What is humanity's biggest mistake? And weakness?
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Punk Hazard
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Brother Numpsay
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Biggest mistake is division. People are often too divided to act for a greater good
Greed can be good but I think it's also humanity's biggest weakness. Greed gets taken too far in one aspect and you can have a crisis on any scale.
Greed can be good but I think it's also humanity's biggest weakness. Greed gets taken too far in one aspect and you can have a crisis on any scale.
Punk Hazard
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Brother Numpsay
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Stopped caring, stopped reading.
Says you, maybe. But my opinion is indeed a valid one in that it is an opinion that exists and is shared by many. What we define as reality is simply the concepts we accept as truth, and this is one I accept as true, therefore I speak as though it is because I believe it to be.
Punk Hazard
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Brother Numpsay
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So but your opinion has no more validity than that of the Nazi war criminal who thought it was good to kill?
Punk Hazard
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Didn't say it was, nor that everyone in the world should agree. I don't see why you're so bent out of shape because I believe something you don't.
Brother Numpsay
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I was just challenging your thought process, thats all.
If your intention was to just to share an opinion then we dont have to continue.
If your intention was to make this an "absolute" truth about the world, which is contradictory, I needed to address it.
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Brother Numpsay
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@Bold, obviously if right or wrong doesn't exist.
How is it unrelated? He made a statement to support your point, when came to morality.
To be honest, it's a more difficult question than it seems. I think the answer is more complex than 'greed' or 'hatred', 'money'...etc. Of course those things in general can lead to suffering, but it's in our human nature. So, humanity's biggest 'weakness' is its human nature, with all its imperfections- but things are like this for a reason. So I see no point in blaming humanity as a whole for something that's beyond their control (though according to the state of the art of science, it's possible to alter the genes of people to reagulate their future behavior: but it can be abused just as much as anything else). Instead of asking what's the biggest mistake and weakness of humanity, you could just ask what's your/my own weakness that I can work on? Mankind's success lies in our cooperation. Cooperation postulates cooperative individuals. Instead of asking what the community can do for you/me, ask: what I can do for the community?
Now, why am I saying all that?
Actually, most people want to live their lives peacefully, and always wanted to. It's always a minority that deviates from the equilibrium and infringes the freedom of others. They don't cooperate. That may be because of greed, envy, etc. But it's simply because we are all different. Obviously, if we all had the same qualities, personality, talents, wealth etc, then noone would feel greedy or envious of others. But this diversity is given. That's how the world is- and it is not meant to be a peaceful and perfect cakewalk, though of course we all wish it was that easy. So the way I see it, we have this desire for peace in our nature, as well as we have a world with a given diversity, and the two may clash. Even our concepts of peace may differ. Not to mention the difference in the ideas of how to achieve peace. The world, again, is a place where we have to struggle for survival. We had to subdue nature, to make it more comfortable and more peaceful for ourselves. During the process, different people had different ideas on how to do that. Is that a bad thing? No of course not. But humans had to make choices between ideas. Someone's idea had to be dismissed, and sometimes there was no guarantee that the chosen route of action would actually work out. Mankind made its choices- sometimes bad ones. However, sometimes you can actually only choose between bad and worse. What was the biggest mistake so far? Well, oddly, I think things are going just fine- but I have a linear view on history, which I see as part of a 'greater plan', bluntly. That's why I'm not really worried about past mistakes and greed, etc. That's how things are: as we are different, some choices we make will always be less beneficial to others. The best we can do is optimize the share of gain and loss- but that again needs the will to cooperate. There will always be mistakes made: but while being aware of that, we have to have confidence and faith in our ability to learn: this ability is also given. It's kind of a gift- and we have to use our gifts, despite we also have our curses as well. Cooperation needs effort- it'd be easier to just steal and loot, than to work and be fair. But in the long run, uncooperative elements are sorted out. They have their role, whatever that is- but society will get rid of its pests sooner or later. But of course we have to be prepared that there will always be parasites.
I see life is a test. I'm not gonna touch on the religious implications, though. But in any case, our integrity to cooperate is always tested. In game theory- and it can be applied to evolution as well-, in the long run cooperation is the best course of action, though if we were meant to be always-cooperating colonies, we would have turned out as such. That didn't happen, so we have to make the best out of what we have, and the best we can achieve is not tantamount to a perfect and conflict-safe world. We are individuals, but we live in societies- therefore there will always be differences arising between the interests of the individuals and the community as a whole. There will be differences as well between/among individuals of a peculiar society, and there will be conflicts between/among different societies as well. Societies as a whole may mitigate when it comes to its own citizens, and through globalization, the international community may mitigate between clashing societies as well. Sometimes the differences lead to violent conflicts- but violence is aslo in our nature, so it is to be expected. We can't really expect that everyone could always put aside their own interests and desires. But that's not always necessarily wrong, either. Varietas delectat. And I'd say, a contrario: monotony is boring. We are creative and innovative creatures. We can ask: 'what if'...And some people will follow their ideas even if it's against others. From the perspective of eternity, it's just a small intermezzo. Whatever humans achieve, is temporary. One doesn't have to be religious to realize that, I anticipate. This is another controversy: Our lives are temporary, but we desire the endless.
But I'm starting to feel that I've said enough. In short, I can't give a universal answer to what the biggest mistake of humanity was. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes small, sometimes big mistakes- only the future can tell its value. We may attempt to predict the future when we make our decisions- but we can't control all the factors governing the world, and we can't determine the future. If we could, that'd be fate- but that is the privilege of gods
Arrogance such as ignoring that: is another imperfection of our nature. We have to strive against such imperfections- but it can be expected that sometimes we will fail. We are not meant to be perfect, and the world doesn't have to be perfect either. We tend to forget about it, and when we are trying to achieve perfection- at least what we think to be perfect-, we fail to be satisfied with the reality we have. The reality is our given nature ( our own human nature and the physical nature ): we have to give up sometimes on chasing our ideals in order to focus on what'd best serve the optimum of the whole. But sometimes you can't even tell what'd that optimum be. In which case one has to rely on her/his instincts, basically. I believe there are objective values, but even these may collide, and the consequences may be unpredictable. So sometimes we have to have the guts to use our freedom to make the choices we want instead of waiting for others to tell us what to do. In the end we are all responsible as individuals too. And I believe we will be judged in what we have differed. Whether by god, or by the future. At the end of the day, both are infinite On the other hand, we have limits. But it's also in our nature to push the limits. Some will transgress them. But it won't really affect my convictions. We have many many weaknesses- giving in leads to mistakes. But mistakes are part of life. Expecting a perfect world is another misake. Denying our weaknesses and our human nature is yet another one.
I guess that's not exactly what you asked, though In the end I couldn't really answer you 
I just don't think it's as simple as to pick a weakness and label it as biggest. Especially that weakness is relative. Some consider humbleness or being emotional as signs of weakness. I don't. And sometimes, big mistakes result in something good, too. Sometimes after a catastrophe, people realize the need to cooperate, f.e after wars they make international treaties and organizations to prevent other wars. Now of course, conflicts will keep happening- cooperation may fail again and again. But after times of disorder, comes a time of relative tranquility. We should appreciate such times. In the beginning of my post, I said that most people want to live their lives in peace- yet, ironically, it seems that basically noone could live his/her life without any war happening in the world, in his/her lifetime. Also, everyone experiences injustice. But then, I also said that the world is not meant to be a troubleless place. And we are not perfect either. I think it makes sense. Diversity implies the prospect of differences, and differences connote conflicts. The question is how we handle them? How we handle the difference between reality and our ideals? How do we handle the differences between our interests and the interests of others? How do we perceive the fact that there will always be differences? Because if anything, as I've said, the differences are given. This diversity is our weakness and our strength at the same time. We have to learn how to make the best use out of it- and the best use needs cooperation. Some people however fail to cooperate, because that's their weak point. It also stems from the diversity- so the probable existence of uncooperative (or call them deviant) persons is also a given weakness of diversity. We have to deal with it. Dealing with the diversity leads to conflicts. So, conflicts are necessary too. Handling these conflicts may lead to injustice and violence- that can be labeled as mistakes. But it is to be expected that we can't always make the best choices. It's because of our nature. So, we have a given diversity and a necessity of conflicts and the need to handle these conflicts: and again because of our diversity we can't always handle them in regard of the best interests of the whole.
Now, why am I saying all that?
Actually, most people want to live their lives peacefully, and always wanted to. It's always a minority that deviates from the equilibrium and infringes the freedom of others. They don't cooperate. That may be because of greed, envy, etc. But it's simply because we are all different. Obviously, if we all had the same qualities, personality, talents, wealth etc, then noone would feel greedy or envious of others. But this diversity is given. That's how the world is- and it is not meant to be a peaceful and perfect cakewalk, though of course we all wish it was that easy. So the way I see it, we have this desire for peace in our nature, as well as we have a world with a given diversity, and the two may clash. Even our concepts of peace may differ. Not to mention the difference in the ideas of how to achieve peace. The world, again, is a place where we have to struggle for survival. We had to subdue nature, to make it more comfortable and more peaceful for ourselves. During the process, different people had different ideas on how to do that. Is that a bad thing? No of course not. But humans had to make choices between ideas. Someone's idea had to be dismissed, and sometimes there was no guarantee that the chosen route of action would actually work out. Mankind made its choices- sometimes bad ones. However, sometimes you can actually only choose between bad and worse. What was the biggest mistake so far? Well, oddly, I think things are going just fine- but I have a linear view on history, which I see as part of a 'greater plan', bluntly. That's why I'm not really worried about past mistakes and greed, etc. That's how things are: as we are different, some choices we make will always be less beneficial to others. The best we can do is optimize the share of gain and loss- but that again needs the will to cooperate. There will always be mistakes made: but while being aware of that, we have to have confidence and faith in our ability to learn: this ability is also given. It's kind of a gift- and we have to use our gifts, despite we also have our curses as well. Cooperation needs effort- it'd be easier to just steal and loot, than to work and be fair. But in the long run, uncooperative elements are sorted out. They have their role, whatever that is- but society will get rid of its pests sooner or later. But of course we have to be prepared that there will always be parasites.
I see life is a test. I'm not gonna touch on the religious implications, though. But in any case, our integrity to cooperate is always tested. In game theory- and it can be applied to evolution as well-, in the long run cooperation is the best course of action, though if we were meant to be always-cooperating colonies, we would have turned out as such. That didn't happen, so we have to make the best out of what we have, and the best we can achieve is not tantamount to a perfect and conflict-safe world. We are individuals, but we live in societies- therefore there will always be differences arising between the interests of the individuals and the community as a whole. There will be differences as well between/among individuals of a peculiar society, and there will be conflicts between/among different societies as well. Societies as a whole may mitigate when it comes to its own citizens, and through globalization, the international community may mitigate between clashing societies as well. Sometimes the differences lead to violent conflicts- but violence is aslo in our nature, so it is to be expected. We can't really expect that everyone could always put aside their own interests and desires. But that's not always necessarily wrong, either. Varietas delectat. And I'd say, a contrario: monotony is boring. We are creative and innovative creatures. We can ask: 'what if'...And some people will follow their ideas even if it's against others. From the perspective of eternity, it's just a small intermezzo. Whatever humans achieve, is temporary. One doesn't have to be religious to realize that, I anticipate. This is another controversy: Our lives are temporary, but we desire the endless.
But I'm starting to feel that I've said enough. In short, I can't give a universal answer to what the biggest mistake of humanity was. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes small, sometimes big mistakes- only the future can tell its value. We may attempt to predict the future when we make our decisions- but we can't control all the factors governing the world, and we can't determine the future. If we could, that'd be fate- but that is the privilege of gods
Arrogance such as ignoring that: is another imperfection of our nature. We have to strive against such imperfections- but it can be expected that sometimes we will fail. We are not meant to be perfect, and the world doesn't have to be perfect either. We tend to forget about it, and when we are trying to achieve perfection- at least what we think to be perfect-, we fail to be satisfied with the reality we have. The reality is our given nature ( our own human nature and the physical nature ): we have to give up sometimes on chasing our ideals in order to focus on what'd best serve the optimum of the whole. But sometimes you can't even tell what'd that optimum be. In which case one has to rely on her/his instincts, basically. I believe there are objective values, but even these may collide, and the consequences may be unpredictable. So sometimes we have to have the guts to use our freedom to make the choices we want instead of waiting for others to tell us what to do. In the end we are all responsible as individuals too. And I believe we will be judged in what we have differed. Whether by god, or by the future. At the end of the day, both are infinite On the other hand, we have limits. But it's also in our nature to push the limits. Some will transgress them. But it won't really affect my convictions. We have many many weaknesses- giving in leads to mistakes. But mistakes are part of life. Expecting a perfect world is another misake. Denying our weaknesses and our human nature is yet another one. I guess that's not exactly what you asked, though
In the end I couldn't really answer you I just don't think it's as simple as to pick a weakness and label it as biggest. Especially that weakness is relative. Some consider humbleness or being emotional as signs of weakness. I don't. And sometimes, big mistakes result in something good, too. Sometimes after a catastrophe, people realize the need to cooperate, f.e after wars they make international treaties and organizations to prevent other wars. Now of course, conflicts will keep happening- cooperation may fail again and again. But after times of disorder, comes a time of relative tranquility. We should appreciate such times. In the beginning of my post, I said that most people want to live their lives in peace- yet, ironically, it seems that basically noone could live his/her life without any war happening in the world, in his/her lifetime. Also, everyone experiences injustice. But then, I also said that the world is not meant to be a troubleless place. And we are not perfect either. I think it makes sense. Diversity implies the prospect of differences, and differences connote conflicts. The question is how we handle them? How we handle the difference between reality and our ideals? How do we handle the differences between our interests and the interests of others? How do we perceive the fact that there will always be differences? Because if anything, as I've said, the differences are given. This diversity is our weakness and our strength at the same time. We have to learn how to make the best use out of it- and the best use needs cooperation. Some people however fail to cooperate, because that's their weak point. It also stems from the diversity- so the probable existence of uncooperative (or call them deviant) persons is also a given weakness of diversity. We have to deal with it. Dealing with the diversity leads to conflicts. So, conflicts are necessary too. Handling these conflicts may lead to injustice and violence- that can be labeled as mistakes. But it is to be expected that we can't always make the best choices. It's because of our nature. So, we have a given diversity and a necessity of conflicts and the need to handle these conflicts: and again because of our diversity we can't always handle them in regard of the best interests of the whole.
FunkyFatal
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You sir just won the Internet for today. On topic i think it is human greed and envy.To be honest, it's a more difficult question than it seems. I think the answer is more complex than 'greed' or 'hatred', 'money'...etc. Of course those things in general can lead to suffering, but it's in our human nature. So, humanity's biggest 'weakness' is its human nature, with all its imperfections- but things are like this for a reason. So I see no point in blaming humanity as a whole for something that's beyond their control (though according to the state of the art of science, it's possible to alter the genes of people to reagulate their future behavior: but it can be abused just as much as anything else). Instead of asking what's the biggest mistake and weakness of humanity, you could just ask what's your/my own weakness that I can work on? Mankind's success lies in our cooperation. Cooperation postulates cooperative individuals. Instead of asking what the community can do for you/me, ask: what I can do for the community?
Now, why am I saying all that?
Actually, most people want to live their lives peacefully, and always wanted to. It's always a minority that deviates from the equilibrium and infringes the freedom of others. They don't cooperate. That may be because of greed, envy, etc. But it's simply because we are all different. Obviously, if we all had the same qualities, personality, talents, wealth etc, then noone would feel greedy or envious of others. But this diversity is given. That's how the world is- and it is not meant to be a peaceful and perfect cakewalk, though of course we all wish it was that easy. So the way I see it, we have this desire for peace in our nature, as well as we have a world with a given diversity, and the two may clash. Even our concepts of peace may differ. Not to mention the difference in the ideas of how to achieve peace. The world, again, is a place where we have to struggle for survival. We had to subdue nature, to make it more comfortable and more peaceful for ourselves. During the process, different people had different ideas on how to do that. Is that a bad thing? No of course not. But humans had to make choices between ideas. Someone's idea had to be dismissed, and sometimes there was no guarantee that the chosen route of action would actually work out. Mankind made its choices- sometimes bad ones. However, sometimes you can actually only choose between bad and worse. What was the biggest mistake so far? Well, oddly, I think things are going just fine- but I have a linear view on history, which I see as part of a 'greater plan', bluntly. That's why I'm not really worried about past mistakes and greed, etc. That's how things are: as we are different, some choices we make will always be less beneficial to others. The best we can do is optimize the share of gain and loss- but that again needs the will to cooperate. There will always be mistakes made: but while being aware of that, we have to have confidence and faith in our ability to learn: this ability is also given. It's kind of a gift- and we have to use our gifts, despite we also have our curses as well. Cooperation needs effort- it'd be easier to just steal and loot, than to work and be fair. But in the long run, uncooperative elements are sorted out. They have their role, whatever that is- but society will get rid of its pests sooner or later. But of course we have to be prepared that there will always be parasites.
I see life is a test. I'm not gonna touch on the religious implications, though. But in any case, our integrity to cooperate is always tested. In game theory- and it can be applied to evolution as well-, in the long run cooperation is the best course of action, though if we were meant to be always-cooperating colonies, we would have turned out as such. That didn't happen, so we have to make the best out of what we have, and the best we can achieve is not tantamount to a perfect and conflict-safe world. We are individuals, but we live in societies- therefore there will always be differences arising between the interests of the individuals and the community as a whole. There will be differences as well between/among individuals of a peculiar society, and there will be conflicts between/among different societies as well. Societies as a whole may mitigate when it comes to its own citizens, and through globalization, the international community may mitigate between clashing societies as well. Sometimes the differences lead to violent conflicts- but violence is aslo in our nature, so it is to be expected. We can't really expect that everyone could always put aside their own interests and desires. But that's not always necessarily wrong, either. Varietas delectat. And I'd say, a contrario: monotony is boring. We are creative and innovative creatures. We can ask: 'what if'...And some people will follow their ideas even if it's against others. From the perspective of eternity, it's just a small intermezzo. Whatever humans achieve, is temporary. One doesn't have to be religious to realize that, I anticipate. This is another controversy: Our lives are temporary, but we desire the endless.
But I'm starting to feel that I've said enough. In short, I can't give a universal answer to what the biggest mistake of humanity was. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes small, sometimes big mistakes- only the future can tell its value. We may attempt to predict the future when we make our decisions- but we can't control all the factors governing the world, and we can't determine the future. If we could, that'd be fate- but that is the privilege of gods
I guess that's not exactly what you asked, though