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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.
Can? Yes.
Will? Far from certain.
It has. Often. More often than not, in fact. But not always, everywhere, and for everyone. Sometimes good does not prevail, but that tends to increase the chance it will again.
The trend of good’s prevalence is a matter of history. It’s been called the zeitgeist (Hegel) which evolves over time, a trajectory we can evaluate in hindsight.
In particular, knowledge, the value of life, our collective moral understanding and enumeration of human rights all trend upward over time.
But if by “prevail” we mean a kind of universal perfection, where all forms of suffering are eradicated and only joy and pleasure remain, then no, good cannot prevail. If it did, good would cease to exist, denied its fundamental nature as an evolving concept.
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.
Good cannot flourish while greed does.
Capitalism cannot exist without extensive, institutionalized greed.
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
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.
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.
You are attempting to justify exploitation and it disgusts me.
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.
Evil empires are nothing new. The have came and went as long as humanity has existed.
It’s more of an ever ongoing battle than a decisive victory.
