If you want to make the world a better place, you have to start with yourself. Basically we have to give up this Survival Of The Fittest Mindset, and look out for each other.
To offer a clear picture into people who have the Survival Of The Fittest Mindset, and the traits that they share, I will include an article that I read about the subject.
"Have you noticed people who live by the survival of the fittest theory? Irrespective of the demographics or socioeconomic background they come from, there are some commons traits and behaviors they seem to display which is not only remarkably consistent, but also clearly distinguishable. These are some I have noticed.
They cant make meaningful friendships: Forget friendships, many cant even make meaningful relationships with siblings. Since people who live by this theory always have to be better than the crowd, anyone part of it is a competition. And because of this, no one can be a true a friend. Most people they know are only accomplices that can come in handy for the pursuit of goals.
They are mostly comfortable, but highly stressed too: Again, this is a result of meaningless comparisons and pointless pursuits. Since the world can only take a “few” survivors, wanting to survive is a need that results in (mostly) pointless analysis.
They don’t trust easily: Actually, this could have been the first point. In fact, it is this trait that results in point 1.
They play their cards close to their chest: Since they hardly trust anyone, they have no choice but to play their cards close to their chest. Sometimes, it can be so apparent that even an innocuous, question like “when do you generally leave from work?” would be replied with a suspicious “why do you ask this?” question. But, at the far end, they would not mind taking favors from the same people though.
They have an apparent scarcity mindset: Try asking them to part with something they own, and you will know this. Even if they know its hardly useful, they just can’t part with what is theirs.
They just don’t mind passing the buck: Forget “not minding” passing the buck, some would have even mastered this art. In many cases, they might even take credit for what they don’t deserve, but not take responsibility for anything close to failure.
What they live by is a substitute of what they live for: Everyone has ambitions which results from life goals and we make some compromises to achieve them, but people who have the survivor mindset actually don’t seem to have any true “no-no’s” for themselves. The only no-no would probably be not compromising on their goals.
Whatever said and done, survival of the fittest mindset people also have their own moments and pursuits of happiness. But mostly, their happiness would be a derivative of what comforts they can possibly possess."
Unfortunately though, people are not perfect, and everyone of us exhibits these types of traits to a certain extent, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because if it were so, none of us would do what it takes to survive. However it can also be taken to an extreme as well.
as you said, we need to stop things like greed, and to essentially overhaul our values as a society, to make it short and simple.
There's an old saying that behind every cynic is a disappointed idealist, and with that being said, there is a part of me that does want to see it get better and hope that it will. But, I don't believe it'll ever happen.
I won't talk about politics, but the way things are going right now isn't a very good sign. Every bigger country has a nuke or some powerful weapon of destruction and there's plenty of nationalism and racism in the world right now. Most people only look out for themselves and put themselves/their people first, instead of everyone living together and helping each other.
If aliens were to visit our planet, I think they'd be disappointed by all the negativity in our world.
People, we're all stuck together on this floating rock in space and we're all human, so we should start to act like it.
I remembered this thread when I was pondering similar topics and I want to come back to it to give a more in depth response.
We're so damn close to the peak of human civilization, if we're not there already, and it's so easy to take that for granted in this day and age. All the little electronics scattered throughout our houses, stores and cities, maybe 400-500 years ago would've been considered miraculous. We have thoroughly dominated the world and it's spoils, at least until mother nature decides to fight back. Until then, the world has become our oyster; forced to bend to our virtues and our sins.
Until we kill each other, or until Jesus descends from the heavens and says "hey guys told you I didn't die lol" (jk) war is inevitable. It is hatred in it's final form, and as long as injustice exists, so too will hatred. That will never change. What has changed is the potency of the weapons at our disposal. Nukes are pretty much the next best thing to the infinity gauntlet, at least compared to the rest of the weaponry humanity possesses. The capabilities of mass destruction these bombs hold don't need explanation, and there's hundreds of them owned by several different countries.
Enough hatred can blind everyone, even those in power, maybe even especially those in power, depending on your views. Humanity has propelled itself so high up the food chain that the only natural enemy that can stand against it is itself, and it will be either humanity's own carelessness with the advances it makes or the wrath of God that will wipe it out in the end. We might not have reached the peak yet, but looking back on how incredibly far we've advanced in the past thousand of years, hell in the last handful of centuries, there's no doubt that it doesn't get much higher than the world we live in, and once you hit the peak, there's nowhere to go but down.
Comments
If you want to make the world a better place, you have to start with yourself. Basically we have to give up this Survival Of The Fittest Mindset, and look out for each other.
To offer a clear picture into people who have the Survival Of The Fittest Mindset, and the traits that they share, I will include an article that I read about the subject.
"Have you noticed people who live by the survival of the fittest theory? Irrespective of the demographics or socioeconomic background they come from, there are some commons traits and behaviors they seem to display which is not only remarkably consistent, but also clearly distinguishable. These are some I have noticed.
They cant make meaningful friendships: Forget friendships, many cant even make meaningful relationships with siblings. Since people who live by this theory always have to be better than the crowd, anyone part of it is a competition. And because of this, no one can be a true a friend. Most people they know are only accomplices that can come in handy for the pursuit of goals.
They are mostly comfortable, but highly stressed too: Again, this is a result of meaningless comparisons and pointless pursuits. Since the world can only take a “few” survivors, wanting to survive is a need that results in (mostly) pointless analysis.
They don’t trust easily: Actually, this could have been the first point. In fact, it is this trait that results in point 1.
They play their cards close to their chest: Since they hardly trust anyone, they have no choice but to play their cards close to their chest. Sometimes, it can be so apparent that even an innocuous, question like “when do you generally leave from work?” would be replied with a suspicious “why do you ask this?” question. But, at the far end, they would not mind taking favors from the same people though.
They have an apparent scarcity mindset: Try asking them to part with something they own, and you will know this. Even if they know its hardly useful, they just can’t part with what is theirs.
They just don’t mind passing the buck: Forget “not minding” passing the buck, some would have even mastered this art. In many cases, they might even take credit for what they don’t deserve, but not take responsibility for anything close to failure.
What they live by is a substitute of what they live for: Everyone has ambitions which results from life goals and we make some compromises to achieve them, but people who have the survivor mindset actually don’t seem to have any true “no-no’s” for themselves. The only no-no would probably be not compromising on their goals.
Whatever said and done, survival of the fittest mindset people also have their own moments and pursuits of happiness. But mostly, their happiness would be a derivative of what comforts they can possibly possess."
Unfortunately though, people are not perfect, and everyone of us exhibits these types of traits to a certain extent, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because if it were so, none of us would do what it takes to survive. However it can also be taken to an extreme as well.
as you said, we need to stop things like greed, and to essentially overhaul our values as a society, to make it short and simple.
There's an old saying that behind every cynic is a disappointed idealist, and with that being said, there is a part of me that does want to see it get better and hope that it will. But, I don't believe it'll ever happen.
I won't talk about politics, but the way things are going right now isn't a very good sign. Every bigger country has a nuke or some powerful weapon of destruction and there's plenty of nationalism and racism in the world right now. Most people only look out for themselves and put themselves/their people first, instead of everyone living together and helping each other.
If aliens were to visit our planet, I think they'd be disappointed by all the negativity in our world.
People, we're all stuck together on this floating rock in space and we're all human, so we should start to act like it.
Indeed the end is near.
I remembered this thread when I was pondering similar topics and I want to come back to it to give a more in depth response.
We're so damn close to the peak of human civilization, if we're not there already, and it's so easy to take that for granted in this day and age. All the little electronics scattered throughout our houses, stores and cities, maybe 400-500 years ago would've been considered miraculous. We have thoroughly dominated the world and it's spoils, at least until mother nature decides to fight back. Until then, the world has become our oyster; forced to bend to our virtues and our sins.
Until we kill each other, or until Jesus descends from the heavens and says "hey guys told you I didn't die lol" (jk) war is inevitable. It is hatred in it's final form, and as long as injustice exists, so too will hatred. That will never change. What has changed is the potency of the weapons at our disposal. Nukes are pretty much the next best thing to the infinity gauntlet, at least compared to the rest of the weaponry humanity possesses. The capabilities of mass destruction these bombs hold don't need explanation, and there's hundreds of them owned by several different countries.
Enough hatred can blind everyone, even those in power, maybe even especially those in power, depending on your views. Humanity has propelled itself so high up the food chain that the only natural enemy that can stand against it is itself, and it will be either humanity's own carelessness with the advances it makes or the wrath of God that will wipe it out in the end. We might not have reached the peak yet, but looking back on how incredibly far we've advanced in the past thousand of years, hell in the last handful of centuries, there's no doubt that it doesn't get much higher than the world we live in, and once you hit the peak, there's nowhere to go but down.