what is the biggest problem facing soceity today? drugs? war? social deprevation? wealth gap? inequality? failure of democracy?
macca, when starting a topic it would be more helpful if you said how you felt on the subject and perhaps give us a bit more meat to discuss rather than asking the most open ended questions in the world ever. Philosophy is a huge topic and to make these discussions worthwhile we need to narrow down the topics.
Including your own angle on the issue also helps with the debate but just asking lots of short sharp questions is just a cheap way of starting a new topic. I really wouldn’t know where to start with answering this topic because its so ambiguous!
ok then i will give my views, i didn’t at frist because i wasn’t aiming to crush the covernsation but it appears to have back fired.
anyway i think the biggest afflictions are the wealth and the failure of democracy. the wealth gap has been created by the expansion of capitalism, and as it had widened those at the thin end of the wedge have seemingly lost interest inpolitics. but as the less well off try to fight for better working conditions or pay the government (in this case Labour, who should be backing the people on low paid jobs instead of stabbing them in the back) criticises them and calls them “wreckers”.
if the wealth gap is closed, not irradicated, then the people who need the money the most will get it and can then subsequently work in better conditions and live in better conditions. as it is the gap is widening and the situation will only get worse.
id say just society in general. no one cares anymore. no one wants to solve any problems. no one looks up on the information. the morale of people is the cause for most of the problems economicaly and politicaly. happy people work better more efficiently and think clearer. they also spread the love like hippies 
. its every man for himself. nations dont work well when they arent unified.
Macca,
- your original question is too broad for me, even with your views expressed. To count one source more important than another is ambiguous. Since there are so many factors to each one. As if unemployment was caused by one factor, or the inequality between the rich and the poor. There are so many factors that writers spend decades researching only one of these topics and their books on the matter are still seen as not thorough enough, and criticisms sky rocket. I think it is more important to identify the causes and effects of these problems evident in our society, before we can judge which one is worse and which is better and which should be solved first.
CBA stated:
id say just society in general. no one cares anymore. no one wants to solve any problems. no one looks up on the information. the morale of people is the cause for most of the problems economicaly and politicaly. happy people work better more efficiently and think clearer. they also spread the love like hippies . its every man for himself. nations dont work well when they arent unified.
CBA, your first statement is so depressing and so wrong. You truly think that no one cares anymore? No one wants to solve any problems? Your right that there is a lack of effort, but there are still those who devote their lives to caring and making change. Ghandi didn’t give up, Martin Luther King didn’t give up, Buckminster Fuller didn’t give up, Mother Theresa didn’t give up…I’m choosing these big names to get a point across. But the truth is there are alot of people within each society that devote much of their income to the development of parks and the cleaning up of the streets. Many people donate large sums of money to the rectifing of the homeless problem and to hospitals to help find cures to diseases that mame. It’s true that happy people work better and more efficient, now you have a purpose, so why don’t you and I go and do something about this new found information!?! Let’s go to work and try to make our co-workers happy - what do you say? Don’t tell me you don’t care…please don’t. It’s also true that nations don’t work well when they are not unified, for amazing things happened in history when nations were unified.
- You have only scratched the surface in defining the problem, why not define it further, find out statistics, corporations that are following the same or similar idea as you, see who you can talk to, find out what can be done. Or you words will become a self-fulfilling prophecy…
It’s your choice, and mine, I have already decided many years ago. What’s your choice?
Sorry I meant not enough people. I don’t even mean everyone. I think that was one of my first posts. I was just excited and wanted to get my opinion out.
I don’t think there are enough role models for people. There are no heros. There are no good guys. With the acception of a select few. But mostly it’s the rich we look up to. They aren’t always necessarily happier but they live life easier than the rest of us and I think that’s what we are envious of. I heard that in japan their bosses are friendly to their workers and encourage good behavior. That they are simpathetic when their workers are having problems at home. Their economy is really good. That could be a lie though. Justs just one possible answer
That’s kind of economical though. I guess I think that that would also be a solution to the social problems. Toys are great distractions. If everyone had what they wanted there wouldn’t be a need to go out and do negative things. But then there is also the chance that they could just take it all for granted. I really don’t know someone keep it going…
Could the problem be that we’re incapable of achieving that perfect society status because the idea that we should exist in nurishing societies is just ridiculous?
Appreciate some response to this question.
Well, I don’t think that it is ridiculous, it’s just not a possibility. The concept of the Utopian society has been around forever and socialism/communism probably was it’s best effort. Logically, it all works on paper but in reality it is an impossiblity.
It would probably work if everyone involved put forth the same effort. It seems that in a communist environment, those who work the hardest are left with the same reward as those who put forth the least effort. This leaves some unhappy and some unfairly content. Even if, theoretically, everybody put forth the same effort, you still only get what you put into it. So why not practice democracy/capitalism? We reap what we sow. Supposedly.
I don’t really know much about this stuff. Anybody else have any thoughts?
I’m often struck my definitions of a utopian society here and in other threads. It almost always seems to revolve around everybody else caring or nourishing ‘you’ and/or getting anything/everything ‘you’ want (new toys). Radical democracy is the belief that one discovers, develops, and creates that ‘you’ through democratic participation in a society. The idea of a nourishing state is stifling (Mama’s world) and the concept of new toys is uninteresting, it only increases consumption. They both represent a very static idea of identity.
I have no idea what the biggest problem is today – perhaps the lack of thought combined with cultural inertia.
Now, how much more vague can I make that. 