Is the Human Race on a Suicide Mission?

@edgarblythe,

Sounds a bit premature and hyperbolic.

2 Replies

@McGentrix,

Sure, to you. Because the people you support are the ones getting blamed.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

Did you read the article? I did and it seemed a little "chicken little"ish.

1 Reply

@McGentrix,

McGentrix wrote:

Sounds a bit premature and hyperbolic.

Yeah, maybe by just a *smidge*.

Although, there has never in the history of the world been so much slaughter and bloodshed. How could humans survive? Oh and profits have murdered millions throughout time, so yeah, maybe we are on a suicide mission.

I don't even think Climate Change has been forecasted to eliminate the human race, just millions and millions of humans, but not even close to 7 billion.

Edgar doesn't give a **** though really; he couldn't even get over himself enough to vote for the only likely president who would have done anything positive for the environment. He's by far the worst person to deliver this message.

1 Reply

@maporsche,

I think that is untrue. Compared to other times in history, the amount of slaughter and bloodshed is pretty low.

Most countries are peaceful. We have greatly reduced slavery, genocide is unpopular (a recent development). The environmental concerns are valid, and our deadly technology is scary.

But humanity in general is less violent than ever.

0 Replies

@McGentrix,

A man with an attitude similar to Trump's with a huge say so in the disposition of the rainforests is not a hopeful sign.

0 Replies

Lemme get a bowl a popcorn. This could be good!! We need Pinky and Lash also.

Nobody gives a rats ass about the "environment". Most people think that global warming is about being able to grow oranges in Massachusetts.

0 Replies

Highway To Hell

0 Replies

Most people live with only their own self interests as matters of importance. Greed is good. Thoughtfulness towards the future of the planet and future generations of people is just past secondary. Concern about the future of animals (other than the almighty human), is located beyond that. Trees and other plants, nowhere in the thinking plan.
(note : the animal and plants deals are reversed when a vegetarian is scratching their brain about the future)

Suicide mission? Probably. But it's not intentional (usually).

0 Replies

One thing that characterizes the Holocene is the plunge in species diversity whenever and wherever humans show up. But as for it being suicide, it's only suicide in the sense that getting drunk and driving at night at high speed is suicidal. In other words, fatal stupidity.

The other factor, of course, is greedy selfishness, and the devil take the hindmost. The lust for power is equivalent. From 1555 onward, Europeans have been involved in accelerated mass violence (organized warfare), the motivation for which has usually been the lust for power. Sometimes it has been the result of a desire for independence, but even among those seeking self-determination, the power hungry and the greedy are not only present, but often in charge.

Nature has an answer for all of this, though.

0 Replies

Oh, and it's bullsh*t that there is now less bloodshed and slaughter. To believe bullsh*t like that, you have to ignore events like the genocide in Rwanda, and terrorism in Africa, the middle east and south Asia. But hey, those are just shithole countries anyway, right?

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Setanta wrote:

Oh, and it's bullsh*t that there is now less bloodshed and slaughter. To believe bullsh*t like that, you have to ignore events like the genocide in Rwanda, and terrorism in Africa, the middle east and south Asia. But hey, those are just shithole countries anyway, right?

Pick a time in history that was less violent, Sentanta. In the middle ages there was slavery, brutal wars and wanton violence. In Ancient Rome there were barbaric wars, slavery and gladiatorial combat.

Pick a time since the Stone Age that didn't have atrocities that were worse than the genocide in Rwanda and terrorism in Africa. The genocide in Rwanda was horrible... but it was stopped and then there was a tribunal. That is something modern.

Compare that to the Great Purge, or the Crusades, or the plunder of Africa during the slave era, or the Roman Decimations or any number of violent wars, genocides, and brutal regimes. Whether or not the events described in the Bible are historically accurate or not, it is clear that genocide was celebrated.

I stand by my statement that there is no era that was more peaceful than today. Give me a time... and we can compare. You are making a positive affirmation (I can't prove a negative). So, give me a time period and we can do a comparison.

2 Replies

@maxdancona,

Invincible ignorance.

0 Replies

It's longer and harder to dice bodies with a sword than with a bomb. Plus bombs reduce the habitability of the property where the attacks take place. And there are currently bombs and other means of destruction operating 24/7. In Yemen alone, destruction rains on the helpless daily. And our American political brains are seeking to launch another theater of destruction in Iran.

0 Replies

The scale of violence in recent decades, all over the planet, beggars any comparisons to the past. Since the beginning of the second world war, in China in 1937, there have been at a conservative estimate, more than one hundred million people slaughtered. I consider that estimate to be far too conservative. For example, in what the Soviets called the Great Patriotic War, about 20,000,000 people were killed outright. That figure does not include those who died in Stalin's gulag, a number from Soviet archival sources of more than one million, which does not include the Stalinist labor colonies established in 1931. It is estimated that more than 20,000,000 Chinese died from 1931 onward (the Japanese invasion of Manchuria). Of course, including those killed in Europe, you're already well over 50,000,000. There has been a slaughter to a greater or lesser extent in almost every country on the planet since 1931. It would require a long, long post just to point out the wars, insurrections, attempts at genocide and deaths from starvation or the diseases if malnutrition just in my own lifetime.

1 Reply

Beyond political/military killing are economic killing and the like. I personally know or have known many persons who are gentle in their habits, who are loving and kind, but who support others' acts of brutality as unavoidable necessities. They pick up on these things in church and in the "news" or talk radio shows. But often their family and neighbors are feeding it to them.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

What do you mean by "economic killing"?

And what examples of this could you provide?

0 Replies

@Setanta,

I do think there were periods in history that were more violent as a practice and as a percentage of humanity. I don't know if that's true, but my perception is that more people (as a percentage) died a brutal death prematurely hundreds to thousands of years ago than we see today worldwide.

But in shear numbers, more people are dying violently today prematurely from the simple fact that there are magnitudes more people today.

The United Nation estimates that the following populations throughout time.

Year
1 - 300 million
1000 - 310 million
1500 - 500 million
1800 - 1000 million
1900 - 1650 million
1950 - 2500 million
2000 - 6100 million
2015 - 7400 million

In Year 1 if 5 million people died violently it was 1.7% of the population.
In Year 2015 if 1.7% of the population died violently that would equal 125 million people.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Pick a time in history that was less violent, Sentanta. In the middle ages there was slavery, brutal wars and wanton violence. In Ancient Rome there were barbaric wars, slavery and gladiatorial combat.

Pick a time since the Stone Age that didn't have atrocities that were worse than the genocide in Rwanda and terrorism in Africa. The genocide in Rwanda was horrible... but it was stopped and then there was a tribunal. That is something modern.

Compare that to the Great Purge, or the Crusades, or the plunder of Africa during the slave era, or the Roman Decimations or any number of violent wars, genocides, and brutal regimes. Whether or not the events described in the Bible are historically accurate or not, it is clear that genocide was celebrated.

I stand by my statement that there is no era that was more peaceful than today. Give me a time... and we can compare. You are making a positive affirmation (I can't prove a negative). So, give me a time period and we can do a comparison.

Wars are fought on a different scale these days. In quantative numbers (as in, the total amount of wars going on), the number is certainly less, but the amount of players involved in each and every conflict grows larger, and technological progress made for untold new means to create massive bloodshed and mayhem.

But this kind of a comparison is pointless, since society has changed completely. The only thing that is the same is that people go of to go fight each other because other people tell them to do so, but the way they get there the means they have at their disposal to fight other people is completely different. We even fight different people: it used to be that wars were fought between neighboring countries, or even within countries themselves. These days, it seems western countries predominantly manage to find ways to insert themselves in conflicts half a globe away.

0 Replies

Is the Human Race on a Suicide Mission?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know