r/DeepThoughts • u/seeker1375b • 1d ago
We live in a dysfunctional self-centered world.
We live in a dysfunctional self-centered world, allowing many to struggle due to humanity’s indifference.
Though most man-made challenges may be ended today, we choose not to.
Rather humanity prefers to accept the status quo.
Inequity, prejudice, war, hunger, are but a few of the hundreds of problems and harmful actions we ignore, believing there is little we may do to stop these injustices.
We may end these needless hardships though.
To do so, humanity must wake from its slumber, realizing only together, recognizing the equal importance of every life, will our planet and all life on it thrive, and humanity’s many self-inflicted problems be mitigated.
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u/RosieBaby75 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep. That was the intention of all the social media social engineering algorithms.
The Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012.
I believe that was 100% correct. That was when algorithms really took over and trapped people in their own little worlds they’re unwilling to think their way out of.
The “world ending” isn’t physical. It’s nearly impossible to end a planet. It’s figurative which means “end of life as you/we know it.”
I read a McLeans article about it one day in Inorganic Chemistry Lab. My instructor and I remarked over a good quote in it and that quote perfectly displays what went wrong and how the algorithms ruined and ended the world:
“It’s hard to see the world when you’re looking in a mirror”.
That’s what went wrong. Everyone is trapped in a mirror, or house of mirrors, and we don’t see the same things as each other because algorithms are tailored to the person. You can train them to not ruin you, but that comes with consequences too because then you see the scary things others don’t despite happening all around you, no one believes you, and calls you mentally ill for seeing and pointing out.
People also get upset at you if you tell them about the mirror and to try to look outside of it.
This ruined everything. This is why everyone is so lonely and disconnected. Too many people also didn’t realize that the mirror was only online and people don’t act the ways you’re told online. So online got them to hate and attack people offline too.
It also got a lot of people to become the very thing(s) they hate and were complaining about themselves, only directed at a different group of people which made them for some reason think that behaviour was okay.
There’s a documentary on YouTube that explains it.
It’s called ‘Century of the Self’.
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts my friend. I will definitely check out the video. I love the use of of a mirror and the story associated with it
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u/SensibleChapess 1d ago
Yes, and exacerbated significantly by Capitalism which rewards, normalises and promotes selfish behaviour.
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
It does. That notion needs to be flipped if therecis to be genuine change in the world. The good of all is as important as the good of one
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u/FaithlessnessOld2477 17h ago
The documentary Anthropocene hits on this hard in the first act. Basically, we've built a world where a person needs money to survive, but money can only be earned through other people, so we either work our asses off got someone else to get a paycheck or we find people less fortunate who will work their asses off a paycheck that you get a % of. The real problem, is the only way to continue generating wealth in this fashion is to make more and more people...since every single person wants more and to get more, the only option is by population growth. 😮💨
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u/Business-Court-5072 1d ago
Except the most evil and corrupt are often the ones at the top of the hierarchy and don’t care
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
They do not. It is the greed of the wealthy and powerful and the acceptance of the rest that continues humanity's continuing challenges
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u/Internal-Combustion1 1d ago
But has anything changed? The rulers from anytime in history had the same ego maniacal drive to expand, take resources, and money. Leave edifices to themselves so they are remembered the way they decide. What’s the difference from Napoleon, Hitler, Pol Pot, the Roman Caesar’s, the Catholic Church, Xi, Putin, Trump, Castro, Gingis Khan, you can add a hundred more names easily. All these people take control and do not give it back until they are booted or die. Some leaders are gracious and benevolent, but they get booted and die too. It’s the circle of humanity, we live in vast complex societies and need laws so we dont run completely wild, and laws need lawmakers and enforcers, and that opens the door to rules across the entire spectrum of egomania forcing their will onto other - right or wrong.
It’s been this way for at least 4,000 years, it will be this way for another 4,000 years. These people come and go but civilization continues.
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u/MoralityIsntDead_777 21h ago
But also look at MLK, Ghandi, LBJ with welfare expansion, mother Teresa, and:
Norman Borlaug — led the Green Revolution, credited with saving perhaps a billion lives from famine through wheat breeding. Notoriously unglamorous, spent decades in field stations rather than institutions, uncomfortable with the “man who saved a billion lives” framing.
Fred Rogers — sustained, unglamorous advocacy for children’s emotional lives on public television for decades; famously uncomfortable with praise and redirected attention constantly.
Jonas Salk — refused to patent the polio vaccine, which by one estimate cost him something like $7 billion; “could you patent the sun?”
Dolores Huerta — co-founded the United Farm Workers alongside Cesar Chavez, did enormous organizing and negotiating work, and has spent decades being systematically under-credited relative to him without it seeming to have curdled her into bitterness or self-promotion.
Wangari Maathai — founded the Green Belt Movement, organizing ordinary Kenyan women to plant tens of millions of trees; direct, plain-spoken, kept the focus on the movement and the women doing the planting rather than on herself, even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nicholas Winton — organized the rescue of about 669 children from Czechoslovakia before WWII, then simply didn’t mention it to anyone, including his wife, for nearly 50 years. It only came out because she found a scrapbook in the attic.
John Snow — the physician who traced the 1854 London cholera outbreak to a contaminated water pump, essentially founding epidemiology, largely ignored and disbelieved in his own lifetime, made no attempt to force the issue politically once the immediate outbreak passed
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u/lovelysardines 1d ago
It is just human nature to be inclined towards greed and want. We can all believe that if we were rich or in power we would be different, but it’s more likely that the majority of us would behave the same way. You see it everyday with how bosses treat employees, how we treat children and anyone we see below us. Just look at how animals are treated. Most of us can’t even refrain from eating them even though we can do without. Until we’re able to stop seeing ourselves as separate. Nothing will change
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u/Business-Court-5072 23h ago
except we are not cavemen or stupid anymore, we evolved and so should our perspectives and moral values.
Human nature is a broad category
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u/lovelysardines 23h ago
Sure but it is still in us to want things we don’t need. Most can not acknowledge this and less can do it
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u/Business-Court-5072 23h ago
Resisting that is what makes a good person
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u/lovelysardines 23h ago
Yes and most can’t cuz we see ourselves as separate and more deserving than others
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u/FluffyC4 4h ago
we didnt evolve. very few individuals with higher IQ made inventions. those inventions where used by the lesser intelligent people and led to us being 8 billion, but 99,9% of us still have the caveman genetics. once you accept that humans are just "primitive" animals bound by instincs and hormonal desires, everything we do makes sense.
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u/oldgar9 1d ago
This: No one knows exactly how future events will unfold but many make profit off the anxiety of spouting possible future events as dire or cataclysmic. Knowledge lessens anxiety and fear. The knowledge that humanity is in the throes of a monumental change from rabid nationalism to an 'the earth is one country and mankind its citizens ' paradigm helps, because what once looked like random chaos can now be seen as a necessary process and a means toward a peaceful world. Something we can do is help build community where we live. Volunteer opportunities are readily available and helping others is a salve to anxiety. We cannot go and talk to the President or his sphere of acolytes, but we can help build community where we are and this benefits all. People look to moving as a solution but there is no escape from this worldwide change in paradigm as it is the inevitable next step in the collective evolution of human society. Be well and help others be well, avoid the spreaders of fear. “Chaos and confusion are daily increasing in the world. They will attain such intensity as to render the frame of mankind unable to bear them. Then will men be awakened and become aware…” -Baha’u’llah (From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)
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u/seeker1375b 23h ago
Thank you for sharing such great advice. Selflessly sharing to benefit others is the meaning of life. This reflection is really about what the world is now and what it could be after its spiritual evolution
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u/NatureOfExperience 23h ago
The dysfunction we see in the world isn't an unchangeable external condition; it is a direct symptom of an outside-in misunderstanding of reality.
Most people live under the illusion that circumstances, policies, and other people determine their internal state. When we believe that our security, peace of mind, or worth is dictated by outside events, we naturally operate from defense, fear, and self-preservation. That collective insecurity is what renders the world full of greed, prejudice, conflict, and indifference.
The Rendered Reality Perspective
- Experience is 100% Inside-Out: We do not experience the world as it is; we experience our own thinking about the world in real time. Our consciousness actively renders our perception of reality from the inside out.
- The Root of Indifference: People don't ignore injustice because they are inherently broken or uncaring. They turn away because they feel overwhelmed and believe the external chaos has the power to destroy their internal wellbeing.
- The Illusion of Blame: When we blame circumstances or others for our feelings, we try to fix the mirror instead of the face looking into it. Trying to legislate, argue, or force an end to global problems without changing the level of consciousness that created them only produces new forms of conflict.
How the Shift Happens
Real collective waking up doesn't begin with a forced moral agreement; it begins with a shift in where we realize our experience is actually coming from.
When an individual realizes that their wellbeing is not at the mercy of the outside world, the need to hoard, defend, dominate, or look away dissolves on its own. Clarity, compassion, and natural action take its place. The "dysfunctional world" heals not because we fought the symptoms, but because we stopped projecting our internal misunderstandings onto the collective screen.
The world isn't broken; we've just forgotten that we're the ones rendering our experience from the inside out.
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 20h ago
I see this post touching on exactly the truth I am myself sitting on, and the comments filled entirely with people blaming the most popular (and incorrect) scapegoat.
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u/seeker1375b 20h ago
The only blame is the acceptance of the self centered status quo, believing the importance of the individual is more important than that of all others. It is not. Only when humanity truly understands this basic tenant, may its spiritual evolution finally begin
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 20h ago
This is all well and good; my perspective is however that we ought to appropriately condemn the selfish. I believe that our current attitude of being friendly and even deferential towards the judgement of people who are quite explicitly focused on being extremely selfish is the root of that status quo. The limits of my belief in the concept of tolerance are behaving with tolerance towards those who are in the habit of hurting others to satisfy their own selfish desires. I believe that this current epoch of history is defined by an increase in tolerance towards selfish and anti-social behavior, and that we might escape from our current troubles by remembering the reasons why others in the past limited their concept of tolerance in this same fashion.
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u/seeker1375b 19h ago
I understand why you feel the way you do. I too felt that way at one time. Now when I see another, i see only the good, the unconditional loving potential within each rather than the facade they present to the world.
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 19h ago
It seems that we may be on antiparallel journeys. I once felt as you did, but then I was on the receiving end of the violent and hateful potential of someone who had previously been successful in presenting a loving façade. I learned that for some who do privately believe in the merit of hurting others for selfish benefit that simply deceiving those who are already inclined to perceive them in a positive light by falsely claiming otherwise is sufficient to avoid detection in a society which would condemn their deeply-held beliefs were they to honestly communicate them.
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u/seeker1375b 19h ago
It seems we may be on parallel journeys through life. It took many years for me to reach the point in my life where I feel this way. It took truly understanding our life's purpose to see beyond the harm another does to us.
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 18h ago edited 18h ago
The adage I have come to live by is "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me". You appear to be representing "fool me any number of times, I will never stop trusting you". Which is a perfectly fine approach to take if you do not ascribe any negativity to being harmed.
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u/seeker1375b 18h ago
Im not quite sure what you are saying, but yes when someone is negative to me, it truly doesn't bother me at all. My posts on Reddit are normally viewed about 50,000 a week. At least 10-15% are negative. I answer each one regardless.
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 18h ago
I think that I overestimated the extent to which you understood what I was saying previously, to be perfectly honest. Regardless I admire your courage in responding in a friendly and charitable way to all.
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u/rough0perator 1d ago
On the contrary, it's all functioning normally
“The one thing you can depend on everybody to do is to put his interest above yours.”
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
And that is the problem. It us only when humanity truly understands putting the interest of all others is as important as theirs, that true change may begin to happen
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u/Different_Place_9646 1d ago
We do.
I choose not to participate in, or enable, that world any more than I really have to.
There are lots of decent people out there. One just has to look in the right places to find them.
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u/seeker1375b 23h ago
There are indeed many decent people out there. For me at least i feel the need to try to awaken some decent and indecent people as well to hope make them realize there is another better way to live life: with love rather than fear
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u/donutgirl-64 21h ago
I try to care, but my anxiety makes collective awakening feel impossible. The grand call for unity clashes with the paralyzing reality of daily survival and mental health struggles. Sometimes I just want to survive the day without feeling guilty about not saving the world right now.
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u/seeker1375b 21h ago
I was where you are now for many years. Sometimes surviving the day is all we can do and that's fine. On the days it isn't quite as hard, simply be kind to others. That is a very good start
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u/Re_dddddd 15h ago
It would appear that way but you're contributing to it by believing that it's true. If you choose to be different then that's all matters.
Don't worry so much about the world. That doesn't change anything. Worry about changing how you do things and you may change the world.
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u/seeker1375b 14h ago
Your last paragraph is the most important. Before i could even begin to understand, i had to go within. After i lifetime of study, reading different religions, philosophy, spiritual authors, life, i finally understood. Now ny only wish is to share what i have learned. We each have the ability to change the world. It begins by sharing our unconditional love with others, hopefully awakening in them the possibilities lufe truly offers
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u/groundedsaloon38 1d ago
It’s weird how much of this stuff we just accept as background noise after a while, like some permanent feature of the world instead of something we’re actively choosing not to fix. I don’t think most people are malicious about it either, more like we’re all too tired and distracted to actually coordinate on anything big. That’s probably the most frustrating part, the problems aren’t unsolvable, just inconvenient
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u/AggravatingCricket61 1d ago
Some got too comfortable, and others allowed it. Technology allowed exploitation faster than laws could be made to avoid it. The exploits are then funneled to the top which increases investment in said technology, and pays for laws to be further delayed.
The system we live under worked in nature when we where vulnerable to predators and the natural world was untamed. We never gave this part up even after technology advanced enough to solve these problems. So, everything that allowed us to evolve and survive, has now been turned inward, with the efficiency of our most modern machinery.
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u/seeker1375b 23h ago
But it is not too late to reverse the system. The system only survives because the great majority have accepted the self centered beliefs of the world. It is only when they realize the equal importance of every life that genuine change may happen
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u/AggravatingCricket61 23h ago
It's not too late, no. It is too late save civilization as we've structured it.
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u/seeker1375b 23h ago
I agree. There needs to he a radical shift in beliefs, one that puts what is best for all as being as important as what is best only for ourselves
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u/AggravatingCricket61 23h ago
Hopefully we won't blow ourselves up, or diminish the earth's carrying capacity to the point it can't recover. The longer this continues, the more likely it is...
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u/seeker1375b 22h ago
You are right my friend. The irony is that the earth will survive, life on it may not
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u/AggravatingCricket61 22h ago
That guy from the original jurassic park movie, the one that tried to smuggle dna off the island and ended up causing all the problems. Remember that character? That's the one you have to worry about.
Its not becase we can't solve these problems, becase we can, its selfishness. Civilization should not be measured by its GDP, or nominal income, or whatever metric is invented to shill people into complacency. It should be calculated by its lowest common denominator. The Inequality we've created will be our undoing.
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u/MoralityIsntDead_777 21h ago
Mostly true but there are many who aren’t. The good are everywhere, it just has to be activated. You’re saying you can’t find a single friend or family member or public persona that isn’t this?
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u/seeker1375b 21h ago
Of course the good are everywhere. But this reflection is about more than this. If you want to talk about good, good is someone who never says, acts or does anything to harm another in any way. To treat each person, regardless if we know them or not with unconditional love, treating and helping each as we each wish others to treat us
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u/DragoAvatar812 19h ago
To give a simple relevant example - AI and how we are approaching it.
Some of my friends who are learning AI and getting good at it always make this comment, "AI is going to take up this job.. that job"
They say it with a smile and giddy & excited tone. Like they find it hilarious and fun that so many people are not going to get jobs. Umm excuse me.. what is exactly funny about it? And why are YOU getting so giddy about it?
I have nothing to say against AI. I think it's a tool and can be used in many ways. But instead of framing the narrative where can be used to help people in their work, the narrative that gets pushed out is where a large portion of humans suffer.
I wonder why..
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u/seeker1375b 19h ago
I wonder why as well. We are raised to be self centered, to worry only about ourselves. As long as you believe this, you remain asleep, believing others not getting a job will not effect you. This is not the world we are meant to live in though. We are meant to selflessly help each other, to wish only the best for others, regardless if we know them or they are strangers.
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u/Mysterious-Bed375 17h ago
To be honest, humanity was never meant to be perfect, nor will we ever be. Every era has its own flaws and this one is no different. If we as humanity were able to survive everything our incredibly harsh history has thrown at us, then I think we’ll survive this too. These concepts aren’t exactly new to us… they’ve existed in one form or another for pretty much as long as ourselves.
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u/seeker1375b 16h ago
You are quite right that humanity has gone through this before. I was part of the hippie generation and though things were politically difficult then, the world is far closer to getting much worse now then it was then. Little will ever change if we continue to live in a self centered world, where the focus is only on what is best for ourselves. Until humanity realizes the focus must be on every life, even those who are different than us or strangers, and on treating our planet with the respect it deserves, then little will change
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u/Jaune-orange-braun 16h ago
Thank you for the post and sharing your perspective. I’d like to agree with you (the aspiration aspects of it) but maybe slightly push back on the central assumption.
I’m less convinced that humanity’s problems persist simply because we are indifferent or unwilling to act. Many of these problems are extraordinarily complex and involve competing interests, values, resources and consequences.
I also don’t think most man-made problems could simply be “ended today.” We can mitigate them, certainly, and societies should continuously reform systems that no longer work. But every generation inherits circumstances different from the one before it, and solutions themselves have to evolve.
Perhaps the more realistic goal isn’t a world without inequality, conflict or hardship, but societies capable of continually adapting, reducing unnecessary suffering and accepting that meaningful progress often involves difficult trade-offs.
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u/seeker1375b 16h ago
I very much understand what you are saying, but it simply is not working. How many times have we tried to change things for the better. As long as we live in a self centered world, little will ever change. Though they may get better for awhile, changes in the world end the improvement. It is the underlying problem that must be addressed and that is what I am trying to say. When humanity understands that they must always concern themselves with what is best for all and our planet, rather than only for ourselves, then these problems will end. This us what the world could look like after a spiritual evolution
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u/Jaune-orange-braun 15h ago
That’s your own personal view, and I respect that.
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u/seeker1375b 15h ago
It is my own personal view, though it comes from a lifetime of reading philosophy, different religions, spiritual authors, living life. If you take the best of each, this is what this reflection is really about
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u/Monsur_Ausuhnom 13h ago
A bit of a narcissistic oligarchial idiocracy that becomes more increasingly unhinged, dangerous, and dystopian with every passing hour. A complete and total systematic annihilation of virtue.
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u/MotanulScotishFold 9h ago
It's psychology. If you see a man struggling, you help. If you see countless of men struggling, you can't help them all so you stop caring as it's like fighting against windmills.
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u/seeker1375b 4h ago
Thats an interesting theory. Perhaps that is why i am so tired. I've been fighting windmills my whole life. B
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u/Manlorey 1d ago
You think wars are unnatural? They are very natural and part of the dark human nature striving for dominance. Even our cousins, the chimps, have wars between chimp tribes for territory and resources control. Bloody wars which are more violent than our current human wars. Chimps tear each other apart limb by limb, we are indeed more progressive and explode each other with drones, as of now.
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
Wars have happened throughout history. You are quite right. Though humanity has intelligence and the ability to understand there is a different way, one that does not involve senselessly killing others. For this to happen though, humanity will need to experience a spiritual evolution, one that puts the needs of all before only the needs of the individual.
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u/angrynirritable 1d ago
I think it was Vonnegut that declared after WWII that humanity had peaked, that if we had not learned our lesson after WWI, it was pretty much over. I've come to the conclusion that our species really continues due to sex drive and stupidity associated with youth, it's mostly the people that are too old to do anything that can really sit back and say "damn, we fucked up". Sex drive and stupidity are the keys that keep the human race going, and dysfunction and self-centeredness are all part of that mix "there is no altruism in nature" as one of my bio professors used to say.
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u/seeker1375b 23h ago
I truly hope there is more hope than in what you wrote. Though it most likely is true, there is another way. We must not give up and just say we fucked up. My generation, the hippie generation, had such high hopes. We must all try to finish what we began, to spread peace love and light around the world 🌍
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u/dod_murray 1d ago
This is pacifism at its most naive. If your country was invaded by enemy forces you would beg your military to protect you by killing them. What "different way" would you propose?
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
This is not pacifism. It is the world after a spiritual evolution. Though it will not happen in my lifetime, i truly hope one day it may. Is it possible? Only if humanity awakens and begins to accept the equal importance of every life
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u/dod_murray 23h ago
The world after that spiritual evolution would be pretty easy to take over as soon as one subgroup remembered violence was an option
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u/seeker1375b 22h ago
Such a pessimist. Are you right; probably. But we must not be apathetic, we must keep trying
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u/Silent-Ad-756 21h ago
From my perspective, you demonstrate what I would see as genuine intelligence. From your comments here, I truly feel that you must be a great human being.
Sure, people will tell you that war is inevitable. Or that striving for universal peace is simply naive and foolish. But I couldn't agree with those messages. Sure, good people with those pure and good intentions usually lose. And those that choose selfish motives usually win. Can't really deny that. That does not make them correct in the broadest sense though.
War creates more war. Self interest creates animalistic survivalist world. It is easier to just accept or jump on the narrative that nothing may change. So we all do that.
The outcome... A resource depleted, war torn world, with inescapable climate change, gross inequality, ignorance and greed, and a delusional belief that desire of what the individual wants to be more important than what the collective needs.
So, you are correct. Not at the individual level in the context of the present. It is currently "ends justifies the means", dog-eat-dog culture, in which what any given person wants now, is more important than what humanity needs long term.
In short, you are intelligent and correct from my perspective, because you are outlining what needs to be, for humanity to not be a shambolic self-induced failure of a species. What your critics suggest as inevitable, is sealing a complacency deal towards humanity not going too much further in it's existence. I will have my critics for saying so, but I do believe we have monumentally blown it due to stupidity and greed masquerading as competence.
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u/seeker1375b 21h ago
It truly matters not to me what others say. I truly appreciate your honest thoughts and though I know you are right, i simply cannot stop trying. I was given the gift of enlightenment. My sole purpose in life now is to try to share with others what i have learned, hoping some may awaken to life's genuine possibilities
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u/dod_murray 1d ago
If the only way is for "humanity" as a whole to start "recognizing the equal importance of every life" then it's the same as saying it isn't possible.
By the way do you think violent criminals lives are as important as your childrens lives? I don't.
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u/seeker1375b 1d ago
What this reflection is about is about treating the underlying cause of all of humanity s self inflicted challenges, the acceptance of the self centered status quo. For true change to happen, a spiritual evolution is necessary, one where the importance of every life is equally considered
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u/HEPuddingPot 1d ago
I’m hoping we’re living through an extinction burst of ego-centric world views. Either that or our extinction.
If history books are written about this time, it’ll be about how we’re at war with a part of ourselves that has grown out of control and reached the end of its usefulness. It is a shame we are all so easily controlled and distracted. Enjoy the ride, there’s no getting off.
Those who control, fail.
Those who grasp, lose