So I haven't had friends fighting in a while. Everything has been pretty peaceful save a few flare-ups. So... I guess I should have expected something this extreme? I mean, I may be catastrophising, but these are real life problems they are arguing over. I don't know. :/ One was upset about the state of the friendship and the other was upset over the topic. Well, I guess they were both upset over the topic. But... One just internalizes all his/her feelings, and the other explodes with emotion. And half of the time it's just misunderstandings... Maybe not this time though??? Hm. I will tell you, though, that what you want boils down to what you think your goals in life should be. Either peace or advancement. I was trying to decide between the two, but maybe a good balance of both is needed? But, then again, maybe that's the state we are now in. Because I would say our whole goal needs to be peace, but I think peace may be an unrealistic goal???? Like, there will always be conflict in life. By living we are dying. Life is a paradox. And yet we strive for immortality. We are just imperfect... Thus we become a paradox. Anyways, so I come to the thought that maybe all we should strive for is advancement. Because with more intelligence comes understanding. But another one of our human flaws, I have noticed, is that we require some belief in an ultimate power that protects us or rules over us. Does every living thing require that? It seems to be so. Well. Some power that needs to rule over their life, some purpose. So this makes sense: most organisms, or, uh, bacteria and whatnot, have a purpose built in, which is mainly to.... reproduce. Or something. But they don't think, they have no brains, yet they have a purpose. But, it seems the larger the brain, the more you lose inherent decisions and instead develop environmental decisions. But perhaps that is just because we are pack animals. Could non-pack animals evolve as far as we have? I don't think so. So that kills off that theory. So that means, because we learn from and adapt to our environment so well, we create a purpose from what we are taught and not from some built in genetic code whatchamacallit. Oh dear. This leaves us unstable. Because while there are parts of our brains that ask for us to do something, there are other parts that can control these cravings. So this leaves us with a sense that we are "doomed to be free" as some philosopher put it. And we become afraid that there is no purpose in life, that there is no right or wrong. So we create religion. Rules for life. Social order. Wow.
So. While peace is a goal worthy of admiration, advancement should be a human's prupose in life because there will always be conflict and the goal of life is to advance anyways. To keep changing and improving.
"But, Xan, what are we going to do about the state of earth and over population?" We cut back on populating the earth, which means we reproduce less, and... we move on. We keep changing and educating. We create/find new resources, we clean up the earth, and we educate our children on the ways they should contribute to advancement.
"So where does art fit into this? Are you saying art is not important?" I think art makes people take a step back when it's done right. So it fits into making people shout out against bad advancement.
Of course none of this will go the way it's supposed to. There are various problems that will arise. My main problem with the whole thing is corruption, which is a formidable foe. It takes utter stupidity or innocence to fight corruption.
Ugh. So. Uh. I guess in order to advance we need to understand all parts of ourselves and others. So... I guess we need to strive just to get one step in front of the other and not for perfection. We should make personal goals. Yep. That's what life is all about. Making personal goals that are healthy for ourselves and for the planet. Uh. And what does this mean about the argument? Well. Uh. Uhhhhh. I don't know. Maybe that both of them should review what their goals in life are? Ha ha, I have no idea, but that sounds about right.
"But, Xan, what do goals in life have to do with this argument?" Well, it has to do with what they want out of their quarrel. I don't know anything about the topic they were fighting about. I'm done. I'm out. Whatevs.