Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be.

People are only as good as the world allows them to be, but the modern world does allow us to be pretty good if we have the will.

It is my hope that people will eventually see why they should change. People must have the will to do so or it will not happen, no amount of force can make that change, it must come from within, but I'm open to the possibility that the society as a whole might eventually find that will. With gradual changes, if life becomes less stressful, less competitive, healthier, more communal, empathic in general and the following generations are raised with higher awareness and respect for the strength of human character, respect of nature, and logic then maybe they'll learn to value things different from material vanity and then just maybe things can occur... because who knows the future, and it would be so funny if I was right. Making mundane predictions is just so boring anyway.

Somewhat ironically the most inhumane and unnatural things on this planet originate from humans...

inhumane (adj.)
late 15c., from Latin inhumanus (see inhuman). Originally a variant spelling and pronunciation of inhuman, it appears to have died out 17c. but been revived c.1822 as a negative form of humane.

humane (adj.)
mid-15c., variant of human (cf. german/germane, urban/urbane), used interchangeably with it until early 18c., by which time it had become a distinct word with sense of "having qualities befitting human beings." But inhuman still can be the opposite of humane. The Royal Humane Society (founded 1774) was originally to rescue drowning persons. Such societies had turned to animal care by late 19c.

Best isn't always good, it may simply be the lesser of evils.

Isn't it ironic that the purpose of all wars, is peace...

If you are insulted because you are inconsiderate then you deserve to be insulted.

All human will is fundamentally arbitrary by nature. Our preferences are either of biological origin or arbitrary choices. They cannot be fundamentally justified. When it comes right down to it, I will fight you (or your will), not because I would be right or you would be wrong, but because that's the way I am. If you wish to pathologically kill me and there is no logical reasoning which would change your mind, I am going to fight you, and if necessary, kill you in order to preserve myself, and I will feel no regret, because I never had a choice. There may not be a logical reason why I should live, but it is my highest value and compulsion, the preservation of my own consciousness, and it is absolutely non-negotiable. Equally well I will fight to preserve my environment so that I may live, enjoy and keep enjoying what we have. Of course in practice it is very difficult to determine when drastic measures would be necessary and by the time you manage to determine that, it may already be too late. However the point is that you can't get an ought from an is...

We don't put people to prisons because they had a choice and they deserve to be punished. We put people to prisons because ultimately that's the way we enforce our will and optimize our environments and our lives. The world may be deterministic, perhaps the murderers we born to murder, and they never had a choice in the matter, but ultimately that is irrelevant. We simply do what we must. Also, we tolerate certain things to certain extent because that is the path of least resistance. By giving up some of our rights and by allowing others to do things which we don't like, we are actually choosing the path of least resistance, lesser of evils and perhaps in doing so maximize our freedom to do and be what we most wish. Our current actions are a result of an optimization which hopes to maximize our happiness. We chose the way we chose because we acted on our best knowledge at the time. There can never be genuine regret because given what we were and what we knew, we could do nothing wrong and nothing different in the same circumstances. Of course many people are still subjectively speaking wrong, but the reason is simply that they are either uneducated (and should be educated) or their fundamental values and compulsions are in conflict with ours. We work to correct this by fighting their will one way or another with the intent of getting them to agree with us and getting them to work constructively towards our goals.

Some of my values include the maximization of average happiness of all the people on this planet and minimizing the suffering of all conscious creatures, or at least my expectations of such. These are complicated issues however. For example, it is far from clear to me that even distribution of resources (financial or otherwise) would result in maximizing the total sum of happiness on this planet, or freedoms for that matter either. Happiness probably doesn't scale linearly based on freedom or available resources. It could be that the happiness of certain number of "rich" people will contribute more to the total sum of happiness of all the people on this planet that the happiness of the "poor" people would be reduced by the uneven distribution of wealth which allows "rich" people to exist. It is also unclear how to optimize the total sum of all happiness long term because having certain amount of suffering and pain now, might result in larger amount of happiness long term. We mustn't simplify things too much. There is an expectation of the future happiness as well and as a collective mankind we should plan ahead for an eternity to come, or at least to certain vaguely foreseeable future, say 100 generations into the future. Then it's yet another question, is happiness of greatest value or would knowledge and understanding, power, control etc. perhaps be more valuable than happiness. These are all personal preferences and fundamentally arbitrary by nature, however, luckily humans are quite similar in certain ways which still makes co-operation and agreement possible to fair extent.

Another twist to the story is that I tend to place infinite value on the continued existence of my own consciousness. Therefore, even though in general I consider myself a rather moral person, I would, given the ultimatum, choose my own life over any number of people, including the whole of mankind. However, I place high value on the continued existence of mankind, nature and this planet in general as well, because I very much enjoy them as such and plan on enjoying them as long as I'll live, which hopefully (though unlikely) is something I'll be able to choose, perhaps measured in millions of years. It should be fairly easy to see that maximizing the happiness and education of other people, at least to fair extent, also most of the time maximizes your own happiness.

“All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.” ~ Aristotle

“A casual stroll through a lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.” ~ Friedrich Neitzsche

No good deed goes unpunished. - This means that life is unfair and people can do or try to do good things and still end up in a lot of trouble.

Understanding comes through logic, hard work, research and coherent assumptions. Keep that in mind while considering a religion (I find no place for it in my life). Letting go of material things does not require a religion, you can devote your life to "immaterial" accomplishments easily without it. Helping people, promoting knowledge, learning new skills or simply enjoying life are simple examples, and I would argue that their virtue without religion is much higher than it would be otherwise. The highest virtue and greatest display of willpower I can imagine is to be yourself and to be a perfect person, or at least strive to be as perfect as you can, without any external reason to do so.

The problem is the acceptance of bad ideas and acceptance of actions based on bad choices and bad logic. I consider that all nations have a responsibility to their citizens to educate and guide their ways of thinking to directions which we the "owners" of our countries consider correct, logical and best. Fortunately the choice is still ours. Anything that is culturally unacceptable is so because we choose it to be. We the people, we make the laws, we make the rules...

It's the thought that counts. Who gives a fuck about what's manly or who's the boss, childish and narrow minded words. Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. Any dangerous ideology which oppresses people and enslaves their minds is deserving of all ridicule. It's like pollution, even though short-term restricting polluting and consumption is bad for the economy it's still necessary as long as pollution is associated with consumption.

The fact that people don't agree on terms is to some extent irrelevant. We can define words as being what the majority understands them to be. People either accept the common definition or not, but there is a practical statistical penalty in not accepting or using the common definition which is quite obvious if there is a need to interact with other people. I would say it is irrelevant what things are called in general, but it is still necessary to call them something at least if you intend to interact with other people.

Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine! The universe is just a simple finite deterministic computer and so are all the people in it.

Stop muddling the pond by using words incoherently... That's just a red herring. We're discussing reality here, not semantics.

You don't think the world is real because you know the world is real. You think the world is real because your experiences feel meaningful and the world can be felt. It doesn't matter whether you are a human being or if there are other minds. What matters is that your observations play by the rules of the game and you can do no other besides play the game by the only rules you know, keep observing more and hope you may learn new rules.

Having money allows me to ignore people who I don't want to have anything to do with.

Having that choice makes me happy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preference_utilitarian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is-ought_problem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-cognitivism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_skepticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coherentism
http://www.etymonline.com

I could almost agree, but I didn't pay for my education, I paid for a chance to work at a top facility. Not that education costs anything in my country except indirectly anyway. Perhaps also for credibility which in principle though I wouldn't need if I had something tangible enough to get decent publications in peer reviewed journals.

http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1710093

http://extremelongevity.net/wp-content/uploads/vegans.pdf

The adjusted HR for all-cause mortality in vegans was 0.85 (95% CI, 0.73-1.01); in lacto-ovo–vegetarians, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.82-1.00); in pesco-vegetarians, 0.81 (95% CI, 0.69-0.94); and in semi-vegetarians, 0.92 (95% CI, 0.75-1.13) compared with nonvegetarians.