Can't we all just get along?

Do you think we will ever see an end to wars and major conflicts?

Would all of us getting along be something we could obtain, and/or sustain? Is it just a hippy pipe-dream, or somewhere in between?

What are your thoughts PC? How do we settle the differences between you and me?

Sadly...it's in the human nature. Nothing is perfect, always want more.

And...there's no peace if we don't have a war.

I guess there is both a geographical and a historical component to take into account in order to answer this question:
- From a historical perspective, the key word is "change" - conflicts as well as periods of peace come and go. Sometimes they are short and intensive, sometimes they are long lived. However, all things change sooner or later in my opinion. The world is in a state of constant fluctuation and stability is rarely the common state of being.
- From a geographical perspective it's a question of scale, with an increased likelihood of conflict in relation to the area: the larger the area the harder it becomes to sustain peace. Even within the limited space of a family living together under one roof, there are bound to be conflicts from time to time. Now these conflicts might not be deep and might be solved quickly, but it's hard to imagine people living closely together without ever having an argument. If you increase this to the city you're living in, even without any full scale conflict going on, there are bound to be some crime at least. In this fashion it goes on all the way to countries and arbitrarily defined regions. Of course - conflict doesn't equal war, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't think of any major part of the world that has not suffered either guerrilla, civil or full scale war during the 20th century, directly or indirectly. Even my country of Sweden that wasn't directly involved in either of the world wars was still highly affected by them.

So the short answer to this question is "yes and no" - peace is a real possibility, but I sadly don't believe in a global and ever lasting peace...

I believe, as several others believe, that the only way for us to achieve global peace is when we are faced with an opponent we cannot beat divided. Only once we have a globally-universal common enemy will humanity know peace from its own self-inflicted wars. Will we see that in our life times? Probably not, but who knows?

We will never live in peace. There will always be some individual who possesses a strong resolve for change within their own country and want to dominate other areas geographically close to them. Humans I think subconsciously have animosity towards something, and that could be triggered at any given time; humans are unpredictable. They can be calm and resolute one minute, snap within the next, but that's not implying that human beings are bi-polar. There's just no such thing as complete peace. There will be a time where someone comes along and disrupts it. We need a sense of peace, but also war, to keep the world balanced. I personally think it's unrealistic to believe in world peace. Treaties and contracts, just like rules, were made to be broken.

I think the only way for there to be peace would be if everyone just kept to themselves or, for lack of better words, minded their own business. That's really what all conflicts get down to: some nation or civilization wanting something that another has, or not approving of the way that another nation or civilization functions. The same applies to people in power. If people in power didn't force certain ways of living, lifestyles, and behavior on citizens, there wouldn't be tyranny. But of course, those are the many defects of the human nature that are likely never going to go away.

zomgitscathy said:

I think the only way for there to be peace would be if everyone just kept to themselves or, for lack of better words, minded their own business. That's really what all conflicts get down to: some nation or civilization wanting something that another has, or not approving of the way that another nation or civilization functions. The same applies to people in power. If people in power didn't force certain ways of living, lifestyles, and behavior on citizens, there wouldn't be tyranny. But of course, those are the many defects of the human nature that are likely never going to go away.

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Very good point. Being the vocal species that we are, we just naturally like sharing our opinions and since opinions aren't theoretically right or wrong, this causes conflict between opposing individuals. We like being expressive individuals, even if we're not as outgoing as others or extroverted it still shows non-verbally. Different people have different ideas of this idealistic world and since every person is unique and don't share the same beliefs, it creates friction, however unnecessary it may be.

Can't we all just get along?

Well if Louis CK says we can't then that's that! Close the thread mods, I think we're done here.

Generally speaking, I think humans are just too selfish and indulgent on their own beliefs to ever come to universal agreement on pretty much anything.

I really agree with Seattle on that. If you think about it on a primitive level, it's simply a bunch of tribal chiefs fighting over this village or that hunting plain or this gold mine or that bride. The only difference is we're a lot more advanced about it. Why? The human condition likes to complicate things for their own sake.

There will never be world peace. People will always be fighting over religion, the economy, poop on the street you name it. Since the beginning of time humans have been fighting over fire. Unless there is an all powerful dictator (I hope that never happens) there will never be world peace

acatfrommars said:

There will never be world peace. People will always be fighting over religion, the economy, poop on the street you name it. Since the beginning of time humans have been fighting over fire. Unless there is an all powerful dictator (I hope that never happens) there will never be world peace

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Should that ever happen, which is quite unlikely, that person would have to be an omniscient being. I believe that having complete chaos or everlasting peace are both unrealistic; the latter being an often idealistic view of the world. Though having a natural balance of them makes the world function as it does now. Thankfully there are countries that have enough positive character to enter allegiances and organizations that promote peace, but those can be broken at any point.

You can't expect everyone to like each other.

We're an ethnocentric culture, meaning people are going to judge another's culture and values based solely on the standards of one's own. Right now, our cultures are so detached, and so different, I can't imagine an amalgamation of them all. I don't want to believe that, but I speculate for the majority of peoples it's true. Of course, this isn't the only reason we as a species don't get along, but it's certainly one of the highest contributing factors.

You can't expect everyone to like each other.

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That doesn't mean people can't be civil. There's nothing preventing common sense. It's a shame there's no chance of that happening on a global scale.

I don't think world peace will ever exist, since humans are just... you know.

Strawberry said:

We're an ethnocentric culture, meaning people are going to judge another's culture and values based solely on the standards of one's own. Right now, our cultures are so detached, and so different, I can't imagine an amalgamation of them all. I don't want to believe that, but I speculate for the majority of peoples it's true. Of course, this isn't the only reason we as a species don't get along, but it's certainly one of the highest contributing factors.

That doesn't mean people can't be civil. There's nothing preventing common sense. It's a shame there's no chance of that happening on a global scale.

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Being civil can come as a foreign concept to some people, unfortunately. You can't help the way people think and act. People like to go against what they know is right and rebel, but common courtesy and sense should be, like you said, simple things that everyone understands.