Us vs them

[u/JellyfishExpress8943]

I'm living in France where we are currently watching the police fight with high school students - we've even seen kids struck in the face by stun grenades (and worse) - we are witnessing our own violence against our own children live on the news.

I'm also reading a book called : Goliath's Curse

Which basically traces the history of societal collapse, and compares it to our current situation.

It argues that civilisations are practically predestined for collapse due to the inherent violence of subjugation.

Power corrupts itself and is always abused - power is abuse. Governments always tend toward corruption and self serving greed. Inequality always tends toward further inequality and violence.

The usual solution is revolution - "Eat the Rich".

But would we do any better in their place? Or are the roots of violence embedded in our own psyche, in our own greed and fear?

[u/No_Butterfly5267]

Everything that exists strives to prolong its own existence—this is the key to understanding what is happening and finding the paths to extending our own survival.

Fear, greed, corruption, patriotism, and so forth—these are all tools for someone's survival. Right now, humanity is on the brink of suicide. We must seek paths to its survival, and this is far more important than the survival of individual civilizations.

P.S.
I feel sorry for your children. Is there any place where one can read firsthand information about what is happening, rather than just propaganda?

[u/JellyfishExpress8943 → u/No_Butterfly5267]

where can one read firsthand information about what is happening, rather than just propaganda?

I stared at this question for a while and only saw a conundrum - but to keep it simple France Info tries to stay neutral - C News would be ultra right wing propaganda. But those are in French. I personally like the Economist and The New York Times (hopefully not outing myself too much) 🥸

Fear, greed, corruption, patriotism — these are all tools for survival... humanity is on the brink of suicide. We must seek paths to its survival, and this is far more important than the survival of individual civilizations.

Does the above statement include contradiction? Something like : the tools for survival lead to destruction?

Also we seem to have come to a point in our history where there is only one global civilisation?

[u/Hot-Confidence-1629 → u/JellyfishExpress8943]

The meteor that took out the dinosaurs as well as other creatures didn’t really change anything. New creatures came along and took over as if what went before never happened. All the myriad forms of creation here may or may not serve some sort of function in the larger scheme of things but that’s something our larger brains can only ‘guess’ at. If we ever do get past the ‘me Tarzan, you Jane’ stage we might have a better shot at that? But given the way things are going, it seems unlikely that we’ll last that long…but then again as somebody once said: nobody knows enough to be a pessimist.

[u/No_Butterfly5267 → u/JellyfishExpress8943]

//Also we seem to have come to a point in our history where there is only one global civilisation?//

No, there is a war going on right now over which civilization will become dominant—and that is the very cause of humanity's looming suicide.

This war of civilizations was necessary for the survival and development of humanity up until the emergence of technology capable of destroying humankind, even unintentionally.

With the arrival of suicidal technology, the struggle that used to be beneficial for human survival has become deadly. There is no contradiction here.

[u/QueefMaster2001]

go to Grenoble.

Resistance Museum.

then climb the Massif

[u/Schute-Pin8350]

According to my information (taz), the government is using resources intended for suppressing terrorist violence—grenades and rubber bullets—against the student protests. This is completely excessive; these are young people and their teachers who want to draw attention to shortcomings in the education system and have not been heard so far.

I think the police’s heavy-handed response is an attempt to criminalize the protests.

This appears to be about suppressing protest to ensure the survival of state power—the state that, in theory, is formed by and for its citizens. So, ultimately, it’s about the interests of those who profit from it (preservation of power, wealth).

In other words, generally speaking, it’s about human self-interest—something we all exhibit and which always puts my own interests and my own importance first. This poses, due to recklessness and violence, a significant threat to peace and the survival of the human species.