What's the world's biggest problem?

[Gohan32]

What an auspicious question to take on, right? Well, what do you think is the biggest problem facing the world?

I say it is overpopulation. We humans are just keep procreating and using up everything around us like agent Smith was saying in The Matrix. We are a virus.

What do you think is our biggest problem? This time we don't have to be dialectic for once.

[Aerania]

The worst problem is humanity's conflicting ideals.

Major Ideal One: αιέν αριστεύειν (always strive for perfection).
In general: Be the best. Which translates into be the richest, the smartest, the most beautiful, etc etc etc.

Major Ideal Two: αγάπα τον πλησίον σου (love those close to you - the "love your neighbor" was a mistranslation)
In general: Love. Which translates in loving people, animals, talk with kindness, helping, etc.
Can you see the conflict?

Ideal One is comparative (superlative to be exact); I am the smartest so you are stupid in comparison to me. I am the best so you obviously are not the best, you are lesser. No matter how well you handle it, there will always be a factor of envy either by you or by other people.
In a more common sense, we destroy environment and people to get richer, in pshychological level we have syndroms of inferiority or superiority, envy that leads to hatres and so on. (I will not expand here on something so widely known and argued by better writers).

Ideal Two directly in actuality conflicts with Ideal One. Ideal Two seems to present a higher ideal but it is also harder to achieve as our instincts (survival - of the fitest) and education (both school and social), often get in the way and become priority.

Sure we are taught to be nice and kind and take care of babies, animals, environment, but no matter how kind you are, you won't get in college by that attribute. Not getting in college equals lame job, equals little money, equals failling Ideal One.

[WildBanana]

Well since i got warned for posting a one-worded reply, with my post being deleted, in respect of this forum's members and of my opinion about this topic itself, ill express my thought prolixly:

World's worst problem are people themselves: just like i did here, they cant respect simple set rules;
they are selfish, they do bother to help others just to get a profit from it, they do not stop pollutioning the atmosphere, they do discriminate, they do exploit others, etcetera.

Please do not reply to this statements with sentences like 'Not everyone is like this or like that', because:

1) Such a perfect person is not THE SOCIETY, but PART OF IT, with other people, the majority of it, being like that and

2) Im talking in general, not just about said few perfect ones.

Just think about it, think of any of the modern society's problems: u will most likely find out they depend on humanity itself, almost by definiton.

There's not such a thing as an ideal world with as society that has no problems, because people's existence itself involves given situations, contexts and thus, more specifically, problems.

[aaerdan]

Indifference.

That is the civilised world's biggest problem.

Folks just can't be bothered, either by way of action or inaction.

When the folks who appear to care the most (about anything beyond the individual) seem to abound in the least civilised (note: this can be seen as subjective) parts of the world, intent on dragging the rest to their level ... well, we're in for quite a ride, and it's downhill all the way.

[Gohan32]

I feel like Wild Banana's and Aerania's posts tie in with the overpopulation. The biggest problem is people, and then Aerania says the ideal to strive for perfection is our greatest downfall since we can not be egalitarian in that mindset. I agree with both viewpoints, BUT I see them as subsets of overpopulation. There are just so darn many of us and there is a growing cultural value of devaluing others like my colleagues said.

I still believe overpopulation to rule as our biggest problem to face. Any cultural demoralization is just worsened by overcrowding the already packed metropolises.

Can someone come up with anything worse than swarming humans?

[Aerania]

I agree overpopulation makes things worse but, I don't see it as the real or underlying cause of the problem.
If that was so, I think that small vilages with say 100 inhabitants would be sage, peaceful, moral, blissful areas.
As often seen in news, unfortunately they are not. We see quite some cases of children imprisoned in basements, raped for years and so on, happening in small villages and towns.

Overpopulation causes problems, in particular when people of different social morals (beliefs, ideals, customs, etc) have to interact. Beliefs, opinions and morals are often in conflict, sometimes creating a dangerous *bomb* of sentiments and thoughts.
But why bad things still happen in underpopulated areas?

[WildBanana]

Originally Posted by Aerania

I agree overpopulation makes things worse but, I don't see it as the real or underlying cause of the problem.
If that was so, I think that small vilages with say 100 inhabitants would be sage, peaceful, moral, blissful areas.
As often seen in news, unfortunately they are not. We see quite some cases of children imprisoned in basements, raped for years and so on, happening in small villages and towns.

Overpopulation causes problems, in particular when people of different social morals (beliefs, ideals, customs, etc) have to interact. Beliefs, opinions and morals are often in conflict, sometimes creating a dangerous *bomb* of sentiments and thoughts.
But why bad things still happen in underpopulated areas?

I do agree with all of what Aerania said, that would have been the exact way i would have replied to Gohan32's last post.

Humanity's problems' primary cause is not related the number of people in said house, city, country, nation, or in whatever given form of society by any mean; it may indeed reperesent a threat in its extreme forms (overpopulation, uderpopulation), but this possible threat would just be a derivation of how people of those populations are.

[Moshineko]

Funny, when I read the title, I automatically wanted to nail you for not defining what "problem" was.

Logically, overpopulation isn't a problem at all. Humanity is a species. Species evolve to spread their genes. Humanity has done so damn well at it, along with having an opposable thumb, that we can now change much of our environment to our will, allowing us to spread our genes even further.

So far, evolution is doing very well by us, and vice versa.

Now, if you define "problem" as "what causes human quality of life to not be what we want it to be", you'll get a much different answer.

The issues there are: lack of ambition, and excess of want.

We want lots of things, but (again, due to how we evolved), are unwilling to give up short term gains to get those things.

As noted, from an evolutionary standpoint, this makes perfect sense. If I don't want, I won't club that bastard over there for his wolly mammoth steak, and I'll starve to death before I get to bone his woman. And if I pass on that steak because I'm pretty sure I can get a wolly mammoth of my own tomorrow, I could easily be to weak to hunt, or just get crushed by the mammoth. Thus, one in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Overpopulation is actually not a problem if, and only if, we can count on humanity's long-standing tradition of coming up with the solution in the nick of time. Right now, I'm hearing a lot more about people wanting to build a space elevator. This, coupled with some upgrades in the colony-making and space-travel arenas, would perfectly solve this "problem". Without the problem, we wouldn't be compelled to make this advancement.

So, in a way, the problem that you present is actually one of humanity's strengths. Making a problem so big, it can't be ignored.

[Andhotiel]

I think the biggest problem is Intelligence. We think we are somehow superior to anything else because we are conscious of ourselves, yet "dumbest" species should teach us a few things. i.e, that we shouldn't harm anything else in the world besides for eating. Let alone harm our own race, for any reason at all. We shouldn't do that. No other race has wars. Clans of animals may fight for territory but it is actually rare that they WILL fight and even rarer that they actually kill one of theirs. But us, we think it's okay as long as we aren't from the same country. Also, intelligence as in reflexion, beliefs in unknown, but then it becomes too personnal, as I think that religion is one of the causes to many of our useless wars and thus, should be inexistant. Sometimes I wish I was a cat or something that doesn't feel anything and just lives and chills out.

[LadySubaru]

The biggest problem in the world is the constant robbing blind of the people by the wall street money masters. the second largest problem is that people keep fucking, and theyre just building more shit. I dont understand how we can go deer hunting or boar hunting when they exceed their population limits, yet we cant hunt humans when we ourselves exceed our population limit. Intelligence and illiteracy would be the next two big problems.