People around the world are suffering and to see someone pull a stunt like this is horrible. What do you think

There's a Just 1 Click campaign going to the Virginia Tech families. Just in case you guys didn't know. Here is the link:

http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=2335

I'm defining agriculture as the growing of food. Before agriculture is the hunting and gathering of people, and you decrease the population by only allowing a random sampling of the population to reproduce. But that's another ethical issue.

quote:

Why do people have to die on U.S. soil via an act of extreme violence in order for the American public to be shocked and saddened? Thousands of people are killed in equally horriffic events around the globe on a daily basis, and we shrug it off. We know the number 33 as if it's our age or name or something. 33. The number of people who died in the VTech massacre. But how many people died that same day in Iraq? Darfur? Burma? Zimbabwe? How many children died that day of malnutrition? How many people died of treatable diseases? Why are we not shocked and saddened every day? Are other people's lives somehow less valuable than American lives?

I agree with you on this count. I was also emotionally distraught over VT (though it may have to do with the fact it reminded me of my emotions during the worst week of my life), but there are numerous of innocent people who die sudden, tragic, and violent deaths all over the world on any given day. While the people at VT do reserve our support and respect, so do everyone who has lost someone before it should have been their time to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Ikki14Reed:
Before the invention of agriculture, there wasn't that big of a population and people cooperated (for the most part) in order to survive. Once agriculture came around, the population increased due to a steady income of food, which lead to more people in the same area. With more dense populations, crime increased.

How are you defning agriculture? People have been growing food (agriculture) for thousands of years, and one might argue that there was less violence before the evolution of modern agriculture and specialization. However, if you look back to thousands of years ago, when the world's population was much smaller, there was still plenty of violence. People have been at war for as long as groups have been interacting. Think of the Aztecs who captured enemies and ripped their hearts out as sacrifices. In fact, one could also argue that violence/war/hate has been on the rise since the advent of organized religion.

And how do you suggest we feed ourselves without growing food? Do we go back to hunter/gathering? We'd never all survive - there's not enough to hunt/gether to support the population. It sounds like your underlying argument is overpopulation. So are you suggesting that we decrease the population dramatically? By what means? Do we starve the population? Mass murders? Or do we just impose reproductive laws like the one child laws in China?

On an unrelated note and back to the thread's original topic:

[Disclaimer: I was deeply saddened by the Virginia Tech tragedy, and the following is not intended to belittle it in any way.]

Why do people have to die on U.S. soil via an act of extreme violence in order for the American public to be shocked and saddened? Thousands of people are killed in equally horriffic events around the globe on a daily basis, and we shrug it off. We know the number 33 as if it's our age or name or something. 33. The number of people who died in the VTech massacre. But how many people died that same day in Iraq? Darfur? Burma? Zimbabwe? How many children died that day of malnutrition? How many people died of treatable diseases? Why are we not shocked and saddened every day? Are other people's lives somehow less valuable than American lives?

Before the invention of agriculture, there wasn't that big of a population and people cooperated (for the most part) in order to survive. Once agriculture came around, the population increased due to a steady income of food, which lead to more people in the same area. With more dense populations, crime increased.

I don't know if any of you have shared a room, but not that much space and one room can often lead to excess fights or just more suppressed anger. (One of the few things college has taught me).

I'm struggling to see the link with agriculture...

agriculture?