When Trump is sworn in as president in January, it’s going to affect most of us a lot less than we think.
My day-to-day routine has never changed because the president changed, and I don’t expect the Donald will be breaking that trend.
Tell me how intelligence itself is or will be responsible for humanity’s decline? Do you have any past examples? Over population is a result of intelligence? How so? Advancing as a species, while it has had some unintended negative effects, has without a doubt enhanced the prosperity of the human race. To argue otherwise just seems insane to me.
I can imagine two of the responses you got;
“Why are they all comin’ 'ere then?” and “If they really wanted to improve why are they cleanin’ and servin’ coffee, when they should be gettin’ a degree?”
That most, if not all people, are racist and bigoted to a not insignificant degree, and there is not much difference between political groups in that.
That one’s looks are a reflection of their character and worth.
The extreme cuteness of my 3 month old has enabled me to accept a whole bunch of frustrations surprisingly well for a woman who isn’t strongly nurturing and self-sacrificing. If I found her to be ugly instead, I question whether my relationship to her would be the same. Would her cries annoy me instead of pang me empathetically? Would I be questioning my capacity to not spoil her as much? I just don’t know.
She attracts the attention of strangers all the time. When she flashes her winning smile at them, it’s like she’s made their entire day. If she were a homely baby, would her smiles be valued less? I tend to think so if only because there would be fewer people smiling at her and anxiously looking for her smile in return. Homely babies are probably missing out on all kinds of positive interactions that cute ones are awash in. Maybe my baby is so smiley because the whole world has been smiling at her since she was born.
So with my daughter, its obvious to me how we are strongly biased toward cute/handsome/pretty people. Intellectually, we know people are people, but we respond to attractiveness in a way that suggests we equate beauty with being a better person.
“She’s so sweet!” people say when my cute baby smiles at them. But is she really sweet, as in kind-hearted and compassionate? Just because she’s a treat for the eyes and causes warm feelings as a result doesn’t mean she is a virtuous human being. But I can see how easily it is to make that extrapolation, since I’m guilty of it too. On some level, I must do the same thing with adults.
The handsome man that impresses me with his broad shoulders and chiseled features has just opened the door for me. See how easily I read into that mundane behavior that he’s a friendly soul, a kindly gentleman, a man who can be trusted around small children and animals? He also must be super smart because he’s wearing glasses. And look, he just smiled at me. I must be hot shit.
To clarify, the truth that society refuses to accept is that looks are falsely assumed to be a reflection of character and worth.
Seconded. Absolutely.
Mine was going to be how we are all so bloody short-sighted. The best thing is to have long term plans. For your financial security, for peace in the Middle East, for anything at all when it comes right down to it. But, there’s not a politician/business leader out there that isn’t willing to sell tomorrow’s $10 gain for today’s $1. It’s fearful. It’s untrusting. It’s certainly NOT leadership.
I think it’s why lottery tickets are so popular. You know, almost immediately, that you have wasted a dollar. But, the wasting of the dollar is not as important as the immediate feedback. Life’s not like that in any way that’s actually meaningful. Did we buy the right house? Choose the right career? Choose the right spouse? Choose the right number of children? Choose to buy stock in the right company? The answers to these mysteries can sometimes take YEARS to reveal themselves. People don’t want to wait. They don’t want to plan. They want to waste their dollars and know about it immediately.
Another societal “truth” that constantly irritates me is that money equals success.
This assumes rather a broad definition of “success”. Obviously, money equals financial success. But, money should not imply morality. It should not imply talent (for example, of a musician). It should not imply education. It should not imply mental faculty.
That the only way you can avoid falling off the financial precipice is to spend less than you earn.
This.
Yeah, drug dealers, sleazy used car salesmen/lawyers/politicians are rolling in dough…but yeah…they aren’t people I remotely think of as successful/somebody I even remotely want to be.
Which is why it consistently annoys me that discussions of “the American Dream” always evaluate the success/failure to achieve it in economic terms. Got the job that got you the suburban 3/2 and a La-Z-Boy! You’re DREAMIN’, kid! Got a Ph.D. or Buddha-like contentment, but live paycheck to paycheck? Another failure…
If I had to take a stab at it, I would guess that our current societal materialism (in the US) had its roots in what is now called Manifest Destiny. Perhaps the Manifest Destiny had its roots in the expansion of England into the United Kingdom.
We refuse to believe that society can be shaped by events that took place before our own lifetime. We refuse to believe that society (and the planet) really will be affected for centuries to come by the actions that happen in our lifetime.
That the only meaning in life is the meaning you give it.
I got stuck with a geologic view of time and a galactic view of the universe. The earth and especially humanity and less than a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. It’s a sad truth that most of humanity is ready to kill and be killed for shit that has less than no significance. Everyone’s personal goal should be to create the greatest joy and comfort possible in the minuscule time we each spend here. Instead we’re stabbing each other in the back for a few shiny trinkets, or having duels to the death over who has the best imaginary friend. 
A eyeblink in terms of geologic time. A massively metastatic cancer cell is doing incredibly well in comparison to its benign counterparts, but its long term outlook ain’t so good. We might have a few hundred, maybe a few thousand good years ahead, but I doubt we will still be around in 500,000 years.
Me too.
I naturally have this feeling that things can’t get that bad because for my entire life they’ve always stayed within tolerable limits. But then I remind myself that the universe doesn’t care what I think, that past performance may not represent future results, and there is no law of physics that says things can’t go majorly south.
So you are saying I won’t have to finish paying off my student loans?
Whooo Whooo. Suck on that Uncle Sam!
“Growth for growth’s sake is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
If we can get a single viable colony on another planet, even one as harsh as Luna or Mars, I think our very-long-term survival as a species would be far more likely.
“We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.” - Arthur Schopenhauer