I think it is effortless for all of us to simply live our lives the way we want.
We can completely ignore anything and everything that is happening next to us and focus on the problems at hand instead of the large scope. We can quietly live in today and ignore everything of the past and the future.
But if we live like that, who will worry about our future and the world's future? Who would have to take responsibility for the actions that we took?
One of the most pressing issues that have happened in the world has been a climate change that has been happening everywhere in the world.
Even looking at a simple graph of average temperature change by the year shows the whole picture of what has been happening:
If you would like to explore the idea of climate change and why you should care, you can read more here.
But I think climate change is simply one of the many examples of why humans and our brains don’t care for the pressing issues. Why do we not care about what will happen in 50 years? Surely it will affect some of the younger people, and even if people are old already and not expecting to live to see the issues that will rise, their children will. So why is global warming not in the minds of every single citizen of the earth?
Short term thinking
We, as a species, have not evolved to worry about the long term. Our number one priority since the inception of our species has been to survive and to pass on the genes to the next generation. Yes, nothing else matters and any way to get there would be acceptable.
As you can guess, surviving has been replaced with earning money as those two things are interchangeable. Passing on the genes has also become much harder in the process. A burning desire to be strong and respected for your skills as a hunter is still in our blood. But in order to reproduce only that is not enough.
In order to get the best women or man to reproduce, one must earn as much as possible and be as respected as possible in society. That guarantees that the higher you go in those 2 different perspectives, you will be able to get better and better(in social understanding of the word better) partner to pass the genes to the offsprings.
Evolved primitive desires
So now that we have established that our evolved desires can be broken down into monetary funds and respect, it is not easy to see how long term survival is not that important.
What we are trying to do in life is only pass on the genes in any way possible and as fast as possible. Everything else can wait until later and will possibly will be ignored.
Thinking about immediate things that are needed to be done puts everything on the back burner, which in result cause long term goals and issues that are actually rather important, to be ignored. That is the reason why climate change, violence and slavery is still an issue. Because it’s immediate threat is not as important as a reproduction to an average citizen of earth. As easy as that.
We can blame people. We can try bringing it to people’s attention, but until global warming is on everyone’s tip of the tongue because they couldn’t earn money or reproduce, only then we will have some noticeable effect.
Klim Y
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