Martian
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,137
Hello! I just thought I'd share something I considered recently.
Looking at the Earth today and comparing it to the world your recent ancestors (and some of you alive today) imagined, it's clear that things went wrong somewhere along the way. No flying cars, no teleportation or advanced society, and really not much different aside from smaller gadgets and more stylish hairdos. So what happened? Well, one can assume that people were just too optimistic about the future back then. However, I'd like to suggest something different.
If you take an introductory psychology class, you will be introduced to a concept called Maslow's hierarchy of needs ( Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). This provides a general outline of what motivates humans. First, your physiological needs must be met. Then, you must be and feel safe. After that, you need to feel that you belong (love/friendship). Next, you need high self-esteem. Finally, if you've done that, you can reach self-actualization, which is basically reaching your full potential.
If you're a member of a small group of individuals bent on ruling the world, overt force may not be your best option. After all, it would take a sizeable military to subjugate billions of people.
An easier way is to make sure humans never reach their full potential. If we look at each of these steps, we can see that this has systematically been accomplished over the course of many years.
Physiological
With the economy effectively destroyed by the recession, and gainful, full-time employment hard to attain, many people are struggling simply to survive. That doesn't leave much time for higher pursuits.
Safety
If you watch the news today, you will undoubtedly be exposed to countless terrifying stories, and probably no good ones at all. Although I don't like the term, "fear porn" isn't an inaccurate description. The idea is to keep people perpetually in fear for their safety. In some countries, this is replaced with actual war, but the goal is the same.
Belonging
This is a tough one. Humans are naturally social, so getting them to stop socializing requires one of two things. Either you take away people's trust for each other, or you remove their inhibitions. It turns out that both have been done. The government promotes the idea of "if you see something, say something". It's said that before the Berlin Wall fell, people in East Germany would fear being turned in to the government by their neighbors.
The other thing, removing inhibitions, is done with so-called social media. How many friendships have been destroyed by Facebook and similar sites? I've heard of so many, and it's largely because people forget that there's an actual human being on the other end of the connection.
Self-esteem
This is easy to do if you control the media. Simply make all TV characters unrealistically attractive. For women, promote unhealthy skinny looks, and for men, make them feel inadequate if they don't have tons of muscles. On top of that, it helps to include unhealthy ingredients in the food supply to make sure people become fat. That could include things like high fructose corn syrup.
Self-actualization
On rare occasions, someone who has reached their full potential loses favor with the ones who wish to subjugate humanity. This is seen as a problem, because they could lead humanity to a brighter future. Instead, they are publicly ridiculed, falsely accused, or otherwise shunned. The exact details differ from one case to another, but the end result is the same. That's why high-profile scientists, actors, politicians, etc., sometimes seem to fall from grace after many years of success.
So you see, the human species has been suppressed by using science and a few points of societal influence. The first step in solving a problem is identifying it.
Looking at the Earth today and comparing it to the world your recent ancestors (and some of you alive today) imagined, it's clear that things went wrong somewhere along the way. No flying cars, no teleportation or advanced society, and really not much different aside from smaller gadgets and more stylish hairdos. So what happened? Well, one can assume that people were just too optimistic about the future back then. However, I'd like to suggest something different.
If you take an introductory psychology class, you will be introduced to a concept called Maslow's hierarchy of needs ( Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ). This provides a general outline of what motivates humans. First, your physiological needs must be met. Then, you must be and feel safe. After that, you need to feel that you belong (love/friendship). Next, you need high self-esteem. Finally, if you've done that, you can reach self-actualization, which is basically reaching your full potential.
If you're a member of a small group of individuals bent on ruling the world, overt force may not be your best option. After all, it would take a sizeable military to subjugate billions of people.
An easier way is to make sure humans never reach their full potential. If we look at each of these steps, we can see that this has systematically been accomplished over the course of many years.
Physiological
With the economy effectively destroyed by the recession, and gainful, full-time employment hard to attain, many people are struggling simply to survive. That doesn't leave much time for higher pursuits.
Safety
If you watch the news today, you will undoubtedly be exposed to countless terrifying stories, and probably no good ones at all. Although I don't like the term, "fear porn" isn't an inaccurate description. The idea is to keep people perpetually in fear for their safety. In some countries, this is replaced with actual war, but the goal is the same.
Belonging
This is a tough one. Humans are naturally social, so getting them to stop socializing requires one of two things. Either you take away people's trust for each other, or you remove their inhibitions. It turns out that both have been done. The government promotes the idea of "if you see something, say something". It's said that before the Berlin Wall fell, people in East Germany would fear being turned in to the government by their neighbors.
The other thing, removing inhibitions, is done with so-called social media. How many friendships have been destroyed by Facebook and similar sites? I've heard of so many, and it's largely because people forget that there's an actual human being on the other end of the connection.
Self-esteem
This is easy to do if you control the media. Simply make all TV characters unrealistically attractive. For women, promote unhealthy skinny looks, and for men, make them feel inadequate if they don't have tons of muscles. On top of that, it helps to include unhealthy ingredients in the food supply to make sure people become fat. That could include things like high fructose corn syrup.
Self-actualization
On rare occasions, someone who has reached their full potential loses favor with the ones who wish to subjugate humanity. This is seen as a problem, because they could lead humanity to a brighter future. Instead, they are publicly ridiculed, falsely accused, or otherwise shunned. The exact details differ from one case to another, but the end result is the same. That's why high-profile scientists, actors, politicians, etc., sometimes seem to fall from grace after many years of success.
So you see, the human species has been suppressed by using science and a few points of societal influence. The first step in solving a problem is identifying it.
Last edited:
The human species has destroyed this planet Martian. Human species is to greedy and selfish. To many desires for material items and power. To many weak minds that go to war over ridiculous causes such as RELIGION? To many not respecting the TRUE INNOCENCE of this planet which are animals and any other living organism that is NOT a part of the human species. Once people get past certain disabling obstacles great things could happen. I think it is far to late though for the human species to change, just seems to get even worse. That is why I avoid the human race at all costs. I self exile to avoid all the horrible that is happening to this planet by the human species