Teen Ink
teenink
TeenInk How would you rearrange this old cliche? "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" http://t.co/xTNZxcKYxK
Fri May 24, 2013 10:17am Reply Retweet Favorite
TeenInk "Thinking is the best way to travel." - The Moody Blues http://t.co/5jzE5kVJyB
Thu May 23, 2013 10:55am Reply Retweet Favorite
TeenInk If this is the ending of the story, what is the beginning? http://t.co/gRzPosYXRi
Do you believe that as our race gains more experience and gains technology that we will eventually move toward a utopian state?
Will we eventually perfect society?
Nope. Human nature is to screw up. As we gain more knowledge and technology, we will be able to accomplish more and greater things- but we'll also have the capability to destroy and ruin more things than ever before. People are both good and bad, and you can't entirely remove either without fundamentally changing what it means to be human. So we aren't going to blow the Earth up, and we aren't going to totally eliminate war either. We'll just continue on as we always have- but with cooler toys.
In order to have a perfect society we as humans must be perfect. Never gonna happen, hope it never does either.
Nah, never gonna happen. I mean, "utopian" society will never happen, anyway. The perfect thing about the world it that it's imperfect. If society was perfect, humans would have to be perfect. If humans were perfect, they would never make mistakes. If humans didn't make mistakes, they'd never learn from them. And if humans didn't learn, humans wouldn't develop character or morals or any of that other lovely stuff. Therefore, humans would end up exploding or something. But, yeah, you get the picture. :)
Depends on how you define "utopia" to be honest.
I would definitely say that we have the potential to improve a lot. The ending of energy crisis', hunger, poverty, religious wars, etc, should be the goals of every human in my opinion.
Also, I think a good way to focus ourselves would be to watch every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and then try to shape the future to as close to that as possible. Even if it means genetically breeding French people until a balding middle aged man with philosophical and artistic inclinations that is still a capable officer and willing fighter for peace and justice is created. At that point we'll name him Joe, not really for any reason, just to f--- up everything.
Imagine: I believe that "human nature" is more a very broad range of options, than one set thing. The material conditions we live in, shape what parts of our "nature" come out.
For example, in medieval villages, where credit was the primary means of economic life. Where almost all things you bought were on an endless tab, and every person was both debtor and creditor to everyone else the ideas of human nature were based largely on inate goodness, and a natural inclination to build community. This was because when your in that kind of debt, everyone is freindly with everyone else.
What changed with the arrival of capitalism, was the use of cash, where now most economic transactions were decided by simply paying up front, community and a sense of human goodness was replaced with a feeling that people were evil, greedy manipulative ba.stards
Wow, thanks for the responses! I hate to say it, but I agree with you. Utopias have been attempted countless times and have failed. I can only hope that by steady improvement of the education system and with more loving environments for children that we can breed more happiness and have a more peaceful existence.
CharlesDickens:
I definitely agree that education and a more loving environment would do great things, however I'm sure it would solve all the problems necessarily.
Some of the problems that prevent Utopia are poverty, hunger, the energy crisis, and other problems that require a more tangible solution.
However, that having been said, even in an ideal world where such resource-starvation problems were solved, I think it would be important to educate our children about the past and all of our faults and struggles.
A loving environment is good, but we must also make sure our children are able to reflect on the more solemn aspects of life, it will help them to appreciate what they have even more, and with any luck, encourage them to preserve it.
Since the 1960s we have had the ability to end all human want, but capitalism prevents this. We could mechanize the entire worlds basic production, give every person a quality education. When every human being is given the basic neccessities, then we can finally unlock our potential, the person who can find the cure for cancer is probably locked in a chinese sweatshop right now.
Yes I agree; human nature does not allow for perfection.
I agree that humans are not perfect. I also think that an eventual transition to a total usage of technology would not help at all--nature would always find ways to disrupt it, and they we'd be in ruins. There are things that could be done to improve the world, but we aren't in control of Earth or the universe.
