Opinion The Greatest Disaster

[Axel The Englishman]

Good day to you reader! It is time for us to have a serious, personal discussion. What exactly do YOU think was the greatest disaster in human history? Personally, I would have to elect the Black Death, considering it killed an estimate of 75,000,000 to 200,000,000 people. Any other suggestions?

 

[charleen]

i consider the industrial revolution a great disaster while it did advance human  technology and all, it also depleted much of the environment's existence as a whole which we may never be able to retain ever again. it just saddens me that's all ;( 

 

[Windsock]

wanna retort the 'industrialization is bad' sentiment so bad


Super unpopular opinion incoming.

Spoiler

Call me what you want, but I think egalitarianism is the biggest disaster in human history. I think some people are genetically predisposed to serve, and others are genetically predisposed to lead, among other things.

 

[jinkx]

Personally, I think Jonestown was one of (I wouldn't say the worst) the biggest disasters in human history because Jim Jones convinced those people to love him and believe in him and completely abused their trust. I know that there have been wars and bombings and things, which kill more people and are more inhuman and cold. But the fact that those people were willing to lay down their lives because a crazy, abusive man told them to just makes me feel sick. He completely manipulated every single one of those people.

 

[Esper Alucard]

Roblox Community, it killed 3 trillion brain cells


Jk, but i think the greatest disaster was, in my opinion, The Great Economic Depression in America, probably one of the worst Emotional Disasters. The combination of tons of people sad and (usually) lonely with the terrifying Dust Storms that caked people's lounges and throats with dirt... Its horrible.

 

[Kololf]

Natural: Pompeii just because it was so quick and as they were early people the fear must have been greater not understanding what was happening nor having warning.


Man Made: The Brady Bunch.... we are all still trying to recover from that one. 

 

[TPBx]

The greatest disaster in human history would have been the Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This single act was the prelude and the spark needed to start the two largest international armed conflicts in human history. 

 

[Axel The Englishman]

Some interesting points here.. Stil haven't looked at @Windsock's, but still some interesting points.

 

[Idea]

The fall of the Catholic Roman Empire would be my guess. From my point of view, the world suffered a huge loss in terms of progress, order, unity and most importantly (from my personal view now), it was a catalyst for the various breakups from the Catholic Church, which I believe to be crucial to the salvation of humanity.

 

[hadal]

The greatest disaster in human history would have been the Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This single act was the prelude and the spark needed to start the two largest international armed conflicts in human history. 

That's a good point.


The development, and later use of, the atomic bomb, I think (which ultimately did come about because of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand...). Not only was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki obviously catastrophic, but nuclear weapons should have never been developed in the first place. During the Cold War, it put the world in extreme peril, and even though nuclear war is currently not imminent, should it occur, it would likely be the end of much, much life on Earth. And I don't believe nuclear weapons are safe in the hands of many of the leaders that control them. 

 

[Windsock]

That's a good point.


The development, and later use of, the atomic bomb, I think (which ultimately did come about because of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand...). Not only was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki obviously catastrophic, but nuclear weapons should have never been developed in the first place. During the Cold War, it put the world in extreme peril, and even though nuclear war is currently not imminent, should it occur, it would likely be the end of much, much life on Earth. And I don't believe nuclear weapons are safe in the hands of many of the leaders that control them. 

I disagree. I think nuclear weapons are generally a good thing.


With them, ww3 is going to be short and painless for most of us. We're likely going to be soundly asleep in our beds, decently happy with our lives, but we'll just never wake up.


For an apocalyptic war, that's an okay end, right?


Without them, every single international problem we have today could very well already ended turning into a new war just as bad as ww1. Would you want first world civilians being bombarded by first world governments over fucking climate change in 2030? Would you want to be drafted In the 2016 Russian- American Ukraine war?


Most every 'little scuffle' today would've been worthy of starting a total war about as bad as ww1 if we didn't have nukes.


edit: forgot I was doing everything in comic sans today

 

[hadal]

I disagree. I think nuclear weapons are generally a good thing.


With them, ww3 is going to be short and painless for most of us. We're likely going to be soundly asleep in our beds, decently happy with our lives, but we'll just never wake up.


For an apocalyptic war, that's an okay end, right?


Without them, every single international problem we have today could very well already ended turning into a new war just as bad as ww1. Would you want first world civilians being bombarded by first world governments over fucking climate change in 2030? Would you want to be drafted In the 2016 Russian- American Ukraine war?


Most every 'little scuffle' today would've been worthy of starting a total war about as bad as ww1 if we didn't have nukes.


edit: forgot I was doing everything in comic sans today

That wouldn't be how it ends, though. Should nuclear war occur, we would not all be killed in the initial blast. Many many millions would be killed from the blast itself, but those who do not die then would succumb to radiation and possibly nuclear winter. Nuclear winter would greatly alter our climate, and the consequences of it on our environment, and for all humans and all species, would be catastrophic. It would be a slow, miserable death.


And I don't think that's true. It's important to consider the political situations surrounding WWI and modern wars. WWI honestly, was a dumb war. We all know how it starts- Franz Ferdinand gets assassinated... but the assassination of a single man shouldn't result in a world war. The reason so many countries became entangled in this war is because of countries having mutual alliance pacts. So if one country went to war, their ally was bound to go to war as well. This was a dumb thing, so WWI happened. But this also does not exist anymore, so every modern war does not become a world war. Current political situations and international relations are very different than they were in WWI. With this in mind, you can't reasonably assume that every small war will become a world war.

 

[Axel The Englishman]

That wouldn't be how it ends, though. Should nuclear war occur, we would not all be killed in the initial blast. Many many millions would be killed from the blast itself, but those who do not die then would succumb to radiation and possibly nuclear winter. Nuclear winter would greatly alter our climate, and the consequences of it on our environment, and for all humans and all species, would be catastrophic. It would be a slow, miserable death.


And I don't think that's true. It's important to consider the political situations surrounding WWI and modern wars. WWI honestly, was a dumb war. We all know how it starts- Franz Ferdinand gets assassinated... but the assassination of a single man shouldn't result in a world war. The reason so many countries became entangled in this war is because of countries having mutual alliance pacts. So if one country went to war, their ally was bound to go to war as well. This was a dumb thing, so WWI happened. But this also does not exist anymore, so every modern war does not become a world war. Current political situations and international relations are very different than they were in WWI. With this in mind, you can't reasonably assume that every small war will become a world war.

Either that, or we go Fallout on this.

 

[Lordvader59]

Now, the way I see it, there's three contenders for the worst disaster in human history. Two have already been discussed here, namely the Black Plague and the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (though one may decide to broaden that to the World Wars in general.) The third candidate, which I am going to propose here now, is the Spanish Influenza. Using the higher estimates of the death toll, it matches the Black Plague in terms of lethality, and a modified version of the virus still has a genuine risk of returning in the modern day and wreaking havoc upon humanity once more.

 

[Anivia]

Not a disaster per se, but agriculture is sometimes criticized for being "the worst mistake in human history." There's an article that is about agriculture being the cause of many societal problems like patriarchy, social classes, war, etc.

 

[ThatOneGuy]

Not a disaster per se, but agriculture is sometimes criticized for being "the worst mistake in human history." There's an article that is about agriculture being the cause of many societal problems like patriarchy, social classes, war, etc.

I remember reading that article. 

 

[Icerex]

The fall of the Catholic Roman Empire would be my guess. From my point of view, the world suffered a huge loss in terms of progress, order, unity and most importantly (from my personal view now), it was a catalyst for the various breakups from the Catholic Church, which I believe to be crucial to the salvation of humanity.

I would actually propose that it was the introduction of Christianity that was the death-knell of the Roman Empire. Preaching love and tolerance is not conducive to an empire who's existence is founded on the need to conquer and subjugate foreign lands. Not to mention the fact that Christianity caused an enormous amount of eternal strife and disunion, weakening the empire further.


My unpopular opinion however, is that a democracy is actually a pretty inefficient and crappy form of government.  

 

[Icerex]

wanna retort the 'industrialization is bad' sentiment so bad


Super unpopular opinion incoming.

Spoiler

Call me what you want, but I think egalitarianism is the biggest disaster in human history. I think some people are genetically predisposed to serve, and others are genetically predisposed to lead, among other things.

Treading the fine line of racism right there buddy. Might want to word it better if your intention was to say that humanity is predisposed to have kings and rulers, which are for the most part, not decided genetically. 

 

[Esper Alucard]

Treading the fine line of racism right there buddy. Might want to word it better if your intention was to say that humanity is predisposed to have kings and rulers, which are for the most part, not decided genetically.

In da jungle, the mighty jungle the... Orphan boy sleeps tonight?


WHO WROTE THIS?


Failed comedy making me want to erase my online existence, check.


To me, one of the greatest Disasters is Greed. The will to own something you want controls many, and can devastate the same quantity. In Kindergarten to halfway through 3rd grade, my only friends were the teachers i talked to, had fun with, even worked together, all because the rest of the class was driven by the desire to work with their friends. Blinded by a Greed of Joy, they thought i was just there to be weird, add color to the entire scene, be the kid that people didn't like, but didn't hate. Even as i tried to join their fun, like with Basketball or Video Games, they were the puppets to the Greed of Pride, showing off on me, rather than giving me a chance. Throughout those days, social life was hard, i even had trouble talking to a Kindergartener in 2nd grade. But enough about my edgy life story rambling, i see that everything is driven by Greed, and those that deny said greed are just hiding it.

 

[Idea]

I would actually propose that it was the introduction of Christianity that was the death-knell of the Roman Empire. Preaching love and tolerance is not conducive to an empire who's existence is founded on the need to conquer and subjugate foreign lands. Not to mention the fact that Christianity caused an enormous amount of eternal strife and disunion, weakening the empire further.


My unpopular opinion however, is that a democracy is actually a pretty inefficient and crappy form of government.  

Strangely enough I agree with your political opinion. Democracy is the type of government that forgets people don´t know much of anything of the topics they are voting about, in general, and thus are more likely to go for the demagog than the person with any thought-out position.


However, your idea that Christianity was the death-knell of the Roman Empire is quite wrong. Historically speaking, not only is that opinion of yours disregarding that tolerance was one of the biggest foundations of the size and sustainability of the Roman Empire, with their policies to allow religions and cultures other than their own, but instead promoting that conquered cultures would join theirs by incrementing the rights of Roman Citzens while still keeping basic rights for everyone. Their mostly impartial laws were one of the Roman Empire´s greatest inovations , and it was specifically their tolerance that avoided a sh*t ton of riots and rebellions: after all, it was more comfortable and safer being a Roman, you had laws you´d otherwise not have access to and on top of that, as long as you added the Emperor to your list of deities, you could workship and act whatever way you wanted.


With the introduction of Christianity, the Roman Empire´s policy was to NOT PERSECUTE Christian communities and to actively preach it. However, once again, the Roman Empire did not impose these ideas. For a lot of people in fact, they were mostly like the latest trend: Oh, the current emperor is Christian, that must be "the latest fashion". Sure, it´s likely some areas actively protested or rioted against the preaching (I don´t know of any, but I don´t exclude the possibility either), but Christianity actually helped give another layer of civility and culture to the people in general.


The thing that ACTUALLY resulted in the fall of the roman empire (well, it wasn´t just this, but also this) was the flood of barbarians from Asia. Driven out of their land by the...I think it was the huns, but I´m not sure that is accurate... the barbarians like visigods, anglo-saxons among others had no choice but to come to the Roman Empire. Now these people were great at fighting, and in confrontation I have no idea who´d have won a war: but the barbarians had tech, the drakars, that permitted them to do something never before seen in Europe: Travels with combat ships and armed people, right down or up the rivers. Barbarians would raid the cities and left the romans no choice but to attempt to use barbarians as mercenaries. Unfortunately, while many barbarians actually enjoyed the lifestyle of the romans, they weren´t used. Raiding continued inside the empire.


The nail on the coffin came when one emperor died and split the empire in hopes it would be easier to manage that way. This resulted in the weakening of the western side of the empire, which fell to barbarians. With that and muslam combat in Asia and Africa, the empire´s great extention crumbled and only a portion of the Eastern Roman Empire remained. After this, you have the church to thank that we didn´t revert back culturally like what happened in the pre-classical period. The introduction of monasteries during the first barbaric invasions was what allowed the church to preserve an extention of the former culture of the empire and the beliefs of the church.


Still my original point wasn´t even about the Roman Empire, though: it was merely about the splitting of the church. The church before that split was quite unified, but I believe it set the example to the defiance of the infability of the pope, thus later permitting the political manipulation that created new religions out of criticisms against the catholic church.

 

[Idea]

Not a disaster per se, but agriculture is sometimes criticized for being "the worst mistake in human history." There's an article that is about agriculture being the cause of many societal problems like patriarchy, social classes, war, etc.

isn't that... also what allowed human´s survival?

 

[Lost Swordlance]

Probably your birth !


Ahahahah !


Ahaha..


Ah.


What are you doing with that baseball bat ?


Go away please.


No.


Nonononono !


*fall to the ground with a broken skull.*

 

[Eye of Nowhere]

The invention of currency. 

 

[The Swedish Chef]

The invention of currency. 

Can you please explain why? 

 

[Shireling]

There are several candidates for worst thing ever in history. I'll rattle off a few.


1. Creation of the Federal Reserve system in the United States. Although other nations had central banks, the creation of the Federal Reserve helped to spread the debt-based banking system to every other country except North Korea and a few other states. Additionally, the massive increase in the supply of currency led to the abandonment of gold and silver standards worldwide, which will herald in an unprecedented crash eventually when the US dollar returns to its true value of zero.


2. The Great Schism and Protestant Reformation. Not only did the rise of Protestantism create chaos and political and religious strife, but the Great Schism which occurred earlier essentially alienated half of Christianity from the other half. A stronger Christian Church would more likely have much more social hegemony in the world today. Additionally, this may have prevented the cultural alienation of Russia from Europe.


3. Rise of cultural Marxism and the Identitarian Left. Truly the worst calamity to befall Western civilization since Hannibal marched over the Alps. Nuff said.


4. The Industrial Revolution. Someone has already said this, but I will expound upon the reasoning. Industrialism essentially deligitimized capitalism and gave rise to Marxism itself. Additionally, it lead to the increasing urbanization of the First World and an economic model built on unsustainable levels of personal consumption.