[ExI] Philosophy Tech Support

[William Flynn Wallace]

​

What then?  Do we settle down and stop fighting?  Or do we find some new
struggle?  Anything else?

spike

What the question asks for is my opinion as to the basic nature of man.
Freud said we have a Death instinct, the main feature of which was
aggression, which came out willy-nilly when we did not let off steam
occasionally.  I can't support that.  Aggression is usually reactive.  So
we won't just fight to be fighting.


Many social psych studies show this:  the more people get, the more they
think they deserve what they are getting.  If income goes up, our level of
expectations goes up right along with it.  Whatever level of income,
luxuries, etc. they get to becomes the new normal and also the new neutral
point at which we are neither satisfied or dissatisfied.  Thus getting
above neutral and being happy is always in the future to a certain extent.
Think of the things we take for granted that were not even in existence 100
years ago or were rare.  You can do the list yourself.  Could you live the
way they did 100 years ago and be happy?  (The first thing that comes to my
mind is:  no Novocain!)


So it goes far beyond basic needs.  We will get used to more things like
cell phones and regard their absence as terrible.  Greed and envy will
still exist as long as some people have what others do not.  Whether this
will lead to more taking by force than now I just dunno. Big wars are
becoming more and more unlikely as nations get more economically
entangled.  *If China were to attack us, we'd just say:  We don't owe you
anything any more and furthermore we are not going to buy anything from
you, and both nations would go into a sull.*
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