The simple act of giving — even to our enemies.
We should make it our first and foremost national responsibility to help other countries attain what we have gained…
Let’s solve our own problems first and worry about the world later. Let’s win the war of poverty and the war on drugs and the other wars we’ve declared that I’ve forgotten about. Even better, let’s just declare them won and spend the money on our infrastructure. Let’s extend basic rights to all our citizens. as in gay marriage, etc. Let’s work on poverty in America; let’s have decent, affordable health care, and so on and so forth. If we really want to help others, let’s really be a “shining beacon” and/or a good example. In short, since the OP has, in the past, identified as a Christian, let’s cast the beam out of our own eye before we seek to remove the mote from our brother’s.
Where are you even getting that phrase?
I know a lot of atheists would think this would be a good thing, but I have to disagree. Religion, in and of itself, isn’t a problem, in fact its utterly harmless, it’s the people with crazy beliefs doing crazy things about them that are dangerous, and they’re not limited to the religious zealots either. The real problem in that regard is intollerence, and it exists in peoples all along the spectrum of beliefs, from the most devout to the most atheist.
Further, asking humanity to somehow give up something that is ingrained in us on a global scale, is unlikely to happen any time soon, and it will likely only increase tension and intolerence in the meantime. However, we can improve tolerence quite easily by simply practicing it ourselves and speaking out against those who would have us say otherwise.
And another would be to stop the whole “us vs. them” thing. Particularly in the US, there’s some fear about China or other countries being better than us at things. If we stop viewing ourselves as seperate and start working together to improve the lives of everyone, we’ll all benefit in the long run. More free trade, more cooperation.
“Whigger” is plain enough, but how was “weaboo” formed?
Encourage the exploration and exploitation of space and the development of space based industry and manufacturing.
Either that or outlaw offshoring and outsourcing and impose ruinous tariffs on ever ‘low wage’ (code word for: places where brown and yellow people live) country out there and force US business to have to put their manufacturing (without any of that nasty automation stuff in them) here in the good ole USA, using good, hard working Americans…as God™ intended.
(Personally I’d go with the space thingy, but thought I’d throw out the last part since economics experts and the will of the majority of the American people agree that these days there are many decaffeinated beverages that are just as tasty as the real thing…)
-XT
As I see it, we achieve your goals by helping/giving to others. By so doing, we find insight in how to take care of ourselves. I labored in Rescue Missions for thirty years as a director. We began to serve our community instead of having them serve us. We had a 4 acre garden that all of the produce went to shut-ins and not to ourselves. We had a t-shirt shop that sent thousands of printed garments to 60 third-world countries via missionaries while we supported many non-profit organizations — Christian or no. We picked up cardboard. We cleaned parks and alleyways in the early mornings. We would never compete with profit making entities. When we learned to help in the community in various ways, we were able to support 15 men and women through college in the last ten years. We are those who were without. We helped everyone we could — rich or poor. By doing the things we did so others might gain, we learned the ways to help ourselves without taking, but through giving.
What I’m saying is that we have too many problems and too little time to solve them. NO other country that I’m aware of has even offered to help us with our problems. I think it is time for us, and by us I mean the USA to be a little selfish. When we get our own ducks in a row, then maybe we can help others, if they want our help. A little pragmatism instead of a surplus of altruism is what WE need and WE should be our first concern.
When I learned to give — without asking, I always had something to give. I love this principle.
When we collectively learn to profit, only a few profit.
When we collectively learn to give, all will receive…
And yet profit seems to be a lot more powerful in helping 3rd world countries raise themselves up than simply giving stuff to them. Have you noticed how well India and China are doing these days? It’s not because someone is giving them stuff…it’s because they have been plugged into that whole nasty ‘profit’ thingy.
While I’m sure it’s not as warm and fuzzy as you’d like, it seems to be more helpful to people in the real world than giving them stuff (which would make them dependent on our continued generosity).
-XT
But if the human species is genetically programmed otherwise, then what?
Perhaps more chlorine in the gene pool?
I used to be rather fanatical about that myself – “The surface of a planet is no place for an expanding industrial civilization!” But, we’ve discussed this many times in GD, and it does not seem that there is anything that can be done in space more profitably than it can be done on the surface. Even mining Antarctica would be more cost-effective than mining the Moon or the asteroids, and what the fuck is a “vacuum industry”?! For the immediate future, commercial exploitation of space = “space tourism” for the uberrich and nothing else. It might not always be so, but it would take some major technological advances to change it.
How can the species be “genetically programmed” against prosperity?
You can help individuals and families and even communities that way, but you will never make a country significantly more prosperous, no more than soup kitchens make a dent in the American poverty rate. It’s like using morphine to treat cancer.
It was, once. In Voltaire’s day. But he won the fight so decisively that no one reads him any more; his arguments are commonplaces hardly worth mentioning. The anti-science attitudes of certain religious sectors and the violent fanatacism of others remain problems, but not such major problems when you compare it to how things used to be. Secular activists are better off, now, trying to win such religious allies as they can to their causes.
Lets play a game, you name three (or ten, or 20) religious nuts and I will name a similar number of athiests (or non-thiests) and we can compare who has caused more death and destruction.
If we determine that athiests have casued more death and destruction, then will you support encouraging more religion as a method of improving the lot of humanity?
I’ll start… Stalin.
A remarkably silly argument. Stalin didn’t kill people because of his atheism. He killed people because he was a authoritarian douchebag.
Now that that’s settled, would you care for me to name theists who killed people because of their religion?
I’ll finish… God.
That game was off-topic and silly, wasn’t it?
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
I used to be rather fanatical about that myself – “The surface of a planet is no place for an expanding industrial civilization!” But, we’ve discussed this many times in GD, and it does not seem that there is anything that can be done in space more profitably than it can be done on the surface. Even mining Antarctica would be more cost-effective than mining the Moon or the asteroids, and what the fuck is a “vacuum industry”?! For the immediate future, commercial exploitation of space = “space tourism” for the uberrich and nothing else. It might not always be so, but it would take some major technological advances to change it.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I’ve been in many of those discussions, and I disagree with the 'doper consensus that there is nothing we can do in space that we can’t do here on earth. I said exploration as well as exploitation, and while we can and are exploring places like Mars it’s at a glacial pace compared to sending a manned mission would be. The solar system is one vast treasure box that will give us essentially unlimited resources in everything we need, but it’s untapped and will remain untapped until we get off the dime and start seriously figuring out ways to tap it. We won’t do that by sitting around and thinking about it, and we won’t do that if we wait ‘until all our local problems are solved first’.
Yeah, it would cost a lot to set up permanently manned facilities in orbit, on the moon, on Mars…but I think that as we actually do these things the costs will come down. We’ll learn more about HOW to live and work in those environments, we’ll build the infrastructure and production pipelines for something more than a one off mission and we’ll push the technology. Unless someone actually pushes it, it will go in other directions, as it is doing so now, because that’s where the money is.
Besides, to me the best way to improve humanity is to explore and learn more and to find the answer to the ultimate question…is there life out there in the wider universe, and if so is it related to us or totally alien. I think we can start finding those answers right here in our own cosmic backyard, as there are several places in the solar system where we can get a lot of data on this. There is plenty more to learn out there as well.
JMHO, and I’m sure there will be an avalanche of 'dopers along to tell me that space travel is stupid and wasteful and everything else, but to me it’s the obvious answer to the OP…it’s the next frontier for humanity, and with unlimited resources it’s the thing that could solve a lot of the worlds current problems both directly and by continuing the increase in our technological acceleration.
-XT
That’s the beauty part; taking 99% of the mass of humanity out of the picture but leaving all the infrastructure, you actually increase the quality of life for the survivors. It takes all the current problems out of the equation.