Is Society Doomed by Human Nature?

  • Thread starter Thread starter octelcogopod
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Power
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the relationship between society, government, and individual freedom, highlighting the inherent tension between authority and personal autonomy. It argues that societal respect for government and police is often rooted in fear rather than genuine freedom. The conversation emphasizes that while laws are intended to protect individuals from violence and crime, they also serve to enforce conformity through social conditioning and propaganda. This leads to the oppression of dissenting views, as dominant ideologies often go unchallenged and are accepted without critical examination. The dialogue suggests that humanity's competitive nature compels individuals to align with powerful entities for survival, perpetuating a cycle of power struggles. Ultimately, it posits that no political or social structure is effective due to humanity's inability to transcend its primal instincts, implying that significant evolutionary change would be necessary for a more equitable society to emerge.
octelcogopod
Messages
560
Reaction score
0
I wanted to discuss this topic and I hope I put it in the right forum.

When we grow up in society we learn to respect our government and police, or well, at least respect their authority in the sense that we never really are completely free in the original sense (because of fear mostly.)
People are given the idea that we have a government and police for the purpose of securing each individuals security in the world, but also active prosecution of so called immoral actions and activity.
With individual security comes of course laws against violence, organized crime and tons of other crimes.

The problem is that humans are competitive animals, yet at the same time when they are faced with an adversary so powerful that they cannot defeat it, they rather join it to secure their own survival, and I believe this is an essential component of todays society.
Through propaganda and social conditioning, groups of people with the same agenda and view on things forcefully inject people with their ideas, so to make everyone permanently brainwashed.
This ultimately leads to oppression of groups with other views, and thus they either fade out or are ridiculed in public.
Many times the popular view on any given issue is taken for granted, and usually it is not very researched or the research is subdued in public press to further promote the popular view.

This is of course the natural way of things in a way, people either lead or follow, and the ones who lead will almost always end up with more power than necessary, usually with the publics consent as well, because of years of social conditioning.
It seems like an eternal power struggle, more so than any other agenda for pursuing anything. A person with a strong belief is stronger than any other force, if he is in the right place at the right time.

It seems like no political model and no social structure works, because ultimately humanity is not ready for a society, or even intelligent ciritical thinking. Before we can embrace those things we need to let go of all our animalistic sides, fat chance of that happening.

Any thoughts or ideas?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
octelcogopod said:
This is of course the natural way of things in a way, people either lead or follow, and the ones who lead will almost always end up with more power than necessary, usually with the publics consent as well, because of years of social conditioning.
It seems like an eternal power struggle, more so than any other agenda for pursuing anything. A person with a strong belief is stronger than any other force, if he is in the right place at the right time.

It seems like no political model and no social structure works, because ultimately humanity is not ready for a society, or even intelligent ciritical thinking. Before we can embrace those things we need to let go of all our animalistic sides, fat chance of that happening.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Would you expect less from the premier omnivorous predators of the Universe?
 
Many times the popular view on any given issue is taken for granted, and usually it is not very researched or the research is subdued in public press to further promote the popular view.
as they say in american constitution, "we find these truthes self-evident".
 
octelcogopod said:
I wanted to discuss this topic and I hope I put it in the right forum.

When we grow up in society we learn to respect our government and police, or well, at least respect their authority in the sense that we never really are completely free in the original sense (because of fear mostly.)
People are given the idea that we have a government and police for the purpose of securing each individuals security in the world, but also active prosecution of so called immoral actions and activity.
With individual security comes of course laws against violence, organized crime and tons of other crimes.

The problem is that humans are competitive animals, yet at the same time when they are faced with an adversary so powerful that they cannot defeat it, they rather join it to secure their own survival, and I believe this is an essential component of todays society.
Through propaganda and social conditioning, groups of people with the same agenda and view on things forcefully inject people with their ideas, so to make everyone permanently brainwashed.
This ultimately leads to oppression of groups with other views, and thus they either fade out or are ridiculed in public.
Many times the popular view on any given issue is taken for granted, and usually it is not very researched or the research is subdued in public press to further promote the popular view.

This is of course the natural way of things in a way, people either lead or follow, and the ones who lead will almost always end up with more power than necessary, usually with the publics consent as well, because of years of social conditioning.
It seems like an eternal power struggle, more so than any other agenda for pursuing anything. A person with a strong belief is stronger than any other force, if he is in the right place at the right time.

It seems like no political model and no social structure works, because ultimately humanity is not ready for a society, or even intelligent ciritical thinking. Before we can embrace those things we need to let go of all our animalistic sides, fat chance of that happening.

Any thoughts or ideas?

The things you've pointed out are true. I don't think we need wait until the animalistic sides are let go of in order for society to bloom as an efficient and progressive entity.

I think we have to wait longer than that for evolution and natural selection to weed out the inefficencies of a mob rule society. I'm talking about a million years - given favorable environmental conditions (which appears unlikely).
 
Similar to the 2024 thread, here I start the 2025 thread. As always it is getting increasingly difficult to predict, so I will make a list based on other article predictions. You can also leave your prediction here. Here are the predictions of 2024 that did not make it: Peter Shor, David Deutsch and all the rest of the quantum computing community (various sources) Pablo Jarrillo Herrero, Allan McDonald and Rafi Bistritzer for magic angle in twisted graphene (various sources) Christoph...
Thread 'My experience as a hostage'
I believe it was the summer of 2001 that I made a trip to Peru for my work. I was a private contractor doing automation engineering and programming for various companies, including Frito Lay. Frito had purchased a snack food plant near Lima, Peru, and sent me down to oversee the upgrades to the systems and the startup. Peru was still suffering the ills of a recent civil war and I knew it was dicey, but the money was too good to pass up. It was a long trip to Lima; about 14 hours of airtime...
Back
Top