OK, tell me where all those civilisations of the past have gone to, because THEY did NOT survived.
Tell me what makes YOU so sure this current global civilisation can survive. I am more than happy to be shown where I am wrong, but if you TRULY disagree with what I am saying, I would like you to provide some clear and unambiguous empirical evidence to back up your assertions. Without that, you are simply complaining that I am just strongly expressing an opinion. I never deny this, in the context that we are speaking of here, but I think that my opinion on this is as good as anybody's that I have seen so far. To help you chew on this: * compassion is the acting out of the ability to see oneself in the other and the recognition that, except for the throw of some cosmic dice, I am he or she and they are me; compassion facilitates the breaking down of the fear and false consciousness which underpins unconscious projection; compassion is a sign and manifestation of authentic being and strength, not weakness; without compassion truly human life is well nigh impossible * ethics is the foundation of civilisation and is the acting out of the ability to see that we each depend on many, many others for our survival and well being and they depend upon us, and that the true genius and strength of humankind is our ability to cooperate with each other rather than a propensity to strive against others * democracy is essentially the systematic implementation of the non-violent resolution of conflict, it requires that everyone's voice be heard and democracy advances as the excessive and aggressive power of the rich and powerful is curtailed and controlled; Karl Popper gave the most succinct explanation of why democracy is both better than all the alternatives and absolutely essential and the basic form of his argument is this: all policies formulated by governments and governing bodies will have unexpected negative consequences, no matter how good the policies, and it is to be expected that at least 50% of the unforeseen consequences will be significantly adverse and negative for those who experience them so it is imperative that the negative consequences of policies be made known to those who govern and that the rulers take notice and actually ameliorate the problems. If the rulers cannot be made to correct these unforeseen negative outcomes then over time the negative outcomes will accrue to the extent that the people feel driven to rebel or vote with their feet and leave the land of the rotten regime. * the advent of scientific method into human culture is what has made the modern world; this modern era is a time of transition in which every traditional belief and practice is being challenged by the application of scientific method and of the fruits of the application of science; in this world of great and ceaseless changes, the continued application of scientific method is and always will be essential for allowing us to adapt to all the unforeseen outcomes of change so far; with scientific method human beings have the ability to journey out into the solar system and beyond, to be citizens of the galaxy, but without scientific method humans will die out on a devastated planet Regards Mark Peaty CDES [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.arach.net.au/~mpeaty/ Klortho wrote: > >> The other thing I do is check to what extent a person's speech and >> writings support and affirm the four fundamental ingredients of >> civilisation: >> Compassion, democracy, ethics and scientific method. No civilisation can >> survive without all four of these. >> >> > > Talk about assertions without any evidence! > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---