It's funny, this world we live in. On the eternal search for truth, it is our own human nature that keeps it from us. Without any grand, unifying purpose our instincts take over, spewing forth greed, intolerance and hatred that manifests itself in many of the problems we face today.
Compounding to the problems is the realisation that there is no "true" or "right" solutions. If we flood developing countries with aid, local industry cannot grow or even compete. But without it, people will starve and die. If we give governments too much power we risk losing personal liberties. But without it, killers and rapists roam free. And who is to say what is right and make a moral judgment in these situations?
Even in Iraq, can we quantify what is better: a tyrannical dictator as opposed to the current situation? Intentions aside, it is the outcome that matters. Saddam may have been a dictator, but I am sure less people were killed under his regime than the hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians killed by the invasion and subsequent occupation. Will we uphold the same moral standards when we judge those who invaded? And has the greater good been served?
This lack of truth presents itself in both religion and science. Gödel shows us that in any system, there are propositions that can neither be proven true or false given its set of axioms. Religion demands you ignore the lack of evidence and have "faith" that it is true.
People would act more rationally if there was some measurable truth, some purpose to this existence. Maybe our purpose is to make our own purpose, pursue our own truths. As individuals or as a species, we need to make that distinction.
It is the basic struggle between submitting to the will of the individual and preserving free will versus submitting to the will of the masses and becoming merely a cog in the greater picture of the universe that will be our downfall.
Why can't we all just get along.
