why human always want to be better than others, instead of world peace?

Question

I mean, the true purpose of living is happiness.
Now why do we seek happiness by competing with others, trying to take advantage of each others so we can appear better than them, or have a tiny bit more food than them.

Why do we still greed? Why is it that so few ppl realise, that human love and world peace give them much more joy and happiness than individual own self joys. I mean, don't they feel bad that they have so much, whereis other ppl are crying?

the true purpose of life is not happiness? then what is it? achieving? learning?

to get to happiness in the end, ANYWAY

so i apology, my question should be like this: isn't the purpose of life is to see happiness in the end?

Answer 1

Because, like it or not, it's human nature. It is hard for someone to give up "their" money, or "their" lives. Once a person has reached a spot in their lives that they are comfortable in, it is not easy to make sacrifices. Yes, it is wrong to surround yourself with unnecessary pleasures, but as wrong as it is, even the best of people are well off (money wise) in the world. Be it a sense of pride, or fear of change, it is difficult for us, as human beings, to sacrifice. Even when we see people suffering, we protect our own lives, rather than saving others. It is one of the most unethical and alarming problems in the world, but as long as there are people in suffering, there will always be people living comfortable, ignorant lives. It is very sad, and it makes me want to scream at the world, INCLUDING MYSELF! We all care too much about our own lives, and too little about the lives of others.

Answer 2

At the absolute primal core of the human
is the prime directive---- self preservation---
eons of history have only served to strengthen this basic drive !!

The thought of others being happy or safe or well fed
especially as it equates to the world at large
is an extremely "new" thought process for humans
in terms of their overall history and methods OF thought

So, the reason that humans want to be "better" than others
is because it serves (in their view) to secure and strengthen
the prime directive----- self preservation ------

Now, enter what you have said ---"so few people realise that human love and world peace gives much more joy------than selfish joys"---- And this is something that is taking some major time and great changes within what exists within the world to realize---- That humans ARE a collective of sorts and that the well being of others plays a great part in the KIND of world that we live in and how well we do AS individuals within that world !!
That the welfare of the whole IS in a great sense the welfare and wellbeing OF the individual !!

But, no matter how many people begin to live with this type of thinking---as long as the Prevailing Situation within the world is one where powerful forces are at war with one another and forcing the precepts OF self preservation over "common good"---the prevailing force within the world will be one of ----self preservation ----at the expense of anyone or anything else !!!

So, in summary--- it is not necassarily the individuals anymore that are the problem with the world coming together in mutual harmony and mutual caring for the benefit of all---- near so much as it is the prevailing powers within the world that dominate our very lives and Force the conditions of these behaviors ON us in order to survive !!!

Great Question ---- hope this gives some kind of variant view on the subject for you---- Good Luck--- and I hope you're not one of those who are crying !!!!

Answer 3

You say the true purpose of living is happiness? Well people can only define happiness for themselves and they can barely do that. What if I derive happiness from causing war? Peace in this example would be misery.

Answer 4

Who told you the true purpose of living is happiness???

YOU'RE WRONG!

It's not the happiness. It's the journey to getting there. And that is reality. If you were resting on happiness all the time it would be INSANELY dull. You could never measure your accomplishments because there would be no strife to acheiving. Happiness is over-rated and just an end result. THINK!

Answer 5

Who told you the true purpose of living is happiness?

Answer 6

I don't think that is ever possible. There will always be people who are greedy and power hungry to make this ever from happening. Unless our entire human nature is somehow modified or programmed, then that fictional place might happen.

Answer 7

Because we are animals.
The law of the jungle is fundamental for the living of the humans and the rest of the animals in this planet.

Answer 8

Not that I disagree with your sentiments, but as a philisophical argument your statements are without foundation.

Look at all other creatures on this planet. Is the purpose of their living "happiness"?

No, it is survival and making their species stronger and more dominant over others, for a food supply, as a defense against those who would eat them, as a response to the natural order of conception, birth, life and death and decay.

Of course, we haven't mentioned God here, and your opinion will be largely shaped by whether you believe there is a supreme being who sets values for humans, or whether we as humans are free to set our own values.

Either way, your argument still falls short.

Because if our morals are determined by a supreme being, then the purpose of life would be to fulfill the wishes of the supreme being and draw closer to our source in so doing. In Christianity this is known as Theosis.

Now, if WE determine our moral values, than who is to say that one set of values is better than another? Why can't one tribe eat vegetables and another tribe come along and eat the tribe who eats vegetables?

Much of our modern greed can be traced back to the agricultural revolution, over 10,000 years ago, when people stopped being totally "hunter-gatherers" and started claiming plots of land for farming.

In order to farm, you must exclude a lot of other life from that piece of land. You must clear trees and weeds and rocks and bugs and anything that you do not want to get in the way of your food supply.

Once you do that, you now have to protect your farm from the people on the other side of the hill who would rather come and "gather" food from your garden, instead of plant their own food.

So, the food supply must be locked up.

We moved from a point as tribal humans where food was exchanged as "support for support" to a place where now food is "support for income".

Modern man cannot conceive of a time when food was available to whomever found it first.

Sure, even in the stone ages, people fought and died over food, but it was not to the level of having to cause the other people to submit to them. You defended the animal you had killed, you shared it with the woman who gave you sex and water, and the other people did the same thing across the hill.

These people we will call "givers".

You only had problems when you crossed each other's borders.

Now we (the "civilized world") control so much that we don't have to fight for food anymore. Instead we fight for power, power which is used to keep us supplied with food and a whole lot of other junk that is not nearly as necessary.

As for us having much while others have little, that is partly something we have created...not by withholding food, but by giving too much away.

If you have a cage with mice in it, and you always put in enough food for 20 mice, your population of mice will flux from about 17 to about 23, but the average in the long run will always be 20.

If you start putting in enough food for 40 mice, guess what? You will get 40 mice, sooner or later. It's a scientific certainty.

So, when we go to a place where the land can only support 1,000,000 people, and we see 100,000 of them dying in a drought, we send food to them, to be kind, to help them, to save them.

But we always send more than what the land would have given them, so we sustain an artificial population on a land incapable of supporting them.

That means that we either bring them food for the rest of their lives, they migrate to a new land that can support them, or they die where they live because we finally stopped feeding them.

Daniel Quinn is an author who wrote a book called Ishmael, that can change the way humans think about problems like the ones you mention, but be prepared, because the answers he gives are not about peace and love and joy...they are about allowing ALL creatures on the planet to live and die in their natural cycles, un-influenced by those of us he calls "takers".

May you find peace and joy in what you learn.

Answer 9

The only way that they can feel good about themselves is if they have someone to feel better than.

Love and blessings Don