03-7-2012 at 9:13 PM

<br /> Let me just start off by saying that I do not subscribe to the fad of hating on my species. It suffers from two inherent flaws in reason; 1) almost impossible to get to the end of a sentence about how all humans are terrible without implying (if not outright stating) that you mean all humans.... except you. I't's a big credibility issue because, 7 billion to 1, you're not unique. This conversation is not unique and everyone out there sees exactly what you do. This conversation has been had by billions of people billions of times.<br /> 2) The vast majority of human behavior is not dissimilar from that of other mammals and primates. We protect our own, we are hostile to outsiders, we are competing for finite resources - the one with the most wins and not everyone gets to survive. (these motives can also be expressed as "love" "hate" and "greed" respectively for those who do not want to break the motives down to their evolutionary bases)<br /> <br /> Also.... Animals don't kill just for food - they also kill things they don't eat.<br /> We ascribe this behavior to 'feeling threatened' or to 'practicing their hunting skills' because that best fits our preconceived notions about other animals (note the 'other' because the separation of human from animal is one based on religious doctrine, not science), but due to the fact we cannot converse with animals we are a terrible source for what their motives are. We CAN converse with humans and we hold them to an imagined standard of what 'humans' are supposed to be but to which they rarely conform.<br /> A well fed, healthy tiger mauls the zoo keeper that's cared for him his whole life to death and we CALL it 'feeling threatened' because that's what makes sense to us. Regardless, he didn't eat the zoo keeper so the statement that that is the only reason animals kill things is invalid. If you want another example there's a cat living in my house right now that once mauled a kitten to death while her previous owner was out because the kitten was new to the house and I'm guessing she was not fond of it.<br /> <br /> Human behavior isn't unnatural and it isn't new. It is only unsettling because we view ourselves as better than animals - despite acting pretty much just like them pretty much all the time - because we are also animals.<br />

03-7-2012 at 8:56 PM

Oh it would never work, eliminating economy. That would be like throwing a random dozen people who have live in a big city all their life into the forest to survive. Maybe one or two would make it. But humans arent even on the same plane as all other species. A few kids in my sophomore biology class didn't even know we were animals too.

03-7-2012 at 8:53 PM

Agreed ^^ But think about the population that won't think. It would certainly out weigh the ones who can see a better future.

03-7-2012 at 8:52 PM

Vodka, thats only because we dont know how to function without money. How did neanderthals cope without an economy? They looked out for themselves and maybe their family and thats it. It was like subsistence living, enough to supply just what you need to survive and nothing more

03-7-2012 at 8:52 PM

I think we've gone too far, and backed ourselves into a corner. We could force our way out, but that could destroy everything absolutely. I dunno...

03-7-2012 at 8:49 PM

I feel exactly the same. Yet, there is nothing we can do. Imagine if this little forum went worldwide. Imagine that we got people thinking. It could turn out disastrous or perfectly. We could end up killing everyone off, or we could end up trying so much harder to save our world.

03-7-2012 at 8:49 PM

While money does cause problems, getting rid of money and economy completely would send us into a mass spiral downward. To be honest, I can't see how we would function without money, not because we're greedy, but because if no one has a reward for their work, no one works. Things won't get done. We go into turmoil.

03-7-2012 at 8:47 PM

The status is NOT quo. The world is a mess, and I just...

03-7-2012 at 8:47 PM

I agree, money is a huge issue. It bothers me that physically we are inferior to so many species yet can prosper so much from intellect. I feel the world would be better off without us

03-7-2012 at 8:43 PM

I personally think the status isn't, well, quo. The world's a mess.

03-7-2012 at 8:43 PM

I agree upon that. There are several leading causes for our fighting amongst ourselves, greed and love being two very important causes. I also think that pain is a third, and fear is another. I have come to a point where I see that there really is no reason for our existence. We exist only to ruin something beautiful. The saying "If you love something, set it free." tries to tell us to let things we love live their own life, but greed causes us to not be able to. If we love something, we have to have it, it's as simple as that.<br /> Another leading cause in our unpeaceful situation is money. Eliminate that and you've saved a good 30% of the world.

03-7-2012 at 8:41 PM

I agree, but to a limit. After we're gone, there will still be violence, but the earth will most likely be able to easily heal itself, when it's natural violence. <br /> And I also think that the opposite of Love is indifference.

03-7-2012 at 8:39 PM

I cannot agree with this more

03-7-2012 at 8:39 PM

I agree, but to a limit. After we're gone, there will still be violence, but the earth will most likely be able to easily heal itself, when it's natural violence. <br /> And I also think that the opposite of Love is indifference.

03-7-2012 at 8:37 PM

I think greed comes into it as well, because humans are just enver satisfied with what they have. And with the technology that we have we know there is always more we could have but we have