Is mankind heading for disaster?

It seems like everyday I read the news and it doesn't look good for mankind. Seriously it's like the internet is a window to hell. Some of the stuff I read in the news is just unreal. I was born in the 70's and grew up in the 80's and 90's. I've never seen so much turmoil in the world. From the local news to the world news it seems like the world has gone bonkers. Some of the stuff I read makes me just shake my head in disbelief. We are surrounded by a culture of cruelty and violence.

I'm from just north of Detroit and as I stood outside to have a smoke tonight I could hear the gunshots. People throw their lives away over such petty stuff. Just going to the store everyone on the road is on the offensive it's like combat driving. People here will cut your throat over a nickel. I read some guy beat his 22 month old daughter to death with a baseball bat because he was jelious of the attention she was receiving. She had just beaten a rare form of cancer. Everyday in the news it's something messed up. We have the nonstop wars in the middle east. Russia and America are involved in a war in the same country. I mean let that sink in for a minute. One false move and we're talking global annihilation.

Sept 11th was crazy enough seeing people jump off a burning skyscraper and seeing 3000 people die on live TV. I think mankind hasn't seen anything yet. I believe there are a lot of parallels between whats going on now and what led up to the first two world wars. We are heading straight off a cliff and it seems no one is paying attention or gives a #.

Our leaders have sold us out. We have the election coming up and it doesn't matter who we elect. You're a fool if you think otherwise. We have our choice between a greedy lawyer or a greedy businessman and neither will serve the people. They will do whats best for their corporate friends. The bottom half of this country is enslaved by those at the top and it just keeps getting worse and worse. Ford Mo Co and Crystler Co have announced recently they are moving a large portion their production to Mexico so they can exploit slave labor wages. Say what you will about the unions but in the 1950's half of this country was unionized. Currently it's less then 6% and dropping. My grandparents had it quite well after WW2. Corporate greed runs the show now and no one in the government is willing to step up against them. Hell their bought and paid by them.

It might be next week or 10 years from now but I expect we'll see some cataclysmic event thats going to change mankind. I don't expect we can maintain the status quo for much long before something come along and changes mankind sooner or later. I just have a feeling something big is coming.

originally posted by: wantsome
It seems like everyday I read the news and it doesn't look good for mankind.

Do some history research... mankind has always been teetering on disaster... we've always been in turmoil and everyone has always thought that the end was near... You're viewing the world from your perspective .. your lifetime.. your frame of reference I guess would be the best way to put it... but humanity has always been a bloody, violent affair.. there have been many extinction events in the timeline of life here..

If you go back on ATS threads you'll find we should have faced the end of the world and disastrous wars, meteor impacts and alien invasions.. oh, I don't want to forget the several raptures we were supposed to have..

The thing about the modern society is that we are plugged in... social media, cable with hundreds of channels... you can't NOT see the bad news that our parents/grandparents/great grandparents didn't have access to.. now we have access to all the gory details of life by the click of a button.. and it gives the illusion that it's all changed... and it has to some degree...

Nobody really knows about that time a man tried to blow up a school full of kids in the.. I can't remember.. 1800s? I think so.. I don't know the details off the top of my head, but the internet has it...

We are humans.. some part of our population always wants another part of our population dead for some reason or another.. that's our history and our inevitable future for the time being

Yes.
Some day a large asteroid or comet will strike the Earth.
Some day the Sun will become so large that the oceans will boil away.


Or, we might beat them to it.

a reply to: miniatus

I agree that basically every generation thougt an apocalypse was imminent. But I have to say that the speed in which our industry and technology has increased in the past century indicates that it's very easy to obliterate mankind in these current times.

Nuclear warfare. The easiest way to extinction.

a reply to: wantsome

Honestly I believe that the Media and politicians benefit from having the masses believe how terrible things are or will be.

Who would buy newspapers if there was no exciting news. Politicians will have you believe that the world will end and cataclysms will occur if you vote for the opposition

a reply to: AgarthaSeed

But why take the easy way out.
There are slower, more exquisite methods.

originally posted by: miniatus

originally posted by: wantsome
It seems like everyday I read the news and it doesn't look good for mankind.

Do some history research... mankind has always been teetering on disaster... we've always been in turmoil and everyone has always thought that the end was near... You're viewing the world from your perspective .. your lifetime.. your frame of reference I guess would be the best way to put it... but humanity has always been a bloody, violent affair.. there have been many extinction events in the timeline of life here..

If you go back on ATS threads you'll find we should have faced the end of the world and disastrous wars, meteor impacts and alien invasions.. oh, I don't want to forget the several raptures we were supposed to have..

The thing about the modern society is that we are plugged in... social media, cable with hundreds of channels... you can't NOT see the bad news that our parents/grandparents/great grandparents didn't have access to.. now we have access to all the gory details of life by the click of a button.. and it gives the illusion that it's all changed... and it has to some degree...

Nobody really knows about that time a man tried to blow up a school full of kids in the.. I can't remember.. 1800s? I think so.. I don't know the details off the top of my head, but the internet has it...

We are humans.. some part of our population always wants another part of our population dead for some reason or another.. that's our history and our inevitable future for the time being

Well said ... The great depression, rationing for WW2, and the wild and crazy 60s with all kinds of terrorist groups blowing stuff up, robbing banks, and getting shot during a war protest.The 70s and Jimmy Carter with Iran and the hostage crisis and America's inept attempt at a rescue that ended in loss of life and equipment .The long "out of gas" lines of the 70s. ahhhh those were the days for the true anarchist or a profit for the second coming.

Yet we are still here with just another day of propaganda and mankind's cruelty for us to shake our heads over.

originally posted by: wantsome
I've never seen so much turmoil in the world.

If you like history, you will realise it's normal

List of wars

That list doesn't even begin to include Vikings, Romans, Egyptians, Mongols, Early Chinese dynasty, Pre America's discovery etc and all the unknown warring that there exists no record

If history can teach us one thing consistent with our species, it is that we cannot live peacefully

Want some more evidence ?

Out of 162 countries on our planet, only 11 are "seen" as at peace

As sad as it sounds, the only way the world will see true peace for humans is when there is no humans left to see it

What you also have to remember is we are an extension of nature, we may be highly intelligent compared to other animals but we're still animals.

This is nature



The reality is we live in a cold chaotic universe, war is just an extension of that chaos, the only difference between us and those lions or any other carnivore on the planet is we kill for reasons other than purely survival

originally posted by: Phage
Yes.
Some day a large asteroid or comet will strike the Earth.
Some day the Sun will become so large that the oceans will boil away.


Or, we might beat them to it.

If i were a betting man i would put my money on us doing ourselves in long before some other entity or circumstance does...

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
That rock could show up next month.

Hey! Maybe before the election!

I grew up in the 60's and and the world was fairly whacked out then as well. In school, they conducted the infamous Civil Defense drills, which basically reminded us how we could die any minute. The assassination of MLK and the Kennedy's were certainly tumultuous times...

We relied on newspapers and the 3 channels of TV that we could receive for all news. Today, the Internet and advanced media bombards us with information overload on the state of violence and corruption in the world, but it could be said that it was always really there. Location being an important factor as well.

Collectively, we are so smart and stupid at the same time. Sad indeed.

a reply to: wantsome

Species come, and Species go. Humans are a species. We've come, and one day we will go. So, the answer to your question is "YES".

a reply to: Phage

Yeah i might win the lottery...before the election

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Phage

Yeah i might win the lottery...before the election

I guarantee I will lose the lottery before we collectively lose the election.. both are inevitable

a reply to: miniatus

You can lose the lottery? Yikes.

a reply to: wantsome

In a Universe where things can shift simply by thinking about them, Humans need to be more organized 'collectively' so they can tap in to their full potential.

a reply to: awareness10

In a Universe where things can shift simply by thinking about them,

I'm glad that isn't this one.

a reply to: Phage

meaning what Phage?...

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: miniatus

You can lose the lottery? Yikes.

I know, it's a crazy thing... so I must just be doing it wrong, so I'll try again!

a reply to: awareness10

Meaning that, in this universe, things don't shift by simply thinking about them.
Or are you talking about your fingers and such?