Why do we glorify human beings?

We have so many things to marvel at and admire in this world, yet our society chooses PEOPLE as its main focal point in the various areas it involves. And I speak not only of glorification of other people in the higher levels of society, but in all levels rather, what with people constantly talking about the lives of others and basically going about their business while forgetting all along that, in the grand scheme of things, they are insignificant in their own self. Yes it may seem as if this argument comes from one quite depressed or angered fellow but that is not the case. I don't see myself and my accomplishments, neither the people I know and their accomplishments, neither the people I admire and their accomplishments as the most important thing in life. There are far greater things things than those and far more important ones. In other words, why don't most people care about things that actually matter, that are actually significant, instead of stupidly occupying themselves with what is essentially nothingness.

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Originally Posted by IntrepidS

We have so many things to marvel at and admire in this world, yet our society chooses PEOPLE as its main focal point in the various areas it involves. And I speak not only of glorification of other people in the higher levels of society, but in all levels rather, what with people constantly talking about the lives of others and basically going about their business while forgetting all along that, in the grand scheme of things, they are insignificant in their own self. Yes it may seem as if this argument comes from one quite depressed or angered fellow but that is not the case. I don't see myself and my accomplishments, neither the people I know and their accomplishments, neither the people I admire and their accomplishments as the most important thing in life. There are far greater things things than those and far more important ones. In other words, why don't most people care about things that actually matter, that are actually significant, instead of stupidly occupying themselves with what is essentially nothingness.

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interesting... I believe your hypothesis will be in part the end of civilization...

i havent met anyone in real life who can think outside the shallow everyday events they participate in, in a long time. if only there was a pill that would force some people into a deep introspective for a few hours... or is that a drug already known as cannabis, hmm

Nothing matters anyways so what the hell difference does it make?
We are insignifigant and most people except myself are useless as tits on a bull.

We care about humans for the same reasons that ants care about ants. It just makes good evolutionary sense to preoccupy ourselves with lots of thoughts about ourselves, our family, our friends, and our potential mates. There is not much survival value in focusing on the actions and accomplishments of spider monkeys or oak trees.

It is true, we are, in the grand scheme of things, insignificant. We are just one species inhabiting a narrow thread of time in the tapestry of eternity. We live on the small hard outer surface of a giant gas-covered ball of lava hurtling through space around a nuclear fireball, which is spiraling with billions of other nuclear fireballs around a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, which is only one galaxy of billions. Go almost anywhere in the universe, at almost any time, and we humans are nowhere to be found 99.999999999999% of the time. And you are only one six-billionth of that insignificant species' current manifestion.

But right here, right now, people are all that we have. And for all our flaws, we really are magnificent little creatures. Think about it: we are the product of a peculiar chemical reaction that has been going on for 4 billion years, a chemical reaction called Darwinian evolution that has gotten so complex that parts of it have become aware, self-conscious, and capable of learning about the very universe from which it arose. As Carl Sagan put it, "we are a way for the cosmos to know itself".

what would happen if an essentially ignorant person thought deeply wouldnt it in turn be superficial deep thoughts? like the same crap they normally think about with maybe a touch more connections and parallels?

just made me wonder ive always thought this..
if a superficial person smoked incredible introspective weed or took the introsepction pill mentioned above by azure...wouldn't their deep thoughts be as stupid as their regular thoughts or would it be surprisingly deep like tapping into a core of them that is buried normally?

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Originally Posted by IntrepidS

We have so many things to marvel at and admire in this world, yet our society chooses PEOPLE as its main focal point in the various areas it involves. And I speak not only of glorification of other people in the higher levels of society, but in all levels rather, what with people constantly talking about the lives of others and basically going about their business while forgetting all along that, in the grand scheme of things, they are insignificant in their own self. Yes it may seem as if this argument comes from one quite depressed or angered fellow but that is not the case. I don't see myself and my accomplishments, neither the people I know and their accomplishments, neither the people I admire and their accomplishments as the most important thing in life. There are far greater things things than those and far more important ones. In other words, why don't most people care about things that actually matter, that are actually significant, instead of stupidly occupying themselves with what is essentially nothingness.

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I rather like this species. Sure, an outstanding majority of people are idiots. But they've come to amuse me.

Well I have to ask you this intrepid, what have you discovered really matters in life

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Originally Posted by 40oz

Well I have to ask you this intrepid, what have you discovered really matters in life

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The world, and God!

Every day I look around and see humans as animals.
They dress up, use tools, and try to seem sophisticated,
but I can't help seeing every action, relationship, nuance of gender or personality mirrored in the rest of the animal kingdom.

And it's sad how we separate ourselves from it.

We're just one big buzzing beehive, and everything we do in retrospect becomes the most obvious sucession of events. Of course we drive cars.
Of course we have old folks homes.
Of course we have supermarkets.

How can we consider ourselves different?

We call it consciousness, awareness.
But look back, look at "cavemen".
There was consciousness. And they weren't very removed from apes, monkeys. Is there any scientific part of an apes brain that dictates if they have consciousness? no. They just have "less sophisticated" evolved brains.
But that doesn't mean they can't feel, can't judge, can't expirience, with whatever awareness they do own.

We treat mentally handicapped humans better than we do other animals.
And yet there's 3 or 4 billion handicapped humans.

It's hard. Hard to remove yourself from the "elite" position of human,
and instead,
understand that you're merely another "animal".

And I wanted to add that having such an attitude (like I used to) causes one to see more in people than there really exists. Whether it is exaggerating to make your friend look more cool and marveling at someone because they come off to you as being somehow superior to others. I'm talking about the instances where other people are nearly or if not, idolized. People tend to idolize these people I think because they have an image in their mind that these people are more capable and more special than the rest. I mean after all if they weren't, why would they be idolized? I just hate these illusions that are attached to the images of certain people, it keeps people from seeing the real things. An example would be shows like Hollywood tonight, who the fuck cares about the lives of some other worthless (to me) human beings? Why? When I can watch a show on Discovery that tells me how nature works (an obvious exaggeration), why would I choose to stare at a tube that's telling me where some actor ate that day?

I think I also forgot to add that the obvious and main thing that encourages this culture of almost human-worshiping is the result of the concepts of individualism and the likes of it. We should be bringing ourselves together and becoming familiar with each other, we should not segregate ourselves from one another and assume false images of one another. It is destructive.