You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction?

The world seems to be facing apocalypse at the moment. A friend noted that if you rarely watch the news it seems so more significant when you do tune in than if you get drip fed it every day like most of us do. If you look at a days news recently it paints a pretty awful picture of the world yet we seem to be more and more immune to it.

Chaos in New Orleans. 1000 dead in a stampede of pilgrims in Iraq. The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay (remember them? Yep...still there) on hunger strike until they get a trial or are released. Regular high profile murders. Anniversary of Beslan massacre. Suicide bombings on a almost daily basis in Iraq. Afghanistan is still rolling on. Global warming. The list literally goes on and on.

FUBAR at the moment and I don't see things getting any better anytime soon. We must be close to rock bottom. I was thinking yesterday how a fck off big comet like the one that did for the Dinos might not be a bad thing at the moment for the sake of universal Karma.

 

yeah, its a real sad state of affairs - and as you mention, it seems that it gonna take something like a comet to sort things out...

on thr human side - there is just too much hate going on in this world.

 

A quick survey of the office has revealed that no-one here wants to be 'terminated' in any way and are enjoying being alive.

 

I think you'll find that suicide bombers aside that is the view of most people on the planet, unfortunately most of us enjoy being alive at the expense of our fellow Earth dwellers.

 

They probably said all this way back in 1962 in the cold war. There is no point in worrying about stuff like this because you end up dying of a heart attack.

 

This sums up the problem. Lets hope that there are some people taking a different view.

 

News has always been grim. Nothing new there. Its just some people appear to be letting it get to them.

 

I am not saying don't try and change things now, I just mean there is no point in worrying that the worlds going to end tomorrow. I am for for banning gas hungery cars and environmental measures such as closing down factories that make Alba goods. (their stuff is bad for the planet as it only lasts 5 seconds).

 

Yep as Simon and Garfunkel's Silent Night from the mid 60's explains.

 

Still, could be worse, we could be living 100 years ago, before we new about global warming, then we would have had:
Russia at war with Japan,
The end of the Boer war (when the Boer casualties from disease whilst in detention was far greater than those in the field of combat, and make Guantanemo look nice),
Diseases far more prevalent worldwide than now
etc

 

yeah, but maybe global warming has only started in the last 100 years..? - due to the industrial age...

 

True...but I was hoping we'd moved on a little since then. Medicine and technology have improved but our civility doesn't seem to have.

 

The problem seems to be that humans haven't evolved significantly over the last 20,000 years or so. We're the same mammals now that we were then.

The 'organised' religions were (believe it or not) a considerable advance on what had gone before and now our modern democracies and secular societies make attempts to arrive at a consensus of how we should behave. Modern science and technological advances should free us to be more ethical and moral creatures but events like those we're seeing in New Orleans and those we've been watching in Iraq, etc., etc. illustrate how thin the veneer of civilisation really is.

Still, I think I'll stay and tough it out for as long as I can. No fck-off big comet for me, thank you.

 

True, the world's state of affairs is sad indeed, and I agree with most above comments, in particular with those who realise that things were no different 100 years ago.

IMO the bottom line is overexposure. We get overwhelmed with images, TV cameras are all over, news travel at light speed. Perhaps our ancestors where happier in semi-ignorance.

What strikes most is the footage from New Orleans. Saddly reminiscent of third-world post-disaster images. Is the US more apt at waging wars overseas than at rescuing its own flood/hurricane victims?

 

yeah, the media has a lot to do with it - exposing young people to sex and voilence etc at a young age, then there attitudes of young women who are more independent now (and don't need men like they did in generations gone by), and sadly are competing with us on the drinking and voilence stakes!

this seems to have led (perhaps not soley) to generations of people (that in my perspective started in the mid-late 70's) that simply don't give a damn and anything, or anyone...

this is getting worse - I simply can't see anything that can reverse this trend..?

not to mention all the other stuff thats going on around the world like religion etc...

 

I'm hoping to stay alive for a little while to. My original comment was a reflection on the state we're in from a universal perspective. In terms of the future history books of the universe I think maybe a passage along the lines of "And then a comet struck the Earth and wiped out the Human race" wouldn't bring too many tears to the eyes of whoever reads it. After all the preceding chapters would detail a history of warfare, selfishness and greed causing preventable horror accross the planet.

This is natures way of course but when you evolve to become as 'intelligent' as mankind you would think we might be able to reason with our primal urges. Obviously not so bring on the comet and give something else a go at being landlord of this unique dwelling.

 

Speak for yourself dude...

 

I'm talking objectively. I don't want to die by getting struck on the bonce by a comet. I'm just saying it wouldn't be a bad thing universally speaking.

 

I suspect that if we're really as bad as many people think, it won't take a comet. We'll be the instruments of our own destruction.

Humanity does have to work within the bounds of that old evolution thing. Without that we couldn't survive as long as we have. Still, it seems that even altruism is a part of the recipe for Darwinian survival.

Despite all the shit that's coming down, I remain optimistic.

 

I see, you're asking for divine retribution on the sinners so the righteous can inherit the earth.
What are you going to call this 'new' religion?

I'm not sure the universe cares, what with it being an inanimate object with no feelings. If it makes you feel better there have been several mass extinctions in the Earths history and life is still around. There will be more in the future and maybe eventually part of the .1% of life that remains after each one will evolve into something more 'noble'.