• morphballganon@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It doesn’t happen on its own. People have to make it so. However, what some people view as good results in what others view as bad.

    Some might see universal health care as good, where others see profits as good. These are in opposition.

    Unfortunately, the people who see profits as good tend to have more disposable resources and more effective propaganda than people who see universal health care as good.

  • rufus@discuss.tchncs.de
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    5 months ago

    Everytime I look to my left and right and the people surrounding me, I come to the conclusion that most people are nice and good. It doesn’t look that way if I’m reading the news, however. I think most people are in fact good and the media coverage is skewed. But we definitely need to defend our world from the assholes. It’s a constant struggle to prevail.

  • rekabis@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Good cannot flourish while greed does.

    Capitalism cannot exist without extensive, institutionalized greed.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I think humans (like all animals) are fundamentally flawed for several reasons. Animals, including us, are programmed to procreate and consume and (for some species) construct things. It’s all about survival and thriving. All animals all have a general “I got mine, fuck you” mindset.

    We despise cancer for its brainless infinite growth programming…when our operational model is hardly different.

    In short, I think we’re all a bunch of selfish idiots competing against each other and other life forms. There is no greater purpose or benevolent spirit watching, much less cheering us on. Where there is life, it’s just reproducing and eating and dying and repeating that cycle for as long as the local environment allows.

    So no, I don’t think the good in humankind will prevail. There’s evidence all around that goodness is losing the battle to greed and other self-destructive tendencies. Things which are hard-wired in the human animal. Don’t look up!

    Is that an excuse to not even try? No, I don’t think so. I think we are still morally and ethically obligated to always strive to do better and fight against that brainless animal programming. Even if goodness ultimately fails, it can greatly reduce suffering along the way. And perhaps keep the concept of a new “enlightenment” alive long enough that we do eventually figure out a way to break out of that animal programming and build some kind of egalitarian utopia. Because there is also evidence all around us of people performing selfless acts of self-sacrifice to help others.

    I think the chances are very, very slim of that utopia ever happening. Because quite frankly, evil is like a force of nature and goodness is like a guy with a shovel and a plan. But I do think utopia is theoretically possible.

    In short, I think it goodness will not prevail, but I would love to be dead wrong about this. I hope goodness wins.

  • Adderbox76@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    No. I believe we are likely witnessing the inevitable answer to the drake equation.

    The same lizard-brain instincts that allowed our ancestors to survive (competition, resource hoarding, power centralisation) are fundamentally self destructive to that same society as it approaches post-scarcity capability.

    In other words, when you have a society that evolved on selfishness and power imbalances, potential post-scarcity will always see those in power try to artificially create scarcity in order to remain in power.

    I used to think we could rise above our baser selfishness when the time came. Now I don’t believe we will, nor that its even likely possible.

    That lizard-brain instinct to protect what’s “yours” at the expense of everyone else is what got our civilization here in a resource poor world, and will cheerfully destroy it in order to maintain that scarcity for the sake of some.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Obviously. I mean look around you. You think any of this would be possible if evil were more powerful? I’m talking the clothes, the lights, the shelter, the food, the relative safety, the infrastructure, the language, the libraries of entertainment and knowledge. How about the open source software we’re using right now to communicate, and the fantastic technology that’s running it?

    It’s all evidence of the power of Good

    • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The clothes is the first thing you listed and that’s funny because they are a product of sweatshops exploiting people from the poorest parts of this planet consuming insane amounts of potable water to make and 40% of them are sent to landfills never ever being worn.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        If it’s not slave labor, ie if the people are there by choice, then that “sweatshop” is a job those people find preferable to all the other ways they can spend their days. In other words, a step up. I have no problem with sending my money overseas to people for whom it is more valuable, for whom it has more purchasing power.