abandonconflict
Well-Known Member
When an infidel dies a rainbow is born
When an American cares about the suffering of others, a rainbow is born.
When an infidel dies a rainbow is born
When an American cares about the suffering of others, a rainbow is born.
I refuse to take the utopian way out and overestimate our human capacity
I find this to be a fitting reduction of your argument. This is the crux of what is wrong in the world. You are only correct insofar as most people share this view but it is not natural that human beings are so selfish/fearful/pessimistic. Altruism and cooperation can be observed in many species. It is biological and evolutionary that we cooperate. Survival of the fittest is not an apt description of natural selection, it is aberrant behavior. It can be grown out of. It is the greed of few that causes the competition of many.
I can only hope that I am being unnecessarily pessimistic. That doesn't mean I think I am being so. Thus far, the great weight of history hasn't corroborated your or my hopes for a better society.
And part of the problem is (imo) in your last line. I see an evolutionary process selecting the ambitious to lead and the greedy to amass the capital, setting/freezing the familiar pattern. I posit that this is in our nature just as inextricably as every human's tendency toward and capacity for altruism. cn
It can be grown out of.
This was a short line and easy to over look and should come attached with greater detail. We have the power to reverse the trend. We have the choice before us, grow the fuck up or surely perish. When I say trend I am consciously contradicting what you posit as being in our nature as much as a tendency for altruism. What you posit an evolutionary process to select those greedy to amass, I contend is an evolutionary trend.
The premises for this conclusion are to be found in the science of selective breeding. I am in no way arguing for eugenics, I am saying however that sociology is to ideas as biology is to genes. I find this very much compatible with the views of Richard Dawkins, who I consider to be possibly the greatest authority on biology. In fact I am paraphrasing many of his own ideas to use as premises for this conclusion I am drawing, which is that sociologically, we can "grow" out of it.
I will admit I am emphatically hopeful to the point of slightly pushing logic. This is in no way deduction, but I think it is both strong and cogent.
I like Dawkins on biology as well. The Ancestor's Tale was a great read.
And from a purely evolutionary viewpoint, i would agree that "growing out of it" is a possibility. But for it to become at all probable requires selection pressure in that direction. History doesn't shown me such a selector in operation during the recorded era. It would need to be imposed, a conscious override on a nonconscious (in aggregate), unguided process. And that's where I see a catch-22: cui bono? The ones who lead like the status quo, and the ones who don't are not in a likely position to administer and impose this artificial selector long and widely enough. We still to this day breed and evolve as animals, and being Head Asshole works. Jmo. cn
Selection pressure /ON!
With all due respect to your Gandhi quote, you cannot say it into being so. cn
It can be grown out of.
This was a short line and easy to over look and should come attached with greater detail. We have the power to reverse the trend. We have the choice before us, grow the fuck up or surely perish. When I say trend I am consciously contradicting what you posit as being in our nature as much as a tendency for altruism. What you posit an evolutionary process to select those greedy to amass, I contend is an evolutionary trend.
The premises for this conclusion are to be found in the science of selective breeding. I am in no way arguing for eugenics, I am saying however that sociology is to ideas as biology is to genes. I find this very much compatible with the views of Richard Dawkins, who I consider to be possibly the greatest authority on biology. In fact I am paraphrasing many of his own ideas to use as premises for this conclusion I am drawing, which is that sociologically, we can "grow" out of it.
I will admit I am emphatically hopeful to the point of slightly pushing logic. This is in no way deduction, but I think it is both strong and cogent.
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Desmond Morris would take issue with that statement,
if he were not such a stone cold pimp.
Pure idiocy.
I'm sold, people who support this terrorist state are either ignorant of the facts, completely biased, or outright racist.
I had this conversation with my dad earlier, my own dad, and it dissolved into a racist rant about "sand niggers" and "they knew the risks, DON'T FUCK WITH ISRAEL!"...
There is no rational justification for the actions of the government of Israel against the Palestinian people. Ironic considering their own persecution.
Our problems with "terrorism" stem, almost exclusively, from our unyielding support for the terrorist government of Israel. The terrorists themselves admit as much.
Yet here we are, spending $5 billion + annually to buy foreign problems and ensure American deaths.
Anything anti-Israeli is "antisemitism", an interesting defense to opposition. Label something as racism and watch people avoid it like the plague, even if it's true.
Call me a racist, call me "anti-semetic". At this point, I couldn't care less. Unyielding American support for Israel needs to stop, today.
Complicit
U.S. support for Israel emerges in several ways: financial, military and diplomatic. While most Americans believe that U.S. foreign aid goes to the poorest people in the poorest countries, Israel (wealthier than a number of European Union member countries) receives 25 percent of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget. Since 1976 Israel has been the highest recipient of U.S. foreign aid in the world. The congressional aid comes to about $1.8 billion a year in military aid and $1.2 billion in economic aid, plus another $1 billion or so in miscellaneous grants, mostly in military supplies, from various U.S. agencies. Tax-exempt contributions destined to Israel bring up the total to over $5 billion annually.
Israel is the only country allowed to spend part of its military aid funds (25 percent) on its own domestic arms industry; all other recipients of U.S. military aid are required to use it to purchase U.S.-manufactured weapons. This has helped Israel consolidate its own arms exporting sector, some parts of which actually compete for export customers with U.S. arms manufacturers. More directly, Israel has access to the most advanced weapons systems in the U.S. arsenal, for purchase with U.S. taxpayer assistance. The U.S. defends Israel's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has endorsed the principle of "strategic ambiguity" in which Israel refuses to officially acknowledge its widely known and documented nuclear capacity, and its arsenal of over 200 high-density nuclear bombs in the Dimona nuclear facility remains un-inspected. Diplomatically, the U.S. alone protects Israel in the United Nations and other international arenas from being held accountable for its violations of international law. After 1967, U.S. patterns of opposing UN resolutions critical of Israel become more pronounced. Most of the U.S. vetoes cast in the Security Council in the 1980s and 90s, and almost all of those cast since the end of the Cold War, have been to protect Israel.
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