Survival of Fittest ? Why not Survival of brotherhood and Peace ?

[Anomalocaris]

I have this thought in my mind that often worries and lingers on for days. We are always told to compete against our other subjects to get ahead. We all people are in a race with other people. Why do we have to race against the people to get ahead ? In doing so , we try to snatch our goals by hook or by crook. Why can't we stay in peace with others and help them out to improve themselves instead of pacing ahead ?

Because people who are merely being helped to improve, but who face no serious immediate and evident consequences if they don't apply themselves to the best of their ability to determine what to improve and how to improve, will in general not act as effectively as they can in improving themselves.

When you stand one system in which people are generally motivated to be more effective in improving themselves next to one that is less effective in doing the same, it is clear which one will eat the other's lunch.

So the answer is if you don't race ahead, then you are at the mercy of those who do. Human nature being what it is, they will only be merciful for so long. Afterwards your life, such as it is, won't be worth living for you.

[Khansins]

[quote='Khansins' pid='627206' dateline='1395152928']
Why do we have to race against the people to get ahead ?

Because of finite resources.

Finite food.

Finite water.

Finite petroleum

Finite jobs.

Finite money (to some degree).

Our lives depend on these finite resources and where our lives don't literally depend on them (money), we've required that you have these things to get the things your life actually does depend on (food) and punish you for circumventing the system (when you steal so you don't starve).

Even when you have to kill others to get that finite resources ??

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So the answer is if you don't race ahead, then you are at the mercy of those who do. Human nature being what it is, they will only be merciful for so long. Afterwards your life, such as it is, won't be worth living for you.

Thats my question. What if no body raced ahead ? What if human nature was merciful for evermore ?

[Cato]

I think the suggestion that we as a species are more competitive than cooperative involves some level of negativity bias. When I consider what we have collectively accomplished over the last 10,000 to 15,000 years, I can't help but conclude that we are largely collaborative.

Consider this, what if the prevalent social demand of individual excellence is simply a means of extracting the most from individual potential in order that the group may further benefit from the increased contribution?

[Simon Moon]

I have this thought in my mind that often worries and lingers on for days. We are always told to compete against our other subjects to get ahead. We all people are in a race with other people. Why do we have to race against the people to get ahead ? In doing so , we try to snatch our goals by hook or by crook. Why can't we stay in peace with others and help them out to improve themselves instead of pacing ahead ?

You have a misconception of what 'survival of the fittest' means.

[Anomalocaris]

I think the suggestion that we as a species are more competitive than cooperative involves some level of negativity bias. When I consider what we have collectively accomplished over the last 10,000 to 15,000 years, I can't help but conclude that we are largely collaborative.

Consider this, what if the prevalent social demand of individual excellence is simply a means of extracting the most from individual potential in order that the group may further benefit from the increased contribution?

Yes, but the growth of our coorperativeness over the centuries seem to primarily be driven by the the value of local cooperativeness in global competition. We coorporate to better compete to a vastly greater extent than compete to better cooperate.

[Faith No More]

What if human nature was merciful for evermore ?

Then it would cease to be human nature.

[Silver]

There can never be real peace so long as there is the religious notion that allows a group of people to hate on others who are different.

An X-Men quote: It is a historical fact that sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute.

[Anomalocaris]

There can never be real peace so long as there is the religious notion that allows a group of people to hate on others who are different.

An X-Men quote: It is a historical fact that sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute.

One group of people hating another most certainly predated any religion by millions of years, and if the blessedl day ever dawn when all religions had perished forever, rest assure one group of people will still be hating another long after that.

[thesummerqueen]

Who "tells" you this?

I think you're painting the world with a broad brush in order to make a point and you don't need to.

[Silver]

One group of people hating another most certainly predated any religion by millions of years, and if the blessedl day ever dawn when all religions had perished forever, rest assure one group of people will still be hating another long after that.

If one looks at the past two thousand years alone, religion is almost always the reason behind the violence done to humanity by one group or another. How many wars could have been avoided and how many people could have been saved had religion not been a factor in destroying that which was different? Religion gave them license to kill and be horrible psychopaths, because they believed that they had the righteousness of the bible and the word of their deity on their side.

The small outbreaks of violence in a religious-free society is worth the terror that religion itself heaps upon humanity.