Re: "A currency that increases in value is a terrible thing"
"We have tried many times" is a weak excuse in my book.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting to stop trying, just because we have failed so many times already. Even though I'm sure you've heard about Einsteins famous definition of insanity...
As long as the door is open for the testing of alternatives, which have never been tried before it's all fine with me. And we do have alternatives which have been unavailable due to insufficient cultural or technological development for most of history. Like Bitcoin. We should keep trying these as well, maybe even with a priority. Just in case electing the right people won't work again, or maybe we come up with some better solutions during the process
From all the virtues that todays generation lacks, the lack of responsibility sticks out the most. People always find an abstract system, or some unknown dark forces to blame for the things that are happening around them. Only few are able to realize that we, the people, are the ones who are causing all of this with our lack of care and responsibility.
Yes, I agree that as a generation and culture in general we behave very irresponsibly. Towards the environment, each other and even ourselves - just look at the amount of obese, or otherwise unhealthy people. I feel this is a cultural problem, though. Many of us don't take personal responsibility for our choices. This then extends into politics and we end up in a situation in which people don't feel the personal responsibility to help their financially struggling neighbor, the homeless person, to educate their own children and look after their own health. After all, we have now delegated the responsibility to "the system". We have health insurance, public schools, social security programs and supposed professionals with our best interests in mind running these things. And the way to take responsibility becomes doing research on candidates for public office and campaigning to vote them in - maybe running yourself for office. I'd like to see more direct responsibility. A culture where we don't just avert our eyes from the beggar and mutter some complaint about how the system isn't taking care of him, but feel the sting of personal responsibility upon such a sight.
I agree that just blaming "the system" or some conspiracy is an easy cop-out of your responsibility. But delegating that responsibility to a centralized institution and consider it done is just a tiny step from that.
Whether you like it or not, but human beings have a lot on common with animals, and specifically with herd animals. If the herd is without proper leadership, then the herd isn't competitive in relation to other herds. The heard will be weaker and less capable of progression. Humans also derive from social group animals, who have the same rules of typical herd mentality. There are always the strong who stand out and there are always the weak who will instinctively start to follow the strong. You could also be the lone wolf, but every hunter knows what eventually happens to these lone wolves without a pack.
Yes we have animal intelligence. But that is not all we have. We seem to have several layers of intelligence going from basic biological survival reflexes, through animal social intelligence, towards symbolic intelligence (ability to manipulate symbols), another layer of moral intelligence (animal intelligence is not sufficient for the level of complexity of our society) and several suspected further levels of intelligence.
The symbolic intelligence, which is the source of scientific breakthrough and technological innovation produces a rapid, exponential accumulation of knowledge and thus potential for change. The moral social intelligence is forever lagging to account for new technology shaping the environment we live in and for new scientific paradigms shaping the way we perceive the world. You could say that while the symbolic intelligence is concerned with interpreting symbols (what things are), the moral intelligence is concerned with what things should be - and making rules around that.
This is a roundabout way of saying that we should probably expect to evolve further away from animal-like forms of organizations as time passes.
Enjoying the gentlemanly discussion!