wall-E, the people become fat lazy nothings - just as you seem to fear; but in Star Trek they use their new found freedom to explore the stars (and, yes, get into a bunch of new wars). — ZhouBoTong
We lack a philosophical basis for that outlook. The world's elite have already decided that Earth as we know it is doomed... — Wayfarer
The idea that each one of us is a part of a larger whole is the illusion which makes selfishness incomprehensible. Selfishness is the reality though. — Metaphysician Undercover
The idea that each one of us is a part of a larger whole is the illusion which makes selfishness incomprehensible. Selfishness is the reality though. — Metaphysician Undercover
Selfishness is real, but so is the tendency to cooperative endeavour. Some individuals are more selfish, some are more cooperative. There is ample evidence for both. So your assertions about one being real and the other an illusion are false, to the extent that they do not reflect empirical facts. — Pantagruel
Human character is both altruistic and egotistic simultaneously as the human body is both male and female. — ovdtogt
Left and right are both part of the same continuum. — ovdtogt
We will destroy civilization as we know it but the few survivors will build a nightmarish utopia filled with nihilism. — ovdtogt
How am I harmed or hindered by acknowledging there are no objective "oughts"? — ZhouBoTong
aybe we just need to introduce more people to the pleasures of nihilism — ZhouBoTong
It is obvious you lack even the most basic knowledge of biology. Your ignorance is to vast to fathom. — ovdtogt
How am I harmed or hindered by acknowledging there are no objective "oughts"? — ZhouBoTong
Show me a human body which is both male and female, and I will argue that it is neither. Let the vastness of my ignorance overwhelm you! — Metaphysician Undercover
By ultimately discovering that there are? 'Hell is truth, realised too late' ~ Anonymous. — Wayfarer
Society is already being harmed by the acknowledgment that there are no objective 'oughts'. The objective 'oughts' is what makes 'members of society' from individuals. — ovdtogt
Objective oughts create blind followers instead of thinking individuals. — ZhouBoTong
Why do you think a man has nipples? Why do you think a female has a small penis? Why do you think a man can grow breasts? Why do you think both men and woman have testosterone and estrogen hormones in their body? — ovdtogt
I don't see how that's relevant, you might as well be asking why males and females both have mouths and noses. If you want to start with something real, start with the y chromosome. — Metaphysician Undercover
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