I am curious to know if you have ever seen the movie "Equilibrium"? It's a fantastic futuristic sci-fi movie about humanity giving up its ability to feel, in order to cast aside emotion altogether and have a very "brought together" community of people. As well, I never read the book or comic, but the story of "The Watchmen" movie was fantastic as well. I really enjoyed both of these because of their portrayal of the world in unity by some means. It's easier to envision one of our problems, like the ones you mentioned that hinder our progress of rising together, ruining our world enough to force us to work together. Very philosophical in that sense I think. It's also great to think that a sizable amount of main stream media is able to make movies like these, that seem to be able to capture the people that have an open mind and are understanding of this problem very well. It is like a fueling of the mind to these people. It grips their mind, enabling them to open new doors to thoughts of working together. Like a door for people with intelligence, to take a step further into questioning things.

Anyways. I am really glad I read your writing. I've been having a rough past few days at my job. My manager is doing very strange and moral questioning things as of late. And the stress of not exploding at work is getting bigger and bigger every day. I believe massive lay-offs are on the way, and that the stress levels are going to get even worse at my job. I was looking for a way to try and read something to make me feel better about the world. The only thing that ever seems to work at being able to make me feel better though, is knowing that I'm not alone in viewing the world as an ugly place some days, but you can work to change it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us,
Tom

The Human race is guilty of conservational, ecological and environmental crimes. What we are doing to all other species is murder! It is ecocide!

In less than 100 years of so called civilisation using technology, we have managed to destroy what took more than 3 billion years to evolve. Entire species are being wiped out. We kill everything we touch,have run out of space, land, soil, air, water and landfill sites. The only thing we haven't run out of, unfortunately, is people. 7 billion and rising fast !

The main culprit of this ecological disaster is religion, Christianity being the worst, as it keeps the prolific uteruses busy, spitting children out at a fast rate. And when they can't procreate naturally, in-vitro fertilisation is there, readily available, speeding up the breeding process, revving it up to turbo breeding.

http://helpingthem.co.uk/index.php/topic,114.0.html

I'm not feeling particularly articulate so here goes the second thing- After reading MANY DA posts today I was considering the practice of prayer and how thoroughly futile I think it is: praying to the whims of a God who I have seen no evidence of. Moving on from there I was reflecting on the diversity within the human race and the conflict that differences in religion, race, sexual orientation and morality (the list goes on) cause. It is .... ironic? that the differences that are the cause of so much pain and suffering are also, conversely, one of our greatest strengths. We are all so different but if you think of all the myriad of problems one person can have you can also think of a corresponding person SOMEWHERE in the world that would have the ability to help them- be it in the form of a skill or monetary or a much needed possession or maybe just being shown a little compassion. We already have all the tools & skills we as race need within us. Why do people feel the need to pray to a "GOD"? Why don't we "pray" (in a sense) to each other for help? You see it all the time on the feel good news stories where a stranger answers the "prayers" of another person in need. I don't think that is an act of God, rather that is just humanity at work. We all have contibutions we can make to society whether those are practical, ideological or (I'm lost for my last word). Jeebus was a carpenter.

Humans are often willfully ignorant, intentionally cruel for no reaon, and not the most efficient in biology. If I can imagine something better, I'm sure that in such a universe, evolution might come up with something that improves on humanity.

Well, we can only be wilfully ignorant and intentionally cruel because we have the intellectual capacity and (apparent) free will to be so. As for inefficient biology, we are "fit" enough to be the most successful large animal on the planet (arguably bacteria are "better" from an evolutionary standpoint than we are, which partly prompted my question).
So, somewhere in the universe there has evolved an intelligent species that has an incredibly high degree of cooperation and agreement between individuals. Everyone suppresses their individual desires to preserve the good of the species(we are on shaky and controversial ground here already so lets suppose they are a sort of termite like species where a high degree of kin selection operates)so we have Ebon's mooted society with "everyone united in purpose". Great, so they have no war, no exploitation (or the exploited are happy to be?), no disease beacause they cooperated on eradication (or do sick individuals just sacrifice themselves?). I'm going say "Hmmm" again, can't help myself. I don't think it is as easy as you think to postulate a "better" evolved species. That's not to say we cannot get better than we are at looking after each other and our environment. In fact we do seem to be developing at least some enlightened self interest when it comes to our planet and our fellowes. I wouldn't write us off just yet and I for one would be sad to see us go.

you asked
"Hmmm! define "best" in an evolutionary context." to my post "I'm not too worried about the human race surviving because I'm not that convinced this is the best that evolution can come up with."

It's not in an evolutionary context. It's in my context. Humans are often willfully ignorant, intentionally cruel for no reaon, and not the most efficient in biology. If I can imagine something better, I'm sure that in such a universe, evolution might come up with something that improves on humanity.

Could Hobbes have been referring to the Mandate of Heaven, or a similar concept?

Perhaps you are confusing Mandate of Heaven with the doctrine of Divine Rights. The Mandate of Heaven, if I have not forgotten I learned last year, originated in China and, as Alex said, specifically allowed for people to revolt when they felt it was necessary. Divine Rights was the idea that the king had been granted the power of absolute rule from God himself. Hobbes supported Charles I's (I think it was him) right to rule without interference from Parliament. Both concepts do involve the presence of a divine being.

Could Hobbes have been referring to the Mandate of Heaven, or a similar concept?

To my understanding, the Mandate of Heaven includes the right of the people to rebel against and overthrow unjust monarchs; and Hobbes specifically argued against the right of revolution:

"[If the people] tend to disorder in government, as countenancing rebellion or sedition? Then let them be silenced, and the teachers punished"

The possibilities are almost limitless. We could eradicate AIDS and all the other diseases that depend on us for their propagation, as well as all the ones we have vaccines against. We could decarbonize our economy, end our dependence on fossil fuels, and create a green civilization powered by sun, wind and tides. We could end war and tyranny and establish peace, democracy and justice for every society on earth.

I'm not so sure. Some of these things are more possible than others. AIDS has proven to be a sneaky virus, I don't believe we have the ability (maybe the technology) to have a zero-carbon economy and ending war is a possibility, but some days it seems less likely.

Otherwise, great article.

An unelected totalitarian monarch who somehow embodies the will of the people (whatever that means) and is competent enough to carry it out without a lot of unpleasant death and destruction is more likely to occur than a decent educational system and free press?

Could Hobbes have been referring to the Mandate of Heaven, or a similar concept?

My point was that it's unlikely that everyone will become united and willing to do what is necessary; this rarely happens in real life except when there is an absolute ruler.

When has that ever happened under an absolute ruler, outside of the media productions of said ruler's propoganda department?

@ Jennifer:

In fact, Thomas Hobbes saw the monarch as embodying the will of the people. What if that was really possible? It may be more likely than absolute democracy where the voters are actually educated...[The bolding is editorial]

Really? An unelected totalitarian monarch who somehow embodies the will of the people (whatever that means) and is competent enough to carry it out without a lot of unpleasant death and destruction is more likely to occur than a decent educational system and free press?

@ ildi: Homo erectus already survived a magnetic field reversal and they didn't even have the technology to send B-list actors into space to blow things up, so that doesn't worry me so much. The whole "moon drifting away" scenario strikes me as a slap in Isaac Newton's face; how's that supposed to work?

My point was that it's unlikely that everyone will become united and willing to do what is necessary; this rarely happens in real life except when there is an absolute ruler. I didn't misunderstand Ebonmuse, I just took his thoughts to a (though not the only) logical conclusion. The point of absolute monarchy is that everyone is united behind its will, whether by reverence or fear. In fact, Thomas Hobbes saw the monarch as embodying the will of the people. What if that was really possible? It may be more likely than absolute democracy where the voters are actually educated -- educating a few people (the leader and his advisors) is cheaper and easier than educating millions of ordinary citizens.

I don't necessarily consider this a good solution, either. Think of me as a devil's advocate. :)