If you had to identify, in one word, the reason...?

Question

...why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be....?

Answer 1

Fanaticism.

Answer 2

Actually, it can't be summed up in one word. There is three things the human race can never achieve.
1: Return love for hate.
2: Accept the unaccepted.
3: Admit you are wrong.

Answer 3

I cannot sincerely do this in just *one* word, but I can do it in two.

Deliberate. Poverty.

Breaking that down, working backwards.

Poverty--in the general sense of "Want": not enough money, not enough food, not enough people and not enough social outlets for *everyone*, or indeed, for even a simple majority of people to have a fair chance to be happy with their lives.

Deliberate--Because the Poverty doesn't just happen. It is something that is done *willfully* and on purpose, rich nations seek to screw over poor ones on debt issues, yes, but it is also a matter of the very *richest* of the filthy rich concentrating so much of the worlds wealth into their grubby, greedy mitts that even ordinary people of well-off nations are perpetually grumpy and at each other's throats.

So yeah. Deliberate Poverty. Privation and greed as public policy.

Sorry I couldn't make it simpler than that. ^_^ Thanks for your time though!

Answer 4

PRIDE

It's pride that stops people from acknowledging God's sovereign authority, and that, in turn, is what stops us from achieving our full potential because we are in a state of rebellion against our Creator.

For those who don't believe in a Creator God then you could still argue that pride is what stops people from realising their full potential because it is pride that stops us from admitting our mistakes or that we could be wrong or that there is a better way to do things.

Answer 5

EVIL! Because the road to power can corrupt, and if you are prepared to get what you what by mass murder, throwing bodies in a pit to hide what you have done. You are evil.

Way back in history, they didn't even feel the need to hide the evidence.
We keep thinking and hoping things are different now, but look at recent events, evil indeed!

Answer 6

Indecisiveness

Answer 7

Compromise

Answer 8

Disorientedness

Answer 9

Ignorance.

Answer 10

Greed