I don’t mean better for you or me but better in general. Do you believe our species will ever reach some form of enlightenment or will we destroy ourselves?
What is “better in general”? I don’t particularly mind the human species going extinct, it’s unlikely there’ll be no life left over. No one knows the nature of the universe.
In any case, it’s incredibly unlikely we’ll go extinct anytime soon. Maybe climate change etc causes extreme loss of life, but humans are so adaptive, some will surely survive.
No one can even define “enlightenment” either. Maybe we already are, maybe such a thing doesn’t exist. Currently, it’s just a story element.
I think it’s gonna get a lot worse, but if we can hold it together then it’ll be smooth sailing afterwards. Basically, I think we’re approaching several “Great Filters” and if we can get past them then we’ll be good.
Either we progress to Socialism or we die out, that’s the filter. I am hopeful, though.
Here’s a bit of hope for you, scientists have figured out how to trick the body into producing any protein or antibody they want, through technology like gene therapy and mRNA vaccines. We’re about to cure a lot of diseases that used to be 100% fatal. Diseases that kill kids and adults alike.
Most things seem to be getting worse these days, but at least we’re making progress in other areas.
That’s great and all but we’re going to be needing food and air conditioning.
Thanks, that’s good to hear. New scientific breakthroughs always inspire hope, at least for me, especially when they save lives.
Too bad those advances will be monetized as hard as possible and limited to those that can afford it.
Unfortunately there’s a lot of truth in that statement, especially in the case of rare disease. It’s really difficult to convince a company to spend billions to develop a treatment that will only cure 1 in 100,000 people without letting them charge an arm and a leg, and giving them a very long exclusivity deal so they can continue to charge high prices. So much of that cost to develop is due to the dozens of other failed drugs and formulations they tried on their way to success.
I don’t have a solution for the problem, and I’m always a little suspicious of anyone who claims it’s easy to solve. I think the UK has a decent idea, the NHS basically decides if the cost of a drug will be covered by insurance by comparing the expected benefit and the current cost. If the ratio is too skewed, they refuse to cover the medication. In theory, this should be an incentive for a company to charge less. In practice, it leads to some companies choosing not to market in the UK.
Things will get better, eventually, if we work for it. Our time is the age of the death of the US Empire. The decay of Capitalism in the US and Imperialism abroad drives much of the division in the world over today, but if we know how to get past this we will succeed. I recommend reading Marxist theory, it can be very comforting to know how the world actually works, and how we can overcome it. I keep a “Read Theory, Darn It!” beginner reading list if anyone wants it, let me know if you have any questions.
Will admins/moderators block this communism spam?
The admins and moderators are Communists, so I doubt it, but they can feel free to let me know if I’m going too far and need to cut back a bit. I’ll act accordingly.
No
The way I look at it, things have to get better. Because if they don’t then we will destroy ourselves. Barbarism until socialism.
Yep, now more than ever is a great time to get armed, organized, and “Read Theory, Darn It!” I keep a beginner list complete with audiobooks on Marxist theory, which is critical in my opinion if we want to achieve Socialism.
Do you think things will get better?
Yes.
A lot of the problems we face are systematic, to do with how our society is organised rather than any human limit. They are solvable problems, and many have already been solved already in some countries. The reason they’re aren’t solved isn’t because we can’t, but because the few most powerful people are powerful because of this rigged system, and have a self-interest in keeping it that way by any means necessary.
History has shown us clearly that even kings, dictators and other broken systems can be overthrown AND stopped from coming back, provided the people doing it are politically educated and organized. That’s the key. If we just get angry without a plan, we will end up like the pitiful Jan 6 riot. But if we educate ourselves with lessons from history and work to create a mass movement, we can finally move forward beyond this frightening present situation.
They are solvable problems, and many have already been solved already in some countries.
This is a great point!
We have the potential for far better, yes.
The real question is, will enough people want for us to get better…
The short answer is yes, as conditions deteriorate due to Capitalism and Imperialism decaying, and decay they must, more people become radicalized every day. If these radicals read theory and get organized, eventually a tipping point will be reached. The very fact that conditions are decaying rapidly means radicalization is also rapid.
May whatever deity who may or may not be active hear you and decide that it’d be fun to watch!
You can certainly help 😉 I keep a “Read Theory, Darn It!” introductory reading list on Marxism if you want to check it out
Thank you, always good to have more lists! Been reading up on things like this for a while, among other things, and I’ve already noticed some unfamiliar names in your post!
Nice! Feel free to add feedback in the comments or ask any questions you like!
Im both amazed and terrified at the fact we haven’t killed ourselves into extinction.
Cause it becomes easier by the decade every time.If you are Elon Musk it is looking amazing right now.
The current trend sucks, obviously.
But historically, we used to be so much worse to each-other.
There’s reasons (data and practicality) to have faith that things will continue to improve.
But it won’t be enough, for many of us, in many of our lifetimes, so let’s all stay angry and active.
I guess it depends on what you mean by destroy. Like literally population 0, I doubt it’ll ever get there. But losing 75% of population, I can see some nuclear war breaking out
But losing 75% of population, I can see some nuclear war breaking out
Seems pretty likely (eventually). I take hope that I’ll be in the direct blast radius, and not a mutilated horribly scarred survivor.
I choose not to think about this one much because it’s well outside my circle of influence.
Ya everyday another corrupt superpower is getting that much closer to weapons of mass destruction. I’m sure there’s bio weapons already out there that would destroy huge chunks of the population. But nuclear would also be up there though probably much more difficult to hide
“Do you believe our species will ever reach some form of enlightenment”
If there is anything history has taught me is that we repeat the same basic behavior over and over and have done so as far back as we can see. We are essentially very intelligent monkeys, obsessed with social status, manipulation, altruism and cooperation mixed with hostility and exploitation. I think the basic sociology of humans is baked into our DNA and the very nature of animal life. People have always imagined they can create some utopia on earth but it always ends up a failure because of the very nature of man and the impossibility of even defining a utopia for everyone.
The basic DNA of humans is that our ideas form from our Material Conditions, and the driver of this is the mode of production.
What “Utopias” are you referring to, here? The old, Utopian socialist of Owen’s kind, or the modern, Marxist form of Socialism (which rejects the term “utopian”)?
Humanity is so fickle, it’s impossible to tell.
In the US, we went from overwhelming opposition to gay marriage to overwhelming support in less than a decade.
On the other hand, we went from aggressively eradicating CFCs and fixing the ozone hole to dragging our feet on renewable energy for several decades.
Even further back, we went from back-to-back world wars and economic collapse to a tentative global peace and prosperity.
Monarchy seemed inevitable for ages, and then multiple democratic revolutions all sprang up in quick succession.
Equality was fundamental to the Constitution, but we still haven’t healed the wounds of slavery.
There seems to be no telling. Some problems languish for a long time, but then see massive improvements in the blink of an eye. Some obvious fixes lay dormant for an offensively long time.
When I think about this stuff, I get a weird mix of hope and despair and guilt and frustration and impatience.
It seems unfair that we got stuck with these particular crises, with no guarantee that we’re actually prepared to handle them. (Maybe that’s the entire story of humanity.)
And then I remember what Tolkien had to say about such things:
All of these radical restructurings of society were based on gradual buildup until catalyst points shifted the dominant Mode of Production. By analyzing Capitalism, a decentralized market economy that necessarily gravitates towards centralization in Monopolist Syndicates, we can predict that Socialism is the next step. Marx is correct.
