A Near Future Collapse?
Insignus
Join Date: 2003-03-22 Member: 14782Members
Join Date: 2003-03-22 Member: 14782Members
in Discussions
Ive been noticing a trend lately
More and more people are becoming lazy, apathetic slobs.
They have no drive for success, they are perfectly comfortable coasting through life.
When faced with a major problem, they breakdown and blame others, join support groups, and begin the coasting cycle again on welfare and charity. They finally die in a gutter or hospital, victims of their on lifestyles.
I have no statistics to back this is up. This is what many people are gradually becoming in mainstream america. I have noticed this through observing people i meet.
You have most likely seen a prominent example of this type of person. The obese man that blames McDonald's for his weight. The "genetic" excuse cannot work for that many people. The only way McDonalds could "Addict" so many people was if they added drugs into their food. These people are willing to ignore there problems and grab a chunk of the money.
So why has this come about? It began with the early developement of civilization. When recorded history began, natural selection was suspended amongst humans. As health care improved during the 16th-21st centuries, more and more people who would not have otherwise survived and reproduced began to live longer. I am not promoting any form of racial superority by the way. No "thinning the herd" bull from me.
Anyway, bureacracy sped up the process. People who were lazy or apathetic, or didnt want to put out the effort, found that there was this wonderful gigantic creature they could bore into, where they would live comfortable lives with a minimum effort, often becoming lost and forgotten yet still drawing a paycheck. They eventually, having been unable to attract the mates who were attracted to their more successful peers, they mated with other "losers" (i use this term on very shaky grounds because it offends people.). They raised there children on their lifestyles, and while many of the "loser kids" managed to break out and lead successful lives, many more became mired in pointless deadend jobs.
Many would argue that not everyone can be CEO of a corporation or President, that society MUSt have these "losers" in order to survive. Not true, even the lowliest janitor can have high hopes and a will to succeed. The problem devolves to our society and the people who make it up. We judge things based more on physical appearance, on how "cool" someone is, or even the appearance of success, then on merit and success themselves. Part of this is that as our population expands, we begin to regard people as these same, and we do not take time to really examine the person inside, instead relying on outward appearances.
So where is this taking us? As people become less and less driven to succeed, society will slow down, and eventually stagnate. And when a minor disagreement escalates into a full scale fight, people who are willing to be spoon fed their truthes will not dissent. Why? because they are too lazy to research, to get out their and discover the truth. They will assume that "Oh the news cant be wrong" They will polarize behind their respective countries of origin(or behind their respected media sources). Society will break down, and there will be too few truly motivated people to fix it. And when those last few motivated people die out finally, there will be no one left to care for the slothful mass left. No one to make them their fast food. No one to manage their money. No one to build their toys. And the population will start to decrease. Slowly but surely. the last vestiges of humanity will vanish down to a flicker over a prolonged period.
And how do i know that any of this will happen? Because i can visualize it happening. You say "Surely the losers would see this and do something!". They would, they would form committees, hold mass group democratic meetings requiring unanimous approval. They would mount a pathetic but futile attempt to salvage their decadent lives.
And then. Nothing. All of humanities dissapated. All for a society of today, willing to coast through life, willing to watch the same shows over and over, remade millions of times. Willing to eat the same heart clogging cheeseburgers everyday. Willing to let life pass them by, procrastinating to the end.
This is not open for flaming, this is merely one of several probable futures in a world of dwindling possibilities.
More and more people are becoming lazy, apathetic slobs.
They have no drive for success, they are perfectly comfortable coasting through life.
When faced with a major problem, they breakdown and blame others, join support groups, and begin the coasting cycle again on welfare and charity. They finally die in a gutter or hospital, victims of their on lifestyles.
I have no statistics to back this is up. This is what many people are gradually becoming in mainstream america. I have noticed this through observing people i meet.
You have most likely seen a prominent example of this type of person. The obese man that blames McDonald's for his weight. The "genetic" excuse cannot work for that many people. The only way McDonalds could "Addict" so many people was if they added drugs into their food. These people are willing to ignore there problems and grab a chunk of the money.
So why has this come about? It began with the early developement of civilization. When recorded history began, natural selection was suspended amongst humans. As health care improved during the 16th-21st centuries, more and more people who would not have otherwise survived and reproduced began to live longer. I am not promoting any form of racial superority by the way. No "thinning the herd" bull from me.
Anyway, bureacracy sped up the process. People who were lazy or apathetic, or didnt want to put out the effort, found that there was this wonderful gigantic creature they could bore into, where they would live comfortable lives with a minimum effort, often becoming lost and forgotten yet still drawing a paycheck. They eventually, having been unable to attract the mates who were attracted to their more successful peers, they mated with other "losers" (i use this term on very shaky grounds because it offends people.). They raised there children on their lifestyles, and while many of the "loser kids" managed to break out and lead successful lives, many more became mired in pointless deadend jobs.
Many would argue that not everyone can be CEO of a corporation or President, that society MUSt have these "losers" in order to survive. Not true, even the lowliest janitor can have high hopes and a will to succeed. The problem devolves to our society and the people who make it up. We judge things based more on physical appearance, on how "cool" someone is, or even the appearance of success, then on merit and success themselves. Part of this is that as our population expands, we begin to regard people as these same, and we do not take time to really examine the person inside, instead relying on outward appearances.
So where is this taking us? As people become less and less driven to succeed, society will slow down, and eventually stagnate. And when a minor disagreement escalates into a full scale fight, people who are willing to be spoon fed their truthes will not dissent. Why? because they are too lazy to research, to get out their and discover the truth. They will assume that "Oh the news cant be wrong" They will polarize behind their respective countries of origin(or behind their respected media sources). Society will break down, and there will be too few truly motivated people to fix it. And when those last few motivated people die out finally, there will be no one left to care for the slothful mass left. No one to make them their fast food. No one to manage their money. No one to build their toys. And the population will start to decrease. Slowly but surely. the last vestiges of humanity will vanish down to a flicker over a prolonged period.
And how do i know that any of this will happen? Because i can visualize it happening. You say "Surely the losers would see this and do something!". They would, they would form committees, hold mass group democratic meetings requiring unanimous approval. They would mount a pathetic but futile attempt to salvage their decadent lives.
And then. Nothing. All of humanities dissapated. All for a society of today, willing to coast through life, willing to watch the same shows over and over, remade millions of times. Willing to eat the same heart clogging cheeseburgers everyday. Willing to let life pass them by, procrastinating to the end.
This is not open for flaming, this is merely one of several probable futures in a world of dwindling possibilities.
Comments
Think about it. There was this drive to explore the world hundreds of years ago. America, Australia, Antarctica and a host of other countries were discovered quickly and colonised (exception of antarctica for obvious reasons). Once the Antarctic pole was reached, there were no further frontiers. You couldnt be the first to set foot somewhere because hundreds more had already done the same.
Everest remained for a time until it was conquered, the deepest oceans and suboceanic trenches are all that remain yet we arent ready for that conquest yet.
Going to the moon fired up the peoples imagination. Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to take the rocket propulsion theory proposed by Tsiolkovsky and the dreams of Von Braun, build it up from Nazi rocket technology and get to the moon?
It took all of the American industry to do that. People tried, people poured their lives into the effort. Eventually, we reached the moon.
Nowadays, well, it's the same syndrome. We've conquered everything. Most people cant imagine where Mars is and so dont really care. They know the moon because most people can see it at night.
People need a drive, something to aim for. Without drive, without aims we end up as degenerates, going wherever the whims of fate would have us go.
Initially our drive came from our will to explore and expand. We have gone as far as this planet has to offer, we cannot go any further, and so we get this listlessness. Show people a new frontier, and we may regain our drive.
Talking about janitors and apathy made me remember a book called "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich who wrote about surviving (or more accurately trying to survive) on 6-7 $/h wages. IMHO the book isnt the best possible source on this but still the picture i got from it is that the lower working class americans life is not dancing on roses. They dont have the energy, money, education or chance to study, stay tuned to the latest news, actively take part in social or political discussion or to have and hold any higher goal than daily survival - might sound stupid but I think even if the book cant depict reality 1:1 ratio but it still comes close.
To people scraping their living under and near the poverty level of income time spent on other things than sleeping, eating or working is not very smart. And the people doing those jobs are not sub-humans or some kind of degerates but normal people in very tight economical and social situations. So what im saying is that one reason for apathy as an attitude to life is not the actual problem but a byproduct of the hars realities of daily life.
Religion gave people motivation. A reason to do something for no other reason than because it was the right thing. The idea that you would have to account for you actions (and inactions) one day kinda kept people on their toes.
Lying around doing nothing was considered a waste of the wealth and talent God had given you. Apathy was a definate no-no.
I'm not sayings its entirely responsible, but I reckon it played a part.
<a href='http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia#Aristotle_on_Eudaimonia' target='_blank'>Another Link to further understand Eudaimonia</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The word "eudaimonia" means the highest good or excellence that a human being can achieve in a complete life. For Aristotle, it means a property of a completed life that was based on excellence in the pursuit of the most human activity, thinking.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> (From SMAC)
Eudaimonia is a philosophical system that takes its name from an ancient Greek word for fulfillment and happiness. Eudaimonia} encourages each citizen to achieve happiness through striving to fulfill completely his or her potential freedom, creativity, and individuality flourish in governments that adopt this philosophy.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And finally, from Aristotle...
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement. If Eudaimonia, or happiness, is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing in us.
-- Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics"
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href='http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html' target='_blank'>Link to Nicomachean Ethics in case anyone is interested</a>
The biggest motivation by far is having fun. It's a case of people already achieving their goals, since it's easy to be happy in developed countries. Those that cannot achieve this goal rely on other motivations such as religion and jealousy (as is the case with terrorists).
Nevertheless, there will always be some group that is motivated. That is the nature of humanity. Politics, jealousy, knowledge, and so forth will motivate at least some people.
Humanity will not die off from lack of motivation. Rather, I'm more worried about how decadence will affect the environment we live in. We use too many unrenewable sources of energy and exploit the environment too much. Decadence is inevitable, since humanity strives to just survive and have pleasurable lives. I'm just hoping that scientists come up with a way to make decadence and the environment coexist.
Huzza for capitalism.
Communist China tried to prevent Philosophy from being taught to Chinese students out of fear they would revolt when they start asking questions.
In this day and age, knowledge is more valuable than money. You get the knowledge, you get the power. If anyone is ever going to make a change in this world, you need power.
I was thinking, wow! When was the last time I knew anyone that managed to do so much with their life?
Coming back on-topic, I think the major problem is that, with the advances in technology, everything has become *too* easy. Even such a thing as climbing Everest is now trivialised with companies offering special trips up to the peak.
The end-result of all this, I think, is that much of magic/excitement is taken out of the world. Things I used to dream of doing (visiting Malaysia for example) are becoming so commonplace as to be almost not-worth-it. What does this mean? People might as well stay at home + continue dreaming.
My two cents :-)
P.S: A pic of a red-coat (taken from the film 'Zulu' is at <a href='http://root.alancode.net/redcoat.jpg' target='_blank'>http://root.alancode.net/redcoat.jpg</a>
fun.
we dont have to do anything to survive anymore, we are in an animal's definition of paradise, but our animal side cannot accept that and must continue fighting for a better life, we havent found the end. its despicable!
as to our apathy, wow, america is the worst, we all sat by and watched tv while everything horrible is happening around us, then we complain about things like commercials.
ugh, im goin to go buy a sandwitch.
We live in a world of cynicism, apathy, and arrogance, all the while morale and virtue have all but dissapeared. Reputations that are worked for years are shattered in an instant by a mistake or hesitation because of the interconnected and instant transfer of information throught the whole world. Paranoia and Scepticism are the words of the day because of this. People suffer in every city and crime is rampant while most people just turn their noses. Law and government do exist and provide some security, but for every sentenced criminal, there are more uncaught. The rat race we all so proudly display our trophys of are merely the monetery incentives we set ourselves out to complete. The world is made of haves and havenots, all of whole are jealous and aggresive towards one another. News and media show almost what they want, when they want, redifining our 'morale' standards.
Revolution sounds like the way, but in our age, who would participate in such a thing? When? How? Why? I beleive something has to happen, but revolition is not strong enough a word. For now all I can do is ask questions, so I am no beter than the people i preach about...