Human Potential

[ondrej]

I just wonder.. do you think that humanity will ever have a potential to live in a place without laws, to live in harmony with Nature? Well.. looks like an utopia now, it seems that most of people actually couldn't live without laws and commanding. But maybe it's just us. We are just too much affected by our time so we have no abbility to imagine a totally different way of thinking. I know there are lots of people with very high mindset but generally speaking people are not perfect, far from it. For example democracy and so called "globalization". I enjoy all the conquests and freedoms of our age and I am glad for it, but there is certainly better system than democracy. We just don't know it yet and it's the same with all.

Do you agree that since Descartes, there could be many things done better, and do you feel any hope for humanity, us, that we will find a path of awareness and understanding?

Thanks for your answers .

[skydust]

i personally think its a matter of development in awareness, in ourselves and thereby the world and how we affect it by our actions/thoughts. once we hit the critical mass, i do believe it is perfectly possible, and inevitable, that we will reach a tipping point where things change towards the reality you describe. i hope i will live to see it.

[AndyMartin]

We may not always need laws in terms of relying on a punitive system to enforce ethical behavior, but remember--nobody is born enlightened. Children need rules in order to learn to live without rules. We are still children as a species, and someday we may grow up. But even then we will still have children among us who need to be taught. I think it is less important whether we have laws than the structures and methods that are used to teach correct and compassionate behavior. Right now they are punitive, that is enforced through fear of the consequences to the individual. This is an egocentric method that reinforces egocentric thinking; that is, it is all centered around the effects of certain behavior on the individual who is acting. We need institutions and pedagogies that teach us to act based on concern for the well being of world outside ourselves. Certain individuals have been teaching that for thousands of years and we still haven't gotten it on the whole, so I wouldn't hold my breath for a quantum leap. But hopefully we're ready to take a few more baby steps soon.