Humanity, what is it good for?

[Nearly Sane]

There are precious few answers in this quite restrained polemic from Frankie Boyle  but I think the questions are valid. One of those days when humanity is just shit. As individuals, I love and respect many of you but as a species, just a bunch of depraved bawbags.


http://stopwar.org.uk/news/the-west-has-normalised-racist-wars-but-you-can-t-solve-complex-political-problems-with-1-000lb-bombs

[Leonard James]

Humanity is good for some humans ...  the privileged ones.

[Hope]

Humanity is good for some humans ...  the privileged ones.

I'm not always sure about that Len.  Having lived alongside some extremely poor people in Nepal, including some poor even by Nepalese standards, I was struck by just how much they worked together as a community.  In fact, the 'privileged' amongst them were often the ones most on the peripheries.

[Leonard James]

Humanity is good for some humans ...  the privileged ones.

I'm not always sure about that Len.  Having lived alongside some extremely poor people in Nepal, including some poor even by Nepalese standards, I was struck by just how much they worked together as a community.  In fact, the 'privileged' amongst them were often the ones most on the peripheries.

Yes, I made the mistake of judging by the culture I grew up in, where "getting on" was the order of the day.

[Hope]

Yes, I made the mistake of judging by the culture I grew up in, where "getting on" was the order of the day.

Sadly, is a mistake that any one of us can make - we so programmed into our own social mores that we don't appreciate that they aren't necessarily universal.

[OH MY WORLD!]

So humanity is not getting better. That would be quite a news flash except that we have know this fact for thousands of years.

[Leonard James]

...we all have a part to play in the human race 😀

The part we have to play is to fight evolved instincts, strive to improve living conditions for the deprived, and protect the environment.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

There are precious few answers in this quite restrained polemic from Frankie Boyle  but I think the questions are valid. One of those days when humanity is just shit. As individuals, I love and respect many of you but as a species, just a bunch of depraved bawbags.


http://stopwar.org.uk/news/the-west-has-normalised-racist-wars-but-you-can-t-solve-complex-political-problems-with-1-000lb-bombs

That's Pinkerian Progress for you.

[Leonard James]

...we all have a part to play in the human race 😀

The part we have to play is to fight evolved instincts, strive to improve living conditions for the deprived, and protect the environment.

I see no point in fighting evolved instincts, because you would be fighting something integral to yourself.

Channelling it into more positive and beneficial things I agree with though.

Evolution first gave living organisms the instinct to survive at any cost. That is the instinct we must fight against. Then social species arose and we developed the instinct to put group first. That is the instinct we must follow.

Unfortunately, the older instinct holds sway, especially in times of great stress, and we succumb.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

...we all have a part to play in the human race 😀

The part we have to play is to fight evolved instincts, strive to improve living conditions for the deprived, and protect the environment.

I see no point in fighting evolved instincts, because you would be fighting something integral to yourself.

Channelling it into more positive and beneficial things I agree with though.

Evolution first gave living organisms the instinct to survive at any cost.

I thought evolution is all about fitness. Not sure how Len's statement fits into that.

[BeRational]

...we all have a part to play in the human race 😀

The part we have to play is to fight evolved instincts, strive to improve living conditions for the deprived, and protect the environment.

I see no point in fighting evolved instincts, because you would be fighting something integral to yourself.

Channelling it into more positive and beneficial things I agree with though.

Evolution first gave living organisms the instinct to survive at any cost.

I thought evolution is all about fitness. Not sure how Len's statement fits into that.

Simple.

Those that do not care about survival, don't tend to survive, and are replaced by those that do.

[Udayana]

So ... essentially Len is asking for something that is impossible.

[Hope]

Evolution first gave living organisms the instinct to survive at any cost. That is the instinct we must fight against. Then social species arose and we developed the instinct to put group first. That is the instinct we must follow.

Is there any evidence that social species didn't occur at the same time as, or are even the same as your 'living' organisms, Len?

[Jack Knave]

...we all have a part to play in the human race 😀

The part we have to play is to fight evolved instincts,

Do you realise how naïve that is. We can't win. You don't fight them you collaborate with them in a mutual sharing of functions. Most of what you do is done by your instincts, your unconscious mind.

[Leonard James]

I thought evolution is all about fitness. Not sure how Len's statement fits into that.

Quite! When life began, each organism took from the environment what it needed to survive. When their numbers became so big that there was competition for doing so, those mutations which served them better (fitness) gradually displaced their predecessors. In other words, the less "fit" became extinct.

[Leonard James]

So ... essentially Len is asking for something that is impossible.

Nope. It is not impossible to restrain your primary self-first instinct and obey the group first one. Some of us are better able to do it than others, that's all.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

So ... essentially Len is asking for something that is impossible.

Nope. It is not impossible to restrain your primary self-first instinct and obey the group first one. Some of us are better able to do it than others, that's all.

Your  belief in easily controlling the ability ''not to lose it'' is a bit too sentimental to be true.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

I thought evolution is all about fitness. Not sure how Len's statement fits into that.

Quite! When life began, each organism took from the environment what it needed to survive. When their numbers became so big that there was competition for doing so, those mutations which served them better (fitness) gradually displaced their predecessors. In other words, the less "fit" became extinct.

So it's more about being rendered unfit rather than winning a fight for survival.

[BashfulAnthony]

So ... essentially Len is asking for something that is impossible.

Nope. It is not impossible to restrain your primary self-first instinct and obey the group first one. Some of us are better able to do it than others, that's all.

Survival of the fittest.   What puzzles me is, how did you survive, then?