The World is Too Big for Mankind to Handle Mini-Rant

In our 21st century schizoid civilization, we can see the glorious results of a misspent youth. Like an adolescent, our civilization has developed enough to know its place, but is full of pride and lacking in wisdom. Its big enough now to take responsibility, but like a teenager striking out on his own, our civilization is trying to take on too much, too fast, in an effort to grow up too quickly.

It is difficult for the average human being to manage their own lives in today’s world. Civilization has become so large and complex, it’s tough to maintain a place in it, much less excel in your personal life. In my opinion, I’d say that civilization on anything more than a clan or tribal level is too big for humans to manage.

Here in Michigan, we can’t seem to handle our problems on the city, county and state level too well. Our crippled state taking over management of Detroit, the corrupt local officials embezzling funds, towns dis-incorporating, and counties barely scraping by are all examples of how well we are handling things at these fundamental levels. Now increase that to the size and complexity of the United States and it is apparent that we are barely holding it together. Expand that to the entire political world, it can only get far worse, especially when mankind believes they can have control over the natural world as well.

Our present civilization is far to large and complex for human beings to handle. We need to simplify everything in our lives. Sure, we need specialists in all areas, but we all need to know and participate in the basics as well. We need to encourage behavior that benefits humanity and the natural world. We need to discourage selfishness, vanity, greed and corruption. Unfortunately, I think we’ve gone beyond the point of no return to a simpler morality based lifestyle.

Although I certainly don’t believe the black widow will be taking over after our soon to occur epic human failure, I like these lines from the Alice Cooper song, “The Black Widow”, spoken words by Vincent Price.

If I may put forward a slice of personal philosophy, I feel that man has ruled this world as a stumbling, demented, child king, long enough! And as his empire crumbles, my precious black widow shall rise as his most fitting successor!

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

Our present civilization is far to large and complex for human beings to handle.

Rockefeller? Is that you??

Don’t worry! The NWO has a plan to deal with this. It’s called Eugenics. They'll get the population down to a manageable size soon.

I have thought for a long time that we desperately need to go back to basics. Back to local. Back to community. There is too much 'every man for himself'. No one is worried about leaving enough for the next guy.

We are like a freight train about to go off of the tracks, and instead of righting our course, we are stomping on the gas.

And, the saddest part for me is that it seems like no one cares. At least not on a scale large enough to really change anything.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.” ― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

S&F

reply to post by daryllyn


Yeah sister, we're all riding that crazy train. "Next stop is Wiliby"

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

Here in Michigan, we can’t seem to handle our problems on the city, county and state level too well. Our crippled state taking over management of Detroit, the corrupt local officials embezzling funds, towns dis-incorporating, and counties barely scraping by are all examples of how well we are handling things at these fundamental levels. Now increase that to the size and complexity of the United States and it is apparent that we are barely holding it together.

The thing is...you’ve spelled out the main problem – Corruption!

When we start holding elected officials’ accountable for their actions and demanding laws that not only enforce accountability but also limit their ability to conduct backdoor, self-benefiting deals for friends and family then we’ll have a representative form of government that works. This applies to the local, state and national levels.

reply to post by seabag


Amen Seabag! I can see I'm preaching to the choir.

Thanks and a star for that.

Keep the comments rolling, I'm hitting the shower and washing the swamp funk off of me.

reply to post by daryllyn

And, the saddest part for me is that it seems like no one cares. At least not on a scale large enough to really change anything.

I think a lot of people care. For the most part people just don’t know the answer to reigning in this problem and feel powerless against it. People just want a level playing field and to be left alone to pursue happiness without being lied to and ripped off by corrupt fat cats.

That is the simple existence that I live…I just want the government (all of them) to stay out of my wallet and stay out of my life.

I was with you until you started talking about greed and corruption.

Why do I say that? Because greed and corruption are intimately a part of why we cannot manage things well. If you can get rid of them then you can get rid of our inability to manage things. But it CANNOT be changed in the foreseeable future. Who can see in their mind humanity eliminating greed and corruption? Either we will scrape by and figure out ways of doing things - as we've done in the past - or we will collapse - like Rome - into barbarism. Dark ages will return. All of our recent advances in human rights will be lost as we lose our civilization and our ability to enforce the law. But these advances were all short-lived, since we have not evolved past greed and corruption.

I think the practical perspective is that we will scrape by. Collapsing is still possible. We would lose a lot of what we've accomplished (remember: short-lived). But we'd still have some technology.

If you look at science fiction in the past 100 years you'll see that most of it's pessimistic. Many of them see humanity failing to overcome its impure nature. But when you look at the actual reality what you see is that humans were not given enough credit. Is this what we'll see in the next 100 years? I honestly hope so. I don't hope that humans fail, that's for sure.

Maybe it's human nature to always cast doubt in an effort to be critical. Maybe writers saw themselves as a parent or a guardian. So they wrote their stories not to praise, but to lament.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
I was with you until you started talking about greed and corruption.

Why do I say that? Because greed and corruption are intimately a part of why we cannot manage things well. If you can get rid of them then you can get rid of our inability to manage things. But it CANNOT be changed in the foreseeable future. Who can see in their mind humanity eliminating greed and corruption?

I believe we are saying the same thing.

I stated that, "We need to discourage selfishness, vanity, greed and corruption" Of course I didn't say "get rid of", I was thinking of better managing these human impulses somehow. We sure need more encouragement for people trying to do the right thing and more discouragement for people who aren't.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

Give me the luxury to suggest that this...

...is only a foreshadowing of a much deeper and more complex future that's elucidated even more clearly by the pharmaceutical industry. What I'm saying is that humans won't just have better prosthetics and better antidepressants or antipsychotics, but we will in fact replace parts of our brain with synthetic parts. Furthermore, we will rewrite some of our own genetic code. Now imagine us removing genes for greed and/or lying? Imagine a person that cannot lie because of their genes? Of course, there would still be nefarious agents of evil that will evade oversight and spread chaos, but humanity would, over some amount of time, slowly eliminate those elements until most of humanity had been transitioned away from self-interest and towards unity.

Could be an interesting plot to a science fiction story. Instead of writing about how humans, unable to overcome their selfish nature, will use these technologies to destroy themselves , the story will be about how humans removed elements of greed within their genetic code and fought off the opposition to become a civilization of higher eusocial tendencies able to manage a global earth civilization.

reply to post by jonnywhite


OK. I see where you're coming from. However, I think people should keep all that high-tech, freaky, futuristic, post human activity off-world, on the moon maybe. Lets just keep it simple back here on earth. Down here where all the poor people are forced to live and can't afford the jump in evolution.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

You don't think there's a gene for greed or psychopathy? I think that we may yet find genes for them. If we don't, they will list them as disorders and medicate or control through other means.

And there will also be new programs for children to reduce greed and psychopathy and other disorders of the mind. This will encompass the parent, the child, the school, the community and the country. By this I mean a change in policy and in education that will produce less selfish adults. Parents will be watched more and jailed when abuse is seen. Some children will be removed and placed into foster care. Communities will work with the children to nurture better habits with the community.

All of these things will change hte brain structurally. People will be honest not because they decide to be honest, but because the structures of the brain are now more compliant. A biological, not moral solution.

See, I'm saying that this is biological. It's not something that's abstract like morality. People of the future won't wake up and decide to go to church and become good moral people. Instead they will attack this problem where it's rooted: in the brain.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I wouldn't doubt there are genes for bad behavior, but who is to say if we might not need greed and selfishness at some point in our future evolution. They must be there for a reason, some survival purpose shaped by natural selection.

Edit to add: Perhaps our self control over negative impulses makes us better and stronger then some medicated GMO trans-human experiment.

Let mankind go a head and tinker around and produce some unnatural techno-organic being. Maybe that civilization stands a better chance for survival. Throw it on the wall and see if it sticks.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

Read this to get a better idea where I'm coming from:
www.dana.org - Murderous Minds: Can We See the Mark of Cain?...

You have to read all of it to understand, but he sums it all up here:

..........
The political, legal, and moral questions raised by this research are complex and worrisome, but they are too important to ignore. The question that law courts ask when dealing with a defendant is “did he do it”? There are obvious reasons for this question. But the more important question—one that courts rarely ask—is “Why did he do it?”

Violent crime may still be with us because we have largely ignored that question. Continuing to ignore it may ensure that we remain vulnerable to violence. In part, prevention programs have failed to stop violence because they systematically ignored the biological part of the biosocial equation that explains violence.
..........

He asks in a pondering state of mind:

....Two hundred years from now will we have reconceptualized recidivistic, serious criminal behavior as a clinical disorder with roots in early social, biological, and genetic forces beyond the individual’s control? Will we look back aghast at the execution of seriously violent offenders? Will we view execution of prisoners as we now view the burning of witches?
..........

I didn't come up with these thoughts on my own.

reply to post by jonnywhite


I'm checking out that link right now.

Johnny, I just would like you to know where I'm coming from too. I really don't think that removing free will will be a survival asset to whatever might evolve from the human race.

Of course, because this post is a rant about how humans just can't handle it, maybe the Borg will be able to. I still welcome the opinions, thanks for the input.

That article seems to be talking about brain damage to the frontal cortex due to development problems, injury, disease and what have you.

This part addresses one of my points.

In evolutionary terms, it has paid some individuals to be antisocial, parasites on the rest of us, and to seize others’ resources to increase their own genetic fitness as measured by producing more offspring. Perhaps this gave rise to a genetic predisposition to crime and aggression.

I assume your points are this . . .

Two hundred years from now will we have reconceptualized recidivistic, serious criminal behavior as a clinical disorder with roots in early social, biological, and genetic forces beyond the individual’s control?

. . . and this

Our time-immemorial practices do protect society from particular criminals, but they do nothing to prevent the next generation of violence.

I know what they mean when they say "the mark of Cain", but if they want to bring up the Bible, maybe they should read it and they would know what the mark of Cain really is. It is surprising (or is it?) that these people that have such faith in science and technology would mention the Bible.




Sure seems like we're discussing the plot to "A Clockwork Orange".