Hypothetically
you have now inherited the world's problems. Billions of people with
different needs expect you to help them. Where do you start? Do you
start in your own country or backyard?
I'm going to attempt to list and defend my priorities as King of the World as I hope others will.
My list is short:
1) Religion
2) Human Overpopulation
3) Education
In our hypothesis it is assumed as King of the World you can affect change on your chosen problems.
Defense of my priorities:
Worthy Conflicts/Issues:
Abortion, Energy Crisis, Global Warming, World Economy, Wars, Gay
Marriage/Equal Rights, Technology, Pedophiles, Nuclear Weapons, Global
Warming, Saving Animals/Habitats, Peace on Earth, Socialism/Greed in
the name of Capitalism, Technology, Despots, Birth Control.
As an example "Peace on Earth"
will suffice. Peace on Earth is not reality based, since all life
involves conflict. From trees blocking out the sun from other plants to
humans warring over resources, etc. As long as life exists, so will
conflict.
Peace on Earth can only become reality with the
extinction of life. To wish for peace and the existence of life, while
laudable, is a futile attempt to conjure up two diametrically opposed
ideals (such as good and evil) and ask them to play nice.
All of
my three priorities play negative roles in "Peace on Earth". Religious
views are a cause of overpopulation, which leads to wars over finite
resources or wars over religious beliefs.
The less educated
are preyed upon buy religions, to grow their flock. Creating a
self-fulfilling prophecy of the above mentioned atrocities.
The genesis of human retardation I propose is religion. We are merely children with better toys. We now have the ability to create our own apocalypse.
I wouldn't hand a child a loaded gun. Religion
is a nuclear weapon, it teaches us not to advance emotionally,
rationally, "Accept the words we wrote and re-wrote... that God told us
to".
Religion takes no responsibility for the souls its
teachings brought into the world. Religion fights knowledge (Galileo as
example), religions only want warriors, God's warriors (cannon fodder).
In 1800 the world's approximate human population was .98
billion in the roughly two hundred years since human population has
spiked to 6.7 billion. The demand for Earth's finite resource has
spiked with our growth. Add to this the industrial revolution and the
resulting pollution and we arrive at our current state of events.
Humanity
itself is has been here but a partial blink of an eye. Life on Earth
has existed for hundreds of millions of years, humans 50-70 thousand.
Yet in the last 200 years we've added approximately 6 billion people.
It is estimated that 10% of all the humans to have inhabited Earth are
alive today scrambling for resources.
Without action the
exploding human population will inevitably lead to more wars over
resources. This is where education could play a positive role and
religion is detrimental. Religion for preying on the less educated (for
their own gain) and preaching against birth control and sex education.
This
is not to say religion doesn't have positive attributes. However,
history provides evidence that religion's actions have had a more
negative impact than their supposedly peaceful, moral and ethical
teachings.
Abortion, Gay Marriage, Birth Control and Stem Cell Research
are just a few of the conflicts we're engaged in solely due to
religious beliefs. We would not be using political means (votes),
expending tax dollars (separation of church and state) or arguing
amongst ourselves (as vehemently) over these issues if religious views
were not involved. Education also plays a part. Overpopulation is aided
here as well.
Global Warming, War, Pollution,
Dwindling Resources, Saving Animals/Habitats, Energy Crisis, Fossil
Fuels, Terrorism, Alternative Energy, Starvation, Pandemics
just to name a few, are all impacted by my three picks: Religion which
aids overpopulation which in turn is aided by lack of education which
aids religion.
Religion, overpopulation and education
feed off each other, in a vicious circle, and create the above
mentioned issues as well as many I missed or do not know of. They also
feed the future conflicts yet to be faced.
This is an abbreviated defense of my three nominees for top priorities if I were "King of the World".
Is it realistic to think humans could solve these problems? The evidence leans heavily towards "no".
We pay lip service to the future and live for today.
Anyway,
thanks for taking the time to read this. It's a hypothesis, a series of
questions with infinite answers followed by infinite questions.
I
look forward to your responses. Choose one or three or five... I'd like
to see what drives us, what makes you passionate, angry, happy...
Please comment or write your own response. Rating is appreciated.