Ask Lemmy
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
view the rest of the comments
It really is amazing, all the insights, the discoveries, the knowledge, the artistry, the technology that the human race has acquired. Historically, every time we thought we knew the limits of our potential, we have gone far beyond those limits. Except that we still haven't figured out how not to hand over control of everything to the absolute worst of us. Like literally put our most deluded narcissistic psychopathic pedophiles in charge of the entire fucking world.
Genuine question. I agree with you. How many of us do you think there are?
To me it seems obvious that we can do better. We could have a fair, sustainable, non-hierarchical, global system, where the people making big collective decisions are genuinely prosocial and competent. Surely if enough of us coordinated our efforts, we could bring this about?
But the older I get, the more people I get to really know, the more I find this to be a very, very rare perspective. Most people seem to believe in the current system. We must be divided into competing regional factions (nations) and within those have a power hierarchy based on wealth, and individually be primarily motivated by greed.
Let's be more specific. Which of these do you think is most likely:
folk like us---willing to sacrifice our immediate interests for a prosocial future---are common, but something is keeping us isolated (e.g., our communication networks---mass media, social media, etc---are being manipulated)
folk like us are rare, but most people just conform and imitate. If our goals were well publicised, enough people to change the world would get on board.
folk like us are rare, and most people are and will always be genuinely selfish. This system, where the strong exploit the weak economically, but in a way that leads to global economic growth, is the best we can do as a species, because most of us will always be selfish and short sighted
I don't think it's as simple as people being like us or not. I'd say most people put their interests and the interests of their families first, most people have trouble thinking for themselves and tend to identify with whatever ideologies they are most exposed to, and most people want to make the world a better place.
So
yes we are being isolated, divided, set against each other. Communication networks are being extensively manipulated, and potential dissent can be suppressed quite subtly like that.
I draw no distinction between "folk like us" and people who conform and imitate. I'm not an exception, though I do at least try to be aware of it. Formation of a large scale movement will make all the difference. Of course the billionaire class will fight tooth and nail to prevent this from ever happening.
Again, no distinction. I'm selfish and I benefit from economic inequality. But I can see that the system is working toward disaster. And I think most people see that to some degree. I don't think it is the best we can do as a species. The problem is that the world's most powerful people are mostly trying to stop us from making it better.
I don't know what the answer is but I think raising awareness matters. Perversely I think that some good may come out of the Trump administration, because it serves as a model of the abuse of power, and it really ought to help people see who the real enemy is. Maybe we knew all along, but it was more comfortable to live with it. Maybe we're at a point where we can't live with it any more.
These are excellent insights, well articulated. Thank you.
This is the purpose of the American Experiment. To devise a society that won’t ever truly be occupied entirely by the worst of us.
Time to reset the experiment with different parameters
It’s so far still working as a whole. If it were to fail, there’s no resetting it.
Not sure what you meant by "occupied entirely" but a society ruled by the worst, and committed to bringing out the worst in its populace is what I'd call a failed experiment.
Not at all. The American system is specifically designed to remedy that situation. Until it fails to do so, the experiment continues.