With all the the hate, anger, and racisim abounding in our country...

[MiniMandaRuth]

Will America be forever doomed if we do not teach our children the values of what creates a true society? Compassion, caring, respect, and love? If only the Democrats teach their children these values, will America eventually fall in on its self, lost in anarchy?

Or am I just being nihilistic?

Sorry if this brings the mood of GD down even more... :(

[ZombieNixon]

1. (This is the Lounge)

Thanks for depressing us! :P

[MiniMandaRuth]

2. DAMMIT!!!!

:dunce: :banghead:

[ZombieNixon]

3. It's a good question, though. Don't delete it.

I often wonder the same thing. I think it actually boils down to a fundamental question of human nature. I think that the coming years will go a long ways towards determining whether humanity can actually survive in a massive complex society such as ours. More and more of the supports that make "society" a tangible quantity are being pulled away.

Take money, for instance. For a good part of the last century and before, there was actually some sort of precious metal giving value to the US dollar. Dollar bills actually said "silver certificate" on them, meaning that a dollar bill could be accounted for by its equivalent value in silver. Nowadays all that's left is a government guarantee (Federal Reserve Note). But a guarantee of what. (A guarantee to print more money, but what does that actually mean.) If the US government goes under (or even if it just fucks up enough), our money is useless and where does that leave us in a commodity driven society? :shrug:

Oh, well, see what the Lounge does with it. We've been angling for "serious" topics lately. :hi:

[MiniMandaRuth]

4. I'll post it in GD tomorrow...

Argh.

Idiot.

:dunce:

Why do I have a feeling that the lounge is going to bring this up again? :banghead:

[ZombieNixon]

5. Let it go.

Might end up with something interesting.

I edited my post #3 to something thoughtful (I think, anyway). First thoughtful post I've made in weeks. :D

[Neoma]

6. Not sure if i have compassion but i sure do believe in it.

[hfojvt]

7. suppose you had asked that question

in 1706, and in 1806 and in 1906.

Societies can run without alot of compassion, caring, respect and love and with lots of hate, anger and racism.

Also, I would not idealize Democrats or demonize Republicans. There is alot of compassion on the right and there is alot of hatred on the left. The line dividing good and evil runs through every person's heart.

A sci-fi theme of the 1970s was that technological societies had to pass through a crisis stage where they would either solve their problems or lapse into barbarism. The big thing, which would end our Western Way of Life, was thought to be nuclear war, but we also had the same problems - energy, resource depletion, pollution, population growth as well as crime, riots, and wars. In the Clinton 1990s we seemed to think we had the economic problems figured out, and gas sure was cheap. But we have not solved anything, in fact we've only exacerbated things and created more and bigger problems and we stumble/careen our way towards a cliff. At least when the Hindenburg goes down, thanks to me, it will have clean bathrooms.

[RagingInMiami]

8. It gets slightly more tolerant and less hateful with each generation

Just slightly. And don't kid yourself into thinking the democrats are immune to it. Just take a peep into any immigration thread in GD.

[Deja Q]

10. I must live in the wrong neighborhood.

The actions of those in mine are pretty dour.

[Deja Q]

9. How can we when the same "values" come down from the top?

A civilized society has to be made by all in it.

Not just somewhere in the middle, trickling downward.

It starts at the top. Or it's a sham.

Period.

And with greed and knocking people over for fun or personal pleasure is what keeps people going, you bet there will be anarchy - people killing each other. The execs won't mind, they're helping to make the brave new world. And noting how savage many in society are these days, I sadly can't blame them either. Unfortunately the good ones have to be abandoned too. For, in the eyes of the powerholders, the powerless are as discardable as used trash bags.

[riona]

11. Sometimes compassion and caring

goes out the window if people think they are going to have to give up money toward programs that will help (especially higher taxes). You can feel and teach all these good things and I agree you should, but realistically, emotions don't feed, cloth and educate people. We have to be willing to sacrifice money and time to make them work.

[Deja Q]

12. Maybe emotion needs to be the new currency?

And it can't drop in value either.

[treestar]

13. It's the culture, and that could change

There has always been the negative view of human nature.

I was debating on another board about that Harward Girl who had written passages in her novel substantially like those of other authors. The girl was only 19, so I was saying the editors should have helped her figure out how to footnote it rather than just sit back and accuse her of plagiarism. She hadn't copied word for word, but had done another sentence with the same structure in her own words.

Somebody else assumed that since she had done that, she had probably cheated to get into Harvard. No evidence she had done that. Just that if she had done the above, that meant she had cheated at everything.

These people tell me more about themselves than the people they are judging. That if they could get away with something, they would, only the possible penalty stops them. They project that onto anyone else who has made a mistake.

I suspect these types have always existed, but over time, there are fewer and fewer of them. We just need to spot them and deny them positions of authority.