What percentage of humanity is intellectually and/or morally competent?

I never cease to be amazed by how stupid, willfully ignorant and lacking in basic moral courage people are, and wonder what small percentage of us possess even a scrap of intellectual/moral integrity.

My best guess is that 5% to 10% of humanity - at MOST - possess even the rudimentary capacity to think clearly and act morally.

But I may still be in a wildly optimistic place.

Why have we created the fables of morality and intellect when we are nothing but greedy, stupid, violent, bigoted monsters?

Why don't we simply celebrate what we are rather than pretending to be what we are not?

 

Heavy duty topic! I like it but it's a bit too deep for me to delve into without investing a lot of time. Should be interesting to read the responses though!

 

Morality is not inherently intrinsic to our behavior. We are resource based creatures and the more resources I have, the better.

When we can all agree to live together under a framework that benefits both of us, then we have morality.

 

Given that the majority can't even agree on what morality is...

 

In our defense, we have been thoroughly and professionally indoctrinated over many generations. The spirit of Goebbels animates the federal bureaucracy, as we have been fed a steady diet of fake news for a very long time. We are not conditioned to think critically, we have been conditioned to believe what the authorities tell us, and don't ask questions.

 

Rather than looking at it as pretending to be what we are not, I choose to look at it as an aspiration goal toward which we should all be growing.

As for 'celebrating' the fact that we are "greedy, stupid, violent, bigoted monsters" - by all means, fill your boots. But I don't see myself in that way and don't know many people, personally, who are.

 

I can't disagree that this has happened, but I am involved in more and more discussions (outside of this board and in face to face settings) where people are thinking critically. People are questioning not just authority, but their own thinking as well. The times, they are a changin'...just very slowly.

 

Our veneer of civility and dignity is paper thin.

It relies on norm and morays that the right wingers have no conception of, let alone the vocabulary. They are right now under Trump assault.

 

I want badly to agree with you, and I pray that people will wake up. I must admit I've seen a similar awakening lately. We have a steep mountain to climb.

 

Acknowledging overlap, 5-10% or so of the population are recidivistic, criminally bad due to whatever factors. Another 15% or so are psychologically or emotionally disordered enough to be harmful to themselves and those around them, but not criminal. 15-20% or so have barely functional low IQs, but aren't criminal or disordered. X (larger) % have the intellectual capacity to learn and process information accurately but lazily remain functionally illiterate, and are not also criminal, disordered or low IQ. So there's 50-60% at least gone from the "clear, reasoned thinking" pool off the bat. All these groups grow larger in prosperity. Where a daily need to procure and secure food, clothing and shelter are chief concerns, marginal participants become more functional.

Then you have the impact of cognitive bias, exacerbated by a) bad basic information, b) overemphasis on heuristics as a defense mechanism in an information tech boom, c) cultural "programming" and propaganda by special interests, including most especially government interests; but ameliorated significantly by d) broader useful, accurate information available today than in the past. Who knows the extent of effects of cognitive bias? but it is pervasive.

How to address it in politics in an equitable, just state? First, require HS diploma or GED at the very least to vote. Immigrants would need to demonstrate at least an 8th grade fluency in the English language. This would "weed out" several of the above groups to a meaningful degree. Those objecting to that are the ones profiting and enriching themselves from the above described classes of ineptitude. That such is not required in countries that provide education for free is unjust.

 

Preach!

 

I realize that this forum is a political one (hence the name), but I think we need to address this issue in our day to day lives first. Get back to teaching kids about sharing and respect for others. Not indulge every whim, but instill a sense that we should earn for what we receive. As the Gillette ad proposes, demonstrate with our own actions how to care for others and treat them with respect. Once we have this foundation within ourselves, we can then apply it to politics. Listen to the issues for which the politicians are advocating - then decide where your instincts align. Hold those politicians accountable in the very same way you hold yourself accountable. Don't tolerate lying or hypocrisy from ANY politican, from ANY party.

 

1. Nah, let's do as I posted and require a HS diploma or GED to vote.
2. Are you sure you want to model prescriptive ethics on television advertisements? I don't.

 

1. Was that in the Constitution?
2. Read my post again - not suggesting that tv ads be used to tell us how to live.

 

1. Requiring a HS diploma or GED would be perfectly fine under the Constitution and state Constitutions; the legislation you are looking for where it would be litigated and require possible amendment is the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
2. Yet you premised part of your post on a television advertisement.

 

"As the Gillette ad proposes, demonstrate with our own actions how to care for others and treat them with respect." I referenced the ad because it is current news, and it proposes the kind of actions I'm suggesting we all demonstrate. I didn't get my idea from the ad, I used it as an example.

 

Fair enough, since we are sticking on the Gillette ad and you are demanding to go there, to accomplish the aims in your prior post, what we really need to do is stop subsidizing the single motherhood cottage industry in the U.S. We didn't seem to hear much about "toxic masculinity" before the gov-edu-union-contractor-grantee-trial lawyer-MSM Complex and courts started a multi-decade campaign to remove fathers from the home and skyrocket the divorce, illegitimacy rates and plummet the marriage rate. Read a bit of Mao ("women hold up half the sky") to see why this was done and is so important to the Complex and its intertwining goals.

Today in the U.S. 43% of men are raised in single mother homes and 78% of the teachers tasked with teaching those kids are female, so what was it about "toxic masculinity" again and how it affects teaching values to kids?

So will modify:

1. Require a HS diploma or GED to vote.
2. Revoke all public benefits for second and subsequent illegitimate children. Revoke all family benefits retroactively for life upon the birth of the third illegitimate child. (and here we get a twofer for sane environmental/resource consumption issues)
3. Remove by statute all anti male discrimination in family courts including the presumption of custody in the mother and presumption of paternity based on signing a birth certificate, etc.
4. Create a de minimis opt out period for child support with mandatory notification of the father in the first trimester prior to any claim of child support or abortion.

Remove decadent, effeminate -government- social (and effeminated educational) policy and watch these problems begin to decline. Or engage in hollow, feminist, feefee based, confirmation bias- enhancing rhetoric like "toxic masculinity" that is itself a root cause of the problems and watch those problems grow like weeds.

 

it's all part and parcel to the depression of the 20's, our world wars, which caused many of us babyboomers to ensure our children had a better, easier life than our parents... once we accomplished that, the following generations accepted it as 'the way it should be' and became complacent , allowing the 'movers & shakers' to literally waltz in and undermine their complacency, leading to the 'me' generation which gave the 'movers & shakers' a stronger foothold, leading to the premise of 'help everyone else' while ignoring ourselves... a vicious cycle that will only lead to one of two things, (1) full blown totalitarianism (2) total collapse amid warfare...

 

Bravo.

I blame societies and culture. For it is through cultural norms that we get our “morality.” Very clearly, people are capable of horrible, disgusting things. Case in point the many atrocities throughout humanity. All of this revolves around one simple commonality.

People devalue and see other people as less than themselves.

Through this very simple mechanism, horrible things are possible. But don’t expect them to agree. Do you think the Nazi’s fancied themselves as bad? Or the church during the dark ages or the crusade? No... they’re all fighting “evil.”

Great post OP. It’s refreshing to see this type of thing from time to time.

 

I commend you for grasping an obvious truth that the majority simply dismiss and reject, because it's not comfortable. I disagree with your percentage some, I think we are nott hat bad off- but certainly it fits to the majority. Sadly, those people are becoming dangerous- posing a risk to the nation, and the future of all of us. Perhaps even what would qualify ad domestic enemies.

The Constitution was written in ordinary language so that the ordinary citizen could read it and understand it. No legalese, do ambiguous language. However we have allowed the politicians, the lawyers and the courts to read it for us and the us what it says- often in direct contradiction to the obvious message it states. This is shifting our ability to know our own rights and values out of our hands- and into the hands of legal definers. They imply we are not capable of understanding what we read, unworthy to speak for ourselves.
We are ignorant... laymen, they are the experts.

If you read the Declaration of Independence, you'll see that the intent was clearly that we are the purpose of it, and those we represent are there to speak for us as we see define the purpose and power- not to re-define it and ignore us. They would not have that power- except that we gave it to them and failed to hold them accountable to us. We have bought the deceptions and assumed that people given the high responsibility of office and the inherent public trust- would be trustworthy. Literally, we have allowed the to rise over us.

The concept of leadership is usually misunderstood. We- the people- know what where we want to be in the future, and that is OUR decision. The purpose of leadership is like the navigator of a ship- not to set the destination, but to navigate the ship safely to get there. The people don't choose the route, that is up to the navigator- but the navigator does not choose the destination, that is up to the people who choose the leadership.

Today, leaders are telling us what our destiny should be, redefining what we want, like snake-oil salesmen in an old medicine show. In our preoccupation with our own lives, we have too often been uninterested in government and legalisms, and allowed it to become like a cancer- destroying the liberty and freedom that has made America the envy of the world, and the very thing our representative are sworn to uphold and defend. We should have voted them out, but didn't. We should have required higher character in candidates, but we now lack the ability to recognize it, and buy into deceptions- we are becoming weak, our strength and resolve being increasingly diluted by mis-leadership.

Now we're at a tipping point. Would we rather be subjects rather than citizens? Many people like having others take responsibility for them- and are willing to happily hand the abusers of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence the ability to continue. Freedom and liberty scare such people; those things require us to be responsible for ourselves- but they are also the things that enable us to control our own destinies, and nobody- Nobody- has more right to do that, or will do it better than you will. Our citizenry is being talked into selling themselves out- surrendering the most valuable of all personal assets for promises made by someone who has no skin in your game at all, no responsibility or consequence for what happens to you.

You cannot be free and irresponsible at the same time.

 

Mirror, mirror on the web.... Always reflecting the images of reality in reverse... and the less functional people totally unaware that what they see in an inversion of truth.