I was telling a friend of mine yesterday that the only thing that might save the planet is an incompetent alien invasion. They'd have to be hostile and smart enough for intergalactic space travel, but terrible at killing humans. That way, we, as tribal humans, would finally have an imminent threat against all of us and an "other" we could unite against (humans vs. aliens), and maybe start making real progress together (after taking care of the useless aliens).
Decades ago there was an episode of a popular but now defunct series (I forgot the title of the episode or the name of the series. It might have been Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits) about an advanced, wise and irresistibly powerful alien race that presented an ultimatum to earth declaring that the human race had become so flawed and selfish that it had been condemned to extinction and permanent removal from existence. The aliens promised to come back within some specified time to carry out the extermination. This galvanized the nations of the earth to set aside their selfish animosities toward each other and work together as brothers and sisters in a crash program to advance their technology and science sufficiently to successfully ward off the coming attack. This, it turned out, was the secret intention of the aliens -- namely to frighten the human race into doing just that, instead of inevitably destroying each other and their planet, as they were obviously well on the way towards doing.
I'm not sure this would work, though. I think some groups are so intractably hateful against each other that they would still seek opportunities to marginalize and take unfair and sometimes even deadly advantage over others, even if faced by a common enemy determined to destroy all of us.
No precept or claim is more suspect or more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.
I'm not sure this would work, though. I think some groups are so intractably hateful against each other that they would still seek opportunities to marginalize and take unfair and sometimes even deadly advantage over others, even if faced by a common enemy determined to destroy all of us.
I read this last night just before I went to bed and spent some time considering it. I think you're right about that, Gunnar... unfortunately. The culture of the GOP has become so far removed from reality and rationality, you can't expect them to act predictably any more than you'd bet on the good behavior at an mental asylum.
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.
I'm not sure this would work, though. I think some groups are so intractably hateful against each other that they would still seek opportunities to marginalize and take unfair and sometimes even deadly advantage over others, even if faced by a common enemy determined to destroy all of us.
I read this last night just before I went to bed and spent some time considering it. I think you're right about that, Gunnar... unfortunately. The culture of the GOP has become so far removed from reality and rationality, you can't expect them to act predictably any more than you'd bet on the good behavior at an mental asylum.
I find the far right fairly predictable. They have a tendency to view the left as evil and therefore wrong on all fronts, so you can predict many issues by how the left believes. Previous to the pandemic I would say the left had more anti-vaccine proponents, and now we see more from the far right because the left endorsed vaccines. Liberals are seen as endorsing mask wearing so the far right takes the opposite view. When I was a kid there was still somewhat of a conservation movement on the right, but as liberals starting endorsing more environmental issues the far right moved in the opposite direction. The earth cannot be warming because liberals say it is.
I find the far right fairly predictable. They have a tendency to view the left as evil and therefore wrong on all fronts, so you can predict many issues by how the left believes.
There's no question this is true. I just meant that I'd be reluctant to predict how they'd react to an obvious, imminent threat to all of humanity. Given what you just pointed out, however, it's likely they'd wait to see how the left reacted and do the opposite, because they're children.
So ultimately, Gunnar's point is probably correct.
Religion is for people whose existential fear is greater than their common sense.
Humanity has survived some pretty serious crises. After two major world wars it has gone for 77 years without such a world wide conflict. After a lengthy Cold War and the nuclear arms race that could easily have destroyed the whole world, calmer minds prevailed and such an end seems far less probable than it did fifty years ago.
I think an all out nuclear war is very unlikely since all the players know this would be the end of them, but I think Putin may use one in the next year or so if Ukraine starts to take back territory Russia has claimed as part of the Russian Federation. This is a real possibility now that superior western weapons and now making their way onto the battle field which could turn the direction of the war such that Ukraine could start to take back some territory. Putin has made nukes a part of their conventional war strategies, and if things start to go badly I think he is very capable of using one in eastern Ukraine saying they are invading Russian territory.
Humanity has survived some pretty serious crises. After two major world wars it has gone for 77 years without such a world wide conflict. After a lengthy Cold War and the nuclear arms race that could easily have destroyed the whole world, calmer minds prevailed and such an end seems far less probable than it did fifty years ago.
I think an all out nuclear war is very unlikely since all the players know this would be the end of them, but I think Putin may use one in the next year or so if Ukraine starts to take back territory Russia has claimed as part of the Russian Federation. This is a real possibility now that superior western weapons and now making their way onto the battle field which could turn the direction of the war such that Ukraine could start to take back some territory. Putin has made nukes a part of their conventional war strategies, and if things start to go badly I think he is very capable of using one in eastern Ukraine saying they are invading Russian territory.
From what I know Russia has been getting some gains, but it is very close to little movement. They do have a lot of territory in the Donbas. Some important weapons have been arriving in the battle field that will help Ukraine. This could change the state of the war allowing Ukraine to possibly take back territory Putin has declared are now part of the Russian federation. I could easily see him using the excuse this is Russian territory as a reason to use a small tactical nuke to force Ukraine to back down and except Russian terms.