What is wrong with the world?

[Polarbear]

Neither hospitals, schools, or towns would be necessary without civilization.

So you are saying diseases and injuries wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for mean old society? Don't you enjoy the comforts cities and towns offer?

 

[crocusj]

Did the OP ask what's wrong with him? He asked what's wrong with the world. And there is plenty wrong with the world.

That was his question. His statement that preceded it was: "It is my belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way human beings nowadays live their lives". Therefore, unless he is excluding himself from this statement, I see no reason not to ask how his life is wrong. I always think that the best place to start is at the begining.

 

[Quagmire]

So you are saying diseases and injuries wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for mean old society?

There would be far fewer diseases minus civilization: almost all infectious diseases and all degenerative ones are the product of lifestyle.

Non-agrarian cultures are practically free of disease. As far as injuries go, the hunter/gatherer and nomadic herdsman cultures are were/are almost as adept at dealing with most of those as we are.

As far as those injuries that would prove fatal or permanently disabling without modern medicine, oh well, I'm not saying the un-civilized lifestyle is perfect, just better.

Don't you enjoy the comforts cities and towns offer?

Is whether or not we enjoy something an accurate gauge of it's worth? Alcoholics enjoy drinking. Drug addicts enjoy getting high.

 

[ImmortalFlame]

Neither hospitals, schools, or towns would be necessary without civilization.

Hence why civilization is awesome.

 

[Caladan]

And what can we as people do to change it?

It is my belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way human beings nowadays live their lives. This wrongness is part of what is fueling the unhappiness inherent in today's culture and the increasing divide between man and nature. I want some honest opinions. What's wrong with the world? And how can we change it?

The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

 

[Quagmire]

Hence why civilization is awesome.

Not seeing the connection there.

 

[Marble]

And what can we as people do to change it?

When Ramana Maharshi was in his body, now and then people (Westerners & Indians) came to him and asked him what they could do to make this world a better place, to lighten the burden of the suffering, to bring people nearer to God.
His answer was always the same: First find out who it is who asks these questions, then you can reform the world if you still think it is necessary.

 

[Straw Dog]

And what can we as people do to change it?

We can't change it directly. We can only change ourselves consciously or allow ourselves to be changed unconsciously. In practice, a bit of both seems to occur. There's that age old wisdom of changing the things that we are able to, accepting the things that we cannot, and having the good sense to discern between the two.

It is my belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way human beings nowadays live their lives. This wrongness is part of what is fueling the unhappiness inherent in today's culture and the increasing divide between man and nature. I want some honest opinions. What's wrong with the world? And how can we change it?

There's nothing wrong with the world other than it is evolving, like everything else in existence. We could get into the relative nature of 'right' and 'wrong', but I'll just stick with the measure of happiness illustrated in the OP.

You certainly have some valid points about the alienation of the mind from nature. The subsequent unhappiness is the mind's way of announcing that something needs to be addressed in the way we perceive the world or our behavior within it needs to be consciously altered. I don't know that we can necessarily pin-point any one specific thing as being that which is fundamentally wrong as it probably involves a great number of different factors in the way we're taught to perceive ourselves and the world.

The fact that people such as yourself are questioning our dominant cultural perceptions implies that internal change is already occurring to some degree and all is not lost. The only recommendations I can offer are more awareness of what's going on around us and within us followed by appropriate action relative to that expanded awareness. Also, I would say not to get too worked up trying to save the world as a whole, but focus on the specific problems we encounter within our immediate frame of reference and within our communities. We each just have to do our bit. As for where the total process will eventually lead, I cannot say. I'm just trying to enjoy the journey.

 

[Jehovah'sWitness]

We are clearly shown the problem with the world at 1 John 5:19
"We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." so the world at the moment is under Satans grasp

What can we do about it?
1 John 2:15-17) Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him;*because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world.Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.

So we need to make sure we are on the right side of God when this world system does pass away

 

[Sir Doom]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the world. It's hard to say there is, considering we have nothing but our imagination to compare it to. There aren't any other worlds to point at and say, "See? That's what a good world is supposed to be."

The only place these other "better" worlds can exist is in our imagination. Unfortunately, right along side those imagined better worlds are a whole slew of imagined worse ones. Just be glad we are somewhere in the middle and that most people would prefer it to get better as we go. That is really the case even if action doesn't match intention.

 

[arthra]

We're in a state of transition and that always causes more stress and tension...Some of the things happening include

cultural changes due to inventions which isn't a bad thing but it can accelerate anxiety..such as improved communication with each other which is good but it can also be missused by some..

Stress from extremes of wealth and poverty.. We seem to have greater extremes between those who have a lot and those who have less and less..this causes more tension...

Culture wars can cause stress between competing groups with different cultural mores..

Multi-cultural society can be stressful to those who want less change..

Generational gaps can cause stress between people ... My grandmother never really got used to cooking with electricity.. She also never learned to drive a car.. Today my children are much more fluent on the internet and accept things I didn't take for granted ...

So we have to learn to live with one another and cooperate with eahc other better to reduce some of the stress..

Military interventiuons I think need to be supported by a world body like the UN instead of unilateral interventions..

We need to be more accepting of multi-culturalism and a variety of religions than our parents did..

Education needs to be more available to people and less costly...The astronomical tuitions need to be brought under control and we need more universities without walls and have more cyber classrooms.

So these are a few things we can do...

 

[Sir Doom]

We're in a state of transition and that always causes more stress and tension...

I agree completely with this. I would take it a step further and say that we are always in a state of transition and always will be and that level of transition grows in scope exponentially.

This is a mixed blessing (no pun intended) but its really the way the universe has always seemed to work. Through conflict comes growth, through growth comes conflict. Its a never ending cycle of improvement that gets faster and faster the longer it goes.

I'd say it is pretty hard to determine if our own semi-controlled influence on that whole process is helping or hurting. I'm sort of a ride out the storm kinda guy, though.

 

[kerravon]

And what can we as people do to change it?

It is my belief that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way human beings nowadays live their lives. This wrongness is part of what is fueling the unhappiness inherent in today's culture and the increasing divide between man and nature. I want some honest opinions. What's wrong with the world? And how can we change it?

An example of something wrong in the world is that women are raped. When others are posting "there's nothing wrong with the world, it's you that needs to change", I call b*s*t and always reference this simple truism - women have the right to not be raped. I think that people who quibble over that right aren't worth debating, and we can simply take this as an absolute truth. We can then tentatively add more things to that, e.g. "people have freedom of speech without fear of having their tongues literally cut out".

If you follow this process somewhat, I believe you will end up with the position "what is common between the world's liberal democracies is as close to "good" as we can get".

The next question then is "what can we do to get the whole world full of liberal democracies?".

There is one obvious answer to that question - Obama needs to nod his head to authorize the US military and allies to liberate the world's dictatorships. You may prefer to do nothing. But there's what's possible. Convert the whole world (except China) to liberal democracies with a few years of war.

Personally I don't see any insurmountable barrier to achieving that. To get Obama (or some other politician) to authorize the war machine to go into action requires you to get say 90% of Americans to agree with this agenda, so that they can put pressure on their politicians to take action. Since there is freedom of speech in America, there is no barrier to presenting your case to Americans (via TV ads or whatever). It's just a matter of understanding humans, so that you can present the right argument to them to get them to "get with the program".

There is nothing standing in the way of you understanding humans. It's a matter of research and experimentation, and I believe that that is where significant effort should be directed (to get people to support wars of liberation). Note that future wars of liberation should be conducted along the Libyan model where there are minimal ground forces used, and you do not stay to do nation-building.

Let me know if you want to join forces.