QwertzOne t1_it9lppi wrote on October 21, 2022 at 11:05 PM

Reply to comment by [deleted] in A new UN report explores how to make human civilization safe from destruction. There’s a way to make civilization extinction-proof. But it won’t be easy. by mossadnik

I think it's part of current system. You're expected to deliver, sometimes it's hard or impossible and that's when bullshit starts. We prefer to bullshit, because it has less consequences for us than acknowledging problem and spending additional resources to get it right. No one will correlate long term success to your actions, but they will correlate short term failures, because how could your estimations/plans be wrong?

We only want to grow, to win, to prosper, so even slightest failure is not acceptable, so in this system we prefer low risk quick wins, instead of actual improvements that pose risk of failure or going over the budget/time.

Some people don't care about politics, but we live in systems that make us to act in certain way, but we reject everything that's not going according to our plans as irrelevant outliers, so we're currently blind to all mistakes that we make, we play to this system rules.

That's how we end up in situation where maybe half of the humanity or less treats climate changes seriously, but no one actually wants to do anything about it, because it's not profitable. You won't gain support by saying that degrowth has to be considered seriously, that we need to spend money on green energy and do something about oil companies, that we need to stop producing unrecyclable, unrepairable crap, that we need to stop deforestation, because all of that hits interests of some rich companies that want to make profit, so they will convince proper people, spread misinformation and status quo for them is secure, while our environment is dying.

I lost faith in this system, it's just ridiculous that we live in times where self-preservation is considered revolutionary idea.

[deleted] t1_itb9snh wrote on October 22, 2022 at 9:21 AM

[deleted]

QwertzOne t1_itbcy98 wrote on October 22, 2022 at 10:06 AM

>Not everything is due to "the system".

It actually is because everyone operates in its limits. Every system penalizes some actions, but incentivizes other kind of actions. Few years ago I was just focused on what this system taught me, so I worked hard, learned, finished university, got my first job and I kept working on my career.

I'm an engineer and it took me 8 years to finally reach the point, where I can save any money at all, during that period I didn't really cared about any long term issues, I laughed at environment issues, because it's unprofitable for companies and I believed that, if company financial situation will be better, I will also benefit, so I worked hard on my promotions.

Today I'm tired. I don't want to sprint anymore, despite all these promotions I'm not getting actually richer, they promised me good life and I'm supposed to work like idiot, while some billionaires just sit on their asses and earn more in one year than I would be able to earn over few lifetimes? No, it's not fair and that's actual issue, because I don't want to work anymore for people that think they deserve 300x my salary and see nothing wrong with it.

This system teaches to be egoistic asshole. You want real money and influence? You're not getting it by ethical choices, you have to abuse as well and then sky is the limit, but don't kid yourself that you can achieve this just by typical 9-5 job and investing money, because you don't have luxury of rich people that can afford risks: http://www.temporarilyembarrassedmillionaires.org/

That's why I think that this system is mainly to be blamed for lack of long term vision. How anyone is supposed to focus on environment, if you have to attend your rat race and you don't have energy or will to care about anything important? We just run daily to survive, who cares what will happen in 50 years, if danger is imminent for majority right now.