So in the history of the world, what would you say are the 5 worst things that happened? I mean in the sense of like negative effect they had on the world as a whole. I’m interested in these lists.
I’d guess:
WWII – If I’m not mistaken, the bloodiest war in human history.
WWI – May well be the second bloodiest war ever. (Not sure – at the least, the Battle of the Somme is supposed to still be the bloodiest single day in history.)
Creation of Nuclear/Hydrogen Bombs – Not based on what they’ve done yet, but because of their terrible potential.
Introduction of Diseases to people without immunity – I’m thinking of the way entire communities in the Americas were wiped out when they came into contact with European diseases, for example.
I dunno about the last one. Maybe the comet that hit the earth and killed all the dinosaurs? (You did say negative events that effected the world as a whole, and you can’t get much worse than wiping out almost the entire population of the planet.)
Those are the first things that came to my mind; I’m sure someone with a better grasp of history will come in soon and correct me.
Ever?
Perhaps the dinosaur extinction event(s?)?
I mean… It turned out well for us. Not so much for anyone else.
The big two would have to be:
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A Mars-sized planetary body slams into the Earth, producing a significant amount of orbital debris that eventually coalesces into the Moon.
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The K-T extinction event (i.e., dinosaur extinction) believed to have been caused by the impact of a large asteroid and subsequent global cooling.
You might as well throw in:
- The P-Tr extinction event (a.k.a. The Great Dying) in which 96% of marine species and 70% terrestial vertebrate species became extinct. This is much larger than the dinosaur extinction event. The cause is unknown.
If you want to project into the future:
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The sun goes nova.
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The heat death of the universe. (Although it is unknown whether the Earth would survive that long.)
Was this really a net negative, though? What would life be like right now without the Moon?
Hitler largely created the anti-war movement by himself (as well as the creation of Israel and the end of the persecution of the Jewish people.) Not in a good way, of course, but it was a pretty significant hit on the brakes.
Since quite often a bad thing will result in a protection against it happening again, there’s no way to know that the world would have been better had the person not done it. So probably the best answer to the question would be anything which actively stifled progress in history:
- Making usury a sin
- Communism
- Theocracy (some more than others)
Yeah, like all the lessons we learned in Vietnam!
It would be hard for you to make a statement I disgree with more strongly. The limits of usury are still being pushed and we are about to experience a mortgage collapse of epic proportions because of it.
I’m restricting myself to human events, since natural events strike me as morally neutral ( without the Dinosaur Killer we wouldn’t be here, so was it good or bad ? ) :
1 : The creation of religion/mysticism.
2 : The creation of Christianity.
3 : The Mongol conquests.
4 : Whatever killed off most of humanity and created the prehistoric population “bottleneck”.
5 : The European imperial expansion.
Some fixes stay in place longer than others. 
90% of society would still all be subsistance farmers if it wasn’t for loans and interest. Certainly it’s not perfect and shit happens, but personally I’d rather be free to sit about on the internet all day than have a static society with no chance for better.
I believe 1 pretty much covers 2.
I consider Christianity to have taken religion up to a whole new level of destructiveness, so I think it deserved it’s own catagory.
Really? I would think Islam would be just as bad if not more so than Christianity.
The 1986 FA Cup Final
My girlfriend Lilly breaking up with me in 1979
The Travelling Wilburys
PMU mushy peas being withdrawn from supermarkets
A chihuahua bit me on the thumb today
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Weapons of war for mass killing (including civilians).
I think artillery has been responsible for most such deaths… -
Religion.
This is a complex claim, because if people gather together to sing songs and perhaps raise money for charity, then that’s good.
However religion is a time-consuming and expensive superstition, which has no proof and can be easily interpreted in a harmful way. (I am sad that Christians and Jews cannot even agree if Jesus was divine.) -
Genocide.
It appals and frightens me when a Government uses its power to slaughter civilians. The Holocaust, Khmer Rouge, Rwanda - all terrible events. -
The murder of Archimedes.
Random soldier kills genius. -
Book burning.
This is an ultimate expression of human stupidity.
- the destruction of the Library at Alexandria
- the Inquisition
- the Burning Times
- the Holocaust
- man rising above being kept in check by natural predators
since you asked.
Why?
For sheer destructiveness:
World War I
World War II
The European conquest of the Americas
For total breakdown of civilized society:
The Black Plague
The Cultural Revolution
And mamboman wins the thread.
I tend to narrow things like this down to humans. I’m not terribly broken up about dinosaurs being extinct.
1: Nuclear energy, especially as weapons.
2: See 1
3: See 2
So far, there just isn’t anything to compare. It really did change everything. Of course, so far it has prevented large-scale warfare (there’s no way the US and USSR wouldn’t have gotten into it without nukes in the way), but we’re still screwed.
This is a hijack, but should you be living naked in a cave somewhere if you really believe 5?
because i think needing to keep your ass out of the mouth of the local saber-tooth lion would go a long way to keep the idiocy levels currently demonstrated by humanity in check.