"Everyone is Expendable"?

[heavens-champion 1,893]

Five days ago, I asked on Yahoo answers if Conservatives consider people expendable (and in hindsight, I probably should have been more specific). One of the answers talked about how everyone is expendable, and I was kind of disturbed by that. 

This is the answer, in case your wondering: 

"everyone is expendable, that has never changed. Just most think they are special or something, very few are special and actually contribute to society in a meaningful way."

I simply said that it was depressing they thought like that, then four days later they replied it was reality. Of course, being a pessimist who is tired of being a pessimist, I just said that was just their opinion, and just because they think that way doesn't make it true, and then on that same day they went on about everyone is forgotten even by their loved ones, life moving on, and whatever role a dead person had being filled by someone else.

So, I am really curious about this line of thought: Everyone is expendable? Why would that be the case? What causes people to think this way?

 

P.S. This is not a rant. I'm just being specific because I remember how some people told me that previous topics I posted were too vague about the subjects they were about.

 

[Rarity Gemstones 189]

In essence, the statement is indeed factual. All humans are indeed expendable, so long as enough of the biological female and biological male sexes continue to exist to re-populate the planet, we are all in essence, expendable. The human race continues long after any of us are gone, and it is true that any rule necessary for that to continue is always filled by someone else.

Our time on this planet is finite.

011

[Fluttershyfan94 5,738]

We all want to believe that we are important, our sense of self importance I would say is actually unique to us as a species. I personally do not feel it, since I realize I am one of what now seven billion that and the fact if I want to be important I have to do something important. There will always be people to repopulate nobody will remember someone that just repopulated you have to achieve. Historians remember those who achieve, everyone is expendable as most people aren't over achievers few of us are those who are you already know who are as where are those people now? Yet even so, someone else could have filled in those roles someone else would eventually have achieved it. I think all you can do is at least get noted in the history books, one good opportunity to do so is to look to the last frontier to space learn stem fields or become rich and invest in space. Our species was meant to become spacefarers travel the depths of space, explore distant worlds and planets yet what do we do we waste efforts, lives and resources fighting each other. People aren't interested in math and physics while you are literally studying the science that will be used to one day to conquer the galaxies. We will have entire planets simply to extract resource, we'll drain entire stars for their hydrogen and helium gasses to create a nuclear fusion for our spaceships that'll be the size of planets to power ion thrusters the size of small planets as our species continues to conquer the galaxies. Therefore everyone is expendable but you can still be in history books, let's just stop funding stupid wars and let's go to explore our solar system, our galaxy and then other galaxies.

[SharpWit 2,472]

I'd say it's true on paper, but we've never been more specialized in what we do more than we are right now for our entire history. While we have infinitely more information readily available to us at our fingertips compared to our largely less educated ancestors, much of the work we do requires such specific training that many have to be really dedicated to doing just that one thing. We're limited in what we can and are willing to do, as individuals. I hate to use this as an example, but say the Thanos snap happened. While in the long term his plan to reduce populations to prevent suffering via overusing resources is stupid because we can double in such a short amount of time as the last century has proven a few times I think, and in a way shows our expendability since we'd recover, we'd also be left with so many positions suddenly left unattended. Inspirational and innovative leaders, doctors who've developed new operation techniques and treatments, professors making discoveries and solving problems over the course of decades, or even just some guy whose job it is to push some big button in case of an emergency to prevent some sort of disaster, all of these people are non=expendable, because while theoretically anyone could learn the skills they've acquired. The truth is not just anyone will. It takes a certain kind of person to do certain tasks, and if we lost enough of those types of people, we'd be set back for quite some time, at the very least, waiting for those who are willing and able to step up and take on such positions, or possibly having to deal with the repercussions and hurting ourselves in the fallout. Worst case scenario is we lose our minds with the absences the members of society who keep us sane, and we find ourselves back in the stone age.

TLDR: While we're all expendable people on paper, we rely very heavily these days on certain types of people, who are theoretically replaceable, but contribute heavily in holding everything together.

[Early Sunsets 2,106]

On a larger scale, yeah. If I, my neighbor down the street, or some random guy in Michigan suddenly died, the world wouldn't notice. Even if it were the CEO of an important company or the leader of a nation, things would go on. Everyone's place in the world can be replaced.

If we scale it down to something like a closely-knit community or even a group of friends, then things are different. Even if everyone is just another cog in the machine of society, to their friends, nothing can ever replace them. Losing one person would feel like losing a limb. Someone else could fill the gap, but nothing would ever be the same for that group of people.

[EpicEnergy 22,085]

I believe no one is expendable in God's eyes, that He created every single human being for a purpose. So, I believe no one is expendable.

Edited April 22, 2020 by EpicEnergy

[TBD 17,228]

No matter how many human dies, more always comes to replace it. One thing I know for sure, boomers takes forever. Hell, even COVID-19 couldn't wipe them.  Aside from the moral respond, human are quite expendable.

Now if we're talking in a philosophic sense, We like to think we are different but sometime it's a headache to try to be different. And human tends to overlook vaules, so why bother?

[Patty Thundersnow 4,129]

Of course the Republicans would think that 'everyone is expendable' because they are the ones pushing hardest for the reopening of the economy. As far as I'm concerned, no one is expendable. Every person in the US, and the world for that matter, is not expendable. We were put on this pale blue marble for a reason.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

The far right who want you to sacrifice your ill for an economy that's already in recession seem to think so. And they say that the act of telling people to stay home is unconstitutional when what they're suggesting is downright authoritarian...

[Rebel the Wolfgirl 5,585]

Those who say that everyone is expendable do not think of us as individuals, but an unthinking collective willingly following the herd mentality to our doom. Those who say that everyone is expendable do not think in the longterm, but in the short term. Those who say that everyone is expendable, think not for the people but for their own desires with  disregard for the consequences.

The truth is we are not a resource that is finite and expendable, being exhausted for profits and the sustenance of outdated hiearchal systems and their institutions. We are people, each and every one of us, whose actions (whether large or small) have big impacts and can indeed make a difference.

Edited April 23, 2020 by Renegade the Unicorn

[Rarity Gemstones 189]

Because our time is so finite, I think that is why us being "expendable" is a marvelous thing. Those who are remembered are those who set out to set a legacy.

Am I saying that correctly?

[BornAgainBrony 2,395]

I looked at this thread title and thought "heeeere we go." This isn't really a conservative mindset though, or republican, or anything else. You'll find this everywhere to varying degrees, and it always gets worse at times like this. Some use it as a defense mechanism, to hide from the emotional trauma of their environment, or to justify firing huge swaths of people. This is simply nihilism.

[Evil Pink One 12,990]

We have a saying in our company

you are expendable to your company, not your family

[Goat-kun 2,498]

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[Jesse Terrence 2,963]

6 minutes ago, Goat-kun said:

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Best possible answer, goat!

I was expecting something cool, but this went far above my expectations!

 

As for what I think?

Yeah, everyone is expendable. Life always proves it. One is not so special like to avoid death. There will always be someone better than you or me or anyone else at something one considers itself special, and that person at the same time is not special anyway because there are many more who are better than it on many other things that might or not matter more. And even if one was to make something that changed the world, there will always be at least a handful of other people who might achieve just the same but at a different moment.

Having said that, why should we care about being or not expendable?

The answer is simple and dumb. We shouldn't. We don't live to be the center of the universe, but to enjoy ourselves, be happy and if we are generous enough, make those we care about happy as well, even if they all are expendable too.

[AppleButt 8,669]

We are expendable in the sense that the world will keep turning and no one other than family/friends would miss us when we die.  

That doesn’t mean we should be treated like we are expendable.  Nor should we treat others that way.

Thats my thoughts.

 

 

 

[TBD 17,228]

1 hour ago, Goat-kun said:

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Yep kierkegaard can second on that!

 

[Splashee 28,537]

On 4/22/2020 at 8:06 AM, heavens-champion said:

"everyone is expendable, that has never changed. Just most think they are special or something, very few are special and actually contribute to society in a meaningful way."

But most of them (the special) are so boooooring!

[Cwanky 17,458]

Here's the reality of it, you are both expendable and inexpendable, but you're also neither. The moment you let someone or something define your self worth is when you yourself have relinquished your self worth. Sure humans are biologically made to reproduce, proliferate, and ultimately die. Sure a robot can replace you and arguably do your job more efficiently. Everything is ultimately relative. You decide your own self worth as an individual, as a person and whatever else. Unless you are mentally incapacitated, you can think for yourself. Don't limit and box yourself in based on what others say.

Here's a fun scientific fact: because the universe is expanding, no matter where you stand, it will apear that everything in the universe around you is expanding. Moreover, since it has no definite size or area, any given point at a given time will be the center, including our Earth, so the geocentrists were at least somewhat partially right.