Maybe I’ve just drank too much cough syrup but…
I just got back from a MPSIMS thread about the dopers warship and it occured to me, we really do have a GREAT collection of minds and talent on these boards.
I am seriously proposing starting an association of the teeming masses to address and fix the worlds problems. I’m talking about things we can actually do, so quiet all you nay-sayers!
So the first order of the day is to identify those problems.
My question is: What are the problems of the world that the TMC (Teeming Masses Collective) can solve?
Coming up: Part 2 - Attacking them one at a time.
Later in Part 3, Raising the moola. (Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day!)
I’m still young and optimistic, so lets give it a shot…
Lets find a way to take the load off of the EMS systems and ER’s nationwide. On a nightly basis I take drunks and people who are not truly sick to the ER because –
a) there is no where else to take them
b) no one wants to refuse to care for these people
There has to be a better answer, something else that can be done…any ideas out there?
“Those who say ‘it can’t be done’ should get out of the way of those already doing it.”
I really liked the Pay it forward idea. Help out 3 people with nothing asked in return other than that they help out 3 others and so on. If that doesn’t work…
I’m sure collectively we could come up with some alternate fuel source what with the chemists and whatnot on the boards.
We could also find a way to lower prison populations or make it more cost effective to “house” criminals.
Also maybe we could make shelters for the homeless and teach them a trade and de-tox them if needed at the same time so that they can get a job.
Too idealistic? Maybe we should start small.
A quaint sentiment that says much, but does little. People simply refuse to learn from thousands of years of human history. Tell me idealists… How do you propose to eliminate greed, hatred, envy, or pride? Where do you think our problems originate?
The best you can possibly hope for is to make some small portion of your community better and hope that your good deeds go unpunished. Just be a good person - every day. That’s the most anyone can expect of you. Tell me, what have you done for your community lately?
Cykrider said, “We could also find a way to lower prison populations…”
That’s easy. Repeal the laws against victimless crimes. End the various wars against drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc. If an act harms only the person doing it, that act shouldn’t be considered a crime. If we reapeal these laws, the criminal justice system would be able to do a much better job of dealing with people who commit real crimes (crimes that involve actual harm to another person). Also,there would be room enough in the prisons for the real criminals to serve their full sentences. Instead of turning them loose way early, as is the current custom.
Hazel is throwing out the stuff which will immediately reinforce evilhanz’s point. Even if you accept the high level of intelligence on this board as a given, try to get anybody to ever change their preconceived notions on a controversial issue. Just name it, abortion, prostituion, etc. People come to the Great Debates armed to the teeth with facts and figures, or sometimes just strong opinions, which reinforce their original point of view. No one ever backs down, and in the end it often gets personal.
First to evilhanz:
Our society is proof that just these kind of things can and do work. Do you think America got where it is by accident. No, it got this way from individuals busting their butts to make it so. It’s easy for you to set at your keyboard and take potshots at those who might help because someone set it all up for you. Take a very, very small example - manditory personal restraints laws in autos. A LOT of people, me included, did not want this and fought it. So you can imagine the dedicaton it took on a group of people’s part to get that legislation passed. Now hundreds if not thousands of lives are spared each year. This not only saves individuals, but financial hardship and personal loss for their families but money for all because insurance did not rise as much to compensate pay-outs. I don’t want to debate this or any other examples, but even you should be able to grasp the implications and recognise the hard work and diligence it took and takes to get us where we are.
I don’t want to debate anything here now. I want this to stay in GQ so we can get ideas that we can act on. Just because one hasn’t been active in their community until now, doesn’t mean they can’t start now.
Take cykrider’s advice. You are debating, not addressing the OP.
And ckyrider: I like the idea of housing the homeless. Good start. Not to idealistic. As a designer, I’ll start the ball rolling by designing a cheap, portable unit for the truly homeless.
I really hoped there would be people here willing to give a little back.
Steve
No. But it didn’t get here because it’s founders were out to save the world, either. They came here to run things their own way without the interference of others (and to make some money, too). The fact that people were already living here was only a minor obstacle. The United States is a strange accident. No one set out to create a Utopia here. No can argue that the US resembles a perfect society. Anyone who has tried anywhere has failed - for a myriad of reasons which I’ve already described.
Not potshots, warmgun. The problems of the world are much bigger than a handful of self-important SDMBers. We’re simply not capable of correcting them in any significant way from the comforts of our wealthy first-world homes.
A totally unnecessary law that cost more in personal freedom than it did to save lives. The persons who decide not to wear a seat belt are harming no one but themselves. Where I live, these kinds of laws are wisely dismissed (except for minors). Instead we rely on the personal responsibility of the citizenry. You can’t save the world by taking people’s freedom away - even it’s the freedom to do something stupid.
Then don’t bring them up. Since your question has no definitive answer, and the interpretations are subject to debate it is not a General Question. This thread really belongs in GD.
Absolutely. It’s appropriate to the question.
Some of us give back to our communities in our own small ways. Very few of us are operate under the illusion that are efforts will “change the world”. Your fundamental premise is flawed. The problems of the world cannot be solved - only small problems of the community. The combined weight of human history and human nature are working against us. That’s mighty powerful momentum. Heck, the combined efforts of the SD and the awesome genius of Cecil aren’t sufficient to stomp out ignorance - and it’s been a 30-year project! What power will we have to end war, or eliminate homelessness, or save all the cute baby seals?
I wish you well warmgun, but I don’t think I’ll be reading about your efforts in the paper anytime soon.
#1) Not enough guns. Guns=Freedom, so we need to increase the amount of guns in private hands. And we should do it world-wide, not just in the USA. This one’s fairly easy: buy a sh*tload of guns (and bullets!) and put parachutes on them and drop them all over the world!
#2) More criminals executed. Tax dollars are being sucked up by people in prison for life. Also, keeping people locked up in a dank cell is cruel and unusual. Executions are far more humane.
#3) Less abortions. By outlawing all abortions and treating all abortions as murder (regarless of the reason), we can make people less irresponsible.
#4) More corporate freedom: we have too many laws binding the hands of the corporations. Corporations keep money circulating throughout the economy. We need to relax all regulations against corporations.
or conversely:
A) No guns. We need to pass stricter gun laws. The penalty for owning so much as a single bullet should be life in prison.
B) No Death Penalty, ever! It’s cruel and barbaric.
C) More choice! It’s the woman’s body, she can do anything she wants with it.
D) Stop the fatcat fascist corporations! They’re raping the environment and the little guy just to put more bucks into their own pockets!
Have fun getting both sides to agree on which ones would save the planet.
I really don’t know what to say in response to the OP’s steps 2 & 3, but with ref. to #1, I thought I’d say that a perusal of JR McNeill’s Something New Under the Sun was sufficient to convince me of the pressing importance of environmental issues: it is a valuable book for demonstrating exactly how unusual & unsustainable the human impact on the planet was in the past century. That is not necessarily to discount the more human-specific concerns voiced earlier in this thread: one burden of the book is how politics & war have had great environmental impact for a variety of reasons.
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