5 Popular Beliefs That Are Holding Humanity Back

#5. That We're Fulfilling a Prophecy
#4. That the Ghost of a Different Person Is Living Inside Us
#3. That Evil Is Something We Can Kill
#2. That Most of the Humans in the World Aren't People

[[Let's talk about overpopulation and 1980s cartoons for a moment. Let's say a time traveler comes back from 500 years in the future and brings good news: Human civilization has not only survived, but thrived -- sickness is a thing of the past, mankind is colonizing the stars, poverty is no more. Yay!

Also, he says, the future world population is made up entirely of Arab Muslims.

You'd be OK with that, right? If not, why not? Remember, we just said everyone is happy.

We'll come back to that. Here's something that always bothered me in the movies I watched as a kid. The evil Stormtroopers would always cover their faces:]]

#1. That Being Smart Means Believing in Nothing

Article: Source: Cracked

I liked the article and figured some of you might like it. For those of you under the the age of 5 months old may consider not reading the article due to a bit of harsh language.

Conjecture?

reply to post by Mugen


I particularly like the following:

That is RoboCop shooting the # out of a coc aine processing facility, killing the people who make the coc aine so that addicts won't buy coc aine anymore. In 1987 we were losing the War on Drugs, and according to the movies, this was what we were doing wrong: The real cops didn't have the kind of firepower or bullet proofing necessary to successfully murder all of the criminals.



Laugh all you want, but the assumption these movies are based on -- that we can fix evil if we throw enough bullets at the problem -- is one that our entire culture still revolves around. We have mentioned elsewhere that the reason our generation is obsessed with zombies is because they are simple: This is an enemy you can only fight by killing. No negotiation, no compromise, no guilt. And every man's dream is to have a problem whose only solution is murder.

So while lots of you laugh when the NRA guy says, "The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun," we still completely agree with him on a fundamental level -- even heroes who abstain from killing, like Batman, are still all about violencing the problem away. Bruce Wayne defeats crime because he is so much better at violence than the bad guys that he doesn't have to kill them. We still want to see him beat the # out of the Joker and his crew, rather than see economic conditions and mental illness intervention improve to the point that the Joker doesn't exist at all.

"So, what, you're saying you don't believe in evil? That all the bad guys need is a hug and a therapist?" No, imaginary person who is objecting to my article. I agree that the Nazis were evil, and I hope Osama bin Laden's body got eaten by a shark, then # out and eaten again by a #-eating squid. But we're at the point where, if we are denied the chance to whip out the guns, we get pissed.



We just want so badly for what worked in RoboCop to work in real life, to be able to exterminate evil as if it were a bedbug infestation. But holy #, would life be simple if you could actually solve problems this way. We'd have rid society of evil like 10,000 years ago. And it's not for lack of trying -- we went to war against the infidels, drowned the witches, and burned the heretics, and thousands of years later we're still saying, "Well, #, maybe we just didn't kill the right people? Or kill them hard enough?" If you suggest that maybe that basic method is flawed, then you're weak. Soft.

And it's so terrifying for us to think that "evil" is this nebulous collection of bad impulses and short-term, selfish behavior that exists in all of us, because that would mean evil isn't something we can blow up with a rocket launcher. But we're going to have to get over that eventually. It just isn't working.



Read more: www.cracked.com...

Don't get timid about how much there is to read there. Think about it.... Been killing people for eons, all it does is shift and consolidate power. Since when did it actually fix anything? Except when we let the problem escalate so badly that it was the only option left.

reply to post by boncho


It's a problem. Why can't we fix it? I apologize for asking a question which has been asked a billion times.

Maybe, why do we keep asking this question? Maybe it's who can fix it? And that might be me.

Mugen

#5. That We're Fulfilling a Prophecy
#4. That the Ghost of a Different Person Is Living Inside Us
#3. That Evil Is Something We Can Kill
#2. That Most of the Humans in the World Aren't People

[[Let's talk about overpopulation and 1980s cartoons for a moment. Let's say a time traveler comes back from 500 years in the future and brings good news: Human civilization has not only survived, but thrived -- sickness is a thing of the past, mankind is colonizing the stars, poverty is no more. Yay!

Also, he says, the future world population is made up entirely of Arab Muslims.

You'd be OK with that, right? If not, why not? Remember, we just said everyone is happy.

We'll come back to that. Here's something that always bothered me in the movies I watched as a kid. The evil Stormtroopers would always cover their faces:]]

#1. That Being Smart Means Believing in Nothing

Article: Source: Cracked

I liked the article and figured some of you might like it. For those of you under the the age of 5 months old may consider not reading the article due to a bit of harsh language.

Conjecture?

edit on 10-8-13 by Mugen because: (no reason given)

One of the biggest things that I believe is holding us back as a species, is the fact that we're separate. Separate from both the universe, and nature.

Most religious teachings today basically go on the point that the one created the all, rather than thinking the one is the all.

It's pretty much a two-bit cop out when you think about it. You rather leave it up to a supreme being, rather than take responsibility of what's going on around you. All because you believe god will come back and get rid of "evil" once and for all. And save all the righteous. Then after that, you will forever be apart of a eternity of bliss.

There really isn't anything that is "good" or "evil." Good and evil are simply just things we've come up with, their just ideas. And when you start thinking about whose worthy, and who isn't, that just creates even more separation. And there are so many other things today that have had us all separated. Racism and classism would be to name just a few.

So, what I'm ultimately trying to say is, one of the largest things holding us back is separation. And religion in general has promoted that quite heavily. The righteous are separated from the sinners, humans are separate from god, Jews are separate from Christians, heaven/hell is separate from earth, and so on.

reply to post by Mugen


Pretty interesting.

He sees the concepts we create but he attributes them to the images.

It's as if he believes the images are the real and the concepts are the simulations.

reply to post by Lingweenie


I agree. And it made me think of George Carlin:
Garbage in, garbage out:

reply to post by Mugen


That relies on the premise that the whole system is garbage. If that were true, there would be no one for the garbage to affect.

Good and decent people exist. I mean, there are people out there trying - but then that wouldn't make for such a great punch line.

Bleeeeep
reply to post by Mugen

 

That relies on the premise that the whole system is garbage. If that were true, there would be no one for the garbage to affect.

Good and decent people exist. I mean, there are people out there trying - but then that wouldn't make for such a great punch line.

edit on 10/9/2013 by Bleeeeep because: (no reason given)

Yes, good people do exist. Good people trying a lot harder than I am.

But is the whole system not garbage?

reply to post by Mugen


This is the joke:
All political systems suck, and because all political systems were created by people, then all people must therefore suck too.

But it's a fallacy of logic.

All people must not suck - only some of them must suck some of the time.

If all circles are red, must all red things be circles?

If you are asking if I honestly think all hierarchies are bad, then no - no I do not. There are many which do not exist just to exploit others.

As for governments, meh - it is what it is. The baddies will always try to take leadership roles so they can control others - but that is not to say all leadership roles are only maintained by baddies.

Garbage in - compost out.