https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7fZoDs9KU
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Country_Index
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_LraysM-ZnMTk-sD5u67eLfTLJOIJ1_dDA_x2FRr7IY/edit?pli=1#gid=628162124
It's not new. It's 17 mins 54 secs. I have just seen it. It's actually pretty good as in what it focuses on. Something most people would just dismiss.
If we all love and work together we can survive and make the world a better place. It is hate, prejudice, bigotry, and greed that is destroying the world we live in, most of it supported by ancient and ridiculous religions and magical thinking.
Quote from: Solitary on October 04, 2015, 03:27:54 PM
If we all love and work together we can survive and make the world a better place. It is hate, prejudice, bigotry, and greed that is destroying the world we live in, most of it supported by ancient and ridiculous religions and magical thinking.
Isn't this "magical thinking"? Somehow if we all start to magically start loving each other the world will magically become a better place. If that isn't magical thinking then I don't know what is. It's never going to happen, so just accept it. And it isn't religion or magical thinking that makes us hate and discriminate against each other...it's our genetics.
Ireland was a bit surprising, I thought Belgium would be a little higher, but all-in-all I like his overall points and particularly the wanting to live in a "good" over "rich" or "happy" country. I do think there is likely a pretty strong correlation though between "happy" and "good", moreso than "good" and "rich".
Ireland was a surprise, but the Scandinavian countries being in the top 10 wasn't. In terms of the qualifications given, not surprised by any of it. But as stated in the wikipedia article, there is a lot of criticism to the index.
We are a naturally competitive species. There will always be those that succeed better than others and those that do harm. A truly egalitarian society in my opinion is a pipe dream, but we can at least try.
Was a little surprised that the US finished as high as it did. The others were not a surprise.
Quote from: Mike Cl on October 04, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Was a little surprised that the US finished as high as it did. The others were not a surprise.
For all the shit we do, we do contribute huge amounts in humanitarian aid and technology. I think that helps offset it.
104 countrys hate USA but we are gooder than them
Quote from: Mike Cl on October 04, 2015, 06:16:05 PM
Was a little surprised that the US finished as high as it did. The others were not a surprise.
That's because there is no authority powerful enough to evaluate the US international politics of the last 70 years and it's results and consequences. Not to mention nobody would take it seriously or make it a TED talk.
This is mainstream.
Quote from: Shiranu on October 04, 2015, 07:47:48 PM
For all the shit we do, we do contribute huge amounts in humanitarian aid and technology. I think that helps offset it.
Yeah, so I've been told all my life. But I wonder how much of that 'humanitarian' aid gets to the people who need it??? And technology is not given away. Corps make money from it.
Altruism anybody? In my mind the question is not so much what is done but the motives behind it. You would probably have to look at each act of giving by a country in terms of what they expected to get back in return. Doctors Without Borders is altruistic. The food being airlifted into Berlin during the postwar blockade was altruistic. Foreign aid isn't if it has the purpose of creating a situation of being owed in return by the receiving country.
Altruism? According to St Ayn Rand ... altruism is Marxist-Lenininism and must be opposed by naturally superior blond-blue-eyed uber-menschen. A less blood-thirsty altruism is Castro's Cuba ... and we know how much Castro is Satan incarnate, right?
I have through the help of you guys started to understand how you see the world.
So I present you with this little map of how I think you Americans understand our world.
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll236/jonber/american-map-of-the-world_zpsqe4d98sb.gif)
IRISH WHISKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously the best country is Texas ;-)
Jonb ... proper cartoon Americans/Texans are like those on King Of The Hill. Like all good Americana, it is dead and buried ;-(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_the_Hill