10 Ten Issues

[Cognisant]

What are the top 10 social/political/economic/philosophical/artistic/etc issues of our time, and yes I want them in order of importance from ten to one

 

[redbaron]

10. My latte was too hot
9. Muh freedum
8. Women who read Cosmopolitan
7. Men who read Ralph
6. Socialism is the same thing as communism
5. The entire concept of Selfies
4. Dog owners
3. Minuend stole my replacement latte, which was just right
2. #hashtags
1. Yolo a.k.a I have no idea what Carpe Diem means

 

[TBerg]

10. The American Diet
9. Race relations
8. Breakdown of the family
7. Evangelicalism
6. The Catholic Church
5. Capitalistic healthcare
4. Strict gender roles/heterosexism
3. Cultural Marxism/Critical Theory
2. Islam
1. Money in US politics

The top five are better-ordered than the bottom five.

 

[Cognisant]

I'd probably swap "Money in US politics" for the Systemic Problems of Democracy because that's a problem for all significant democratic countries.

But yeah that's pretty good list.

Animals rights aren't on it

 

[TBerg]

The "rights" of animals is a tricky issue for me, because the inability of many animals to reciprocate seems to rule them out of the social contract. But I personally hate it when people don't act like animals have their own personalities and advanced needs.

 

[Missfortune]

What about cell phones? Social networks? These things change the way we interact and thus the nature of our everyday relationships.

The semiconductor might be the most important thing of our time. We have computers and they have changed everything. The microprocessor-induced revolution.

 

[Cognisant]

But are they an issue, a "problem" I suppose I should say.

 

[TBerg]

Okay, you win. Uncle!

 

[Missfortune]

But are they an issue, a "problem" I suppose I should say.

Microprocessors? Maybe we can say the invention of the microprocessor and the ramifications. The invention of it is akin to the discovery of how to use fire, it ranks with gunpowder in the degree to which it changed the world.

Cell phones and social networks should be a subheading under The invention of the microprocessor.

 

[Cognisant]

No I mean that's not the point of this thread, I'm not asking for a top ten of historically significant events/inventions I want to know what are the problems of today, like global warming, antibiotic resistant diseases, civil unrest in the US, the war in the Gaza Strip, the reliance of global infrastructure on an increasingly scarce supply of fossil fuels, etc.

Technology itself is never a problem, the misuse of technology may be though.

 

[Cognisant]

Okay, you win. Uncle!

Eh, what?

 

[Missfortune]

No I mean that's not the point of this thread, I'm not asking for a top ten of historically significant events/inventions I want to know what are the problems of today, like global warming, antibiotic resistant diseases, civil unrest in the US, the war in the Gaza Strip, the reliance of global infrastructure on an increasingly scarce supply of fossil fuels, etc.

Technology itself is never a problem, the misuse of technology may be though.

Oh, I see. I didn't know that you wanted problems.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

2.Limited Resources
1.Entropy

Having dealt with that, any system can continue forever.

 

[Brontosaurie]

1. people are not anarchists. w t f
2-10. some stuff

 

[Missfortune]

we are at a crossroads in large complex economies where an elite class is using computers as tools and an underclass is being controlled by computers. This barrier is permeable but economic and social advancement, i.e., rising above the class you are born into, is less prevalent than a generation ago. There is a displacement effect of technology and we see it in greater disparities between the top income earners and the rest that is interpreted by the top group as their earned right whereas luck if birth had more to do with it.

 

[Black Rose]

Missfortune,

The education system has separated the cream of the crop into the top one percent as they say but mostly thing have changed for the better. Just because most people cannot be programmers or anything else of high skill does not mean they earn less but that those that can have kids who have an genetic endowment not really determined by hard work but smart work.

Of coarse the internet changes what and who can participate by giving more opportunity like cell phones in an indian fish market. I confess I don't know how to use apps on my cellphone.

Cog,

http://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU

 

[Ellenora]

I don't think of these in any necessary order as they are interrelated.

1. Peoples: Feeding a growing world population.
2. Economic: Uncovering new Earthly resources in the face of diminishing availability.
3. Political: Handling cultural clashes as we are thrust together in a smaller world.
4. Biological: Dealing with viral expression of harmful animals, plants and microorganisms.
5. Climate: Adjusting to accelerating climate change as with sea levels, storms and other acts of nature.
6. Cultural: Adjusting to media maturity in leisure and the arts.
7. Technological: Handling changes due to accelerating technological advances.
8. Political: Facing creeping or traumatic autocratic domination of peoples over democratic controls.
9. Economic/political: Facing creeping relative wealth to the hands of a few.
10. Not knowing what the important issues are.

I tried to list issues I thought important. Animal rights were mentioned. This is important to some cultures. It would come under item 3 as different cultures value animals differently.

I generalized technological changes in item 7. Who knows how this will affect how we will live our everyday lives? Who knows if third world nations will be left out? Who knows if the new technological world will enable satisfactory employment distribution for all of us?

Item 3 would include clashes of different faiths as the modern world thrusts them together when they want to be separate. It would include dealing with anger as one culture discriminates against another in its vicinity due to economic or political pressures.

 

[EditorOne]

1. Enthusiastic ignorance
2. Intolerance
3. Indifference
4. Religion (pretty much a blend of 1 and 2)
5. Abuse of power


Enthusiastic ignorance believes we can keep on producing people without exhausting the world's ability to support them all.
Intolerance, especially of the "acted upon" variety we are seeing by ISIS in ethnic cleansing and choices between accepting Allah or losing your head, has the potential to bathe the world in blood.
Indifference to the ignorant and the intolerant allows them to flourish and grow.
Religion looks to a higher power to solve problems and grant boons in worldly affairs that are the problems of mankind's shortcomings as a species. Sorry, but the idea that the group cracking the small end of the egg and believing god's representative on earth must come from the bloodline of the profit Mohamad or from those who won't eat pork, or those who will only eat pork, or dance with rattlesnakes, or any other capricious belief system, will win the ear of god and invoke overwhelming power, kind of doesn't seem to have much going for it in the way of plausibility. Religion siphons off humans into ritualistic activity that rarely solves problems, except maybe the overpopulation problem mentioned at the beginning.
Abuse of power exists at the macro and micro level, micro when a police officer decides he's empowered to shoot an unarmed black man, macro when a bunch of pompous gasbags decide nations should be invaded because theya re friends with someone who badly needs that country's oil, gas, boron, uranium, water or manufacturing facilities.
Are we going back to the barricades again any time soon? I need to buy a Lenin hat circa 1919 if we are.

 

[Absurdity]

1. Lust
2. Gluttony
3. Greed
4. Sloth
5. Wrath
6. Envy
7. Pride

 

[Cognisant]

Just because most people cannot be programmers or anything else

You can learn that for free and it's far easier than learning a human language.
But AI will put programmers out of work too so nevermind.

Humans Need Not Apply

I can't imagine an economic depression and boom happening at the same time, certainly not without government interference, if it ever gets to that point governments will become the largest employers, taxing the rich and using that money to pay people to do largely pointless busywork, or more likely the rich will beat them to it and use the socioeconomic leverage to take over.

What happens next? I have no idea.

 

[TBerg]

1. Lust
2. Gluttony
3. Greed
4. Sloth
5. Wrath
6. Envy
7. Pride

Man, you need to go back further, to like the Coptic or Syriac Church or something. Enough of this Latin stuff!

 

[Missfortune]

lets blame the media for all our problems.

 

[420MuNkEy]

10. Antibiotic resistance
09. Dependence on finite resources
08. Humanities self-made obsolescence via automation
07. The erosion of privacy
06. Fiat currency
05. Religion / Organized fear of dying
04. The two party political system
03. Societal disinterest in non-personally-relatable issues
02. Lack of recognition of ones absolute rights to ones self
01. Infringement of personal rights

 

[Polaris]

Anthropocentric problems?


1-10. Sense of entitlement.

 

[Brontosaurie]

Anthropocentric problems?


1-10. Sense of entitlement.

what else would we care about? wouldn't it be a lot more anthropocentric to think of ourselves as beyond the competitive struggle of life? yes. to criticize our completely sound motivational anthropocentrism constitutes metaphysical anthropocentrism, which is arrogant for real.

i never saw a solid reason for the inter-special ethics line of thinkin. seems like the laziest quirk and little else. maybe you are joking. sorry i had to write that. i will refrain from further comments until you've confirmed actual belief in that nonsense.

 

[redbaron]

I guess it's hard to see outside of anthropocentric viewpoints if you're self-absorbed.

 

[Brontosaurie]

I guess it's hard to see outside of anthropocentric viewpoints if you're self-absorbed.

i guess you could have just called me self-absorbed if you wanted to. no need to feign relevance!

 

[redbaron]

Um, did you actually read the entire document?

 

[Brontosaurie]

no. are you suggesting that an opinion should be exempt from criticism if it's backed up by a 20 page document one cannot reasonably be expected to bother reading?

did you read it? does it contain a successful rebuttal of my objection? i feel like wagering.

 

[redbaron]

It's not actually about what you seem to think it's about.

 

[Brontosaurie]

"Ethical criticism of anthropocentrism in part draws the consequences of the scientific critique: if humans can no longer be thought to occupy a special and privileged position in the world, this calls into question their prerogative to use natural creatures and the environment however they see fit."

it's exactly that.

you're just teasing me aren't you. mofo.