Stefan Thiesen scribbled: Unfortunately all this is entirely true. It is equivalent to the Peter Principle and describes much of our "overstaffed" economy rather well.

Stefan Thiesen scribbled: Well. Since you mentioned statistics, I shall quote the independent (see: http://atlanticreview.org/archives/43...: "In the US, there are roughly 17,000 murders a year, of which about 15,000 are committed with firearms. By contrast, Britain, Australia and Canada combined see fewer than 350 gun-related murders each year. And it's not just about murder. The non-gun-related suicide rate in the US is consistent with the rest of the developed world. Factor in firearms, and the rate is suddenly twice as high as the rest of the developed world. Children are affected particularly hard. An American youth is murdered with a firearm every four and a half hours on average. And an American youth commits suicide with a firearm every eight hours. It's worth remembering that many of the most spectacular mass murders of recent years were really suicides, with the perpetrators choosing to take a few other people with them while they were at it." Indeed in Germany guns are not banned - only heavily regulated. In this context it may be interesting to note that the few school amok runs with guns of the last few years were carried out by teenage boys who were both: members of gun clubs AND fanatic ego-shooter gamers. Interestingly boys who were not all disenfrenchised but came from so called "good families". Anyway: Germany has 82 Milion citizens and we have 700 something murders a year in the country. Most knive attacks are really merely threats. Give em your purse, I say. All in all hardly anyone is ever murdered with a knive, and if so, it usually happens as part of a street fight in a gang or "bar-fight" context, not as a regular open attack. Nobody rund amok with a knive, and rarely is astore being robbed with knives. I shall not comment on your "decayed hellhole" hypothesis. See statistics above.

Stefan Thiesen scribbled: Ask yourself what is good for others? What is good for me? What is good for all lifeforms that have the capacity to suffer? And then act accordingly. When I see a movie with my 4 year old daughter or read a story to her, I keep asking her at the and: and - who prevailed? The good ones! And why? Because they stood together and helped each other! Isn't that all there is? Avoid suffering and pain? Helping each other? Tread softly on the world at large? Religions divide. Religions and other ideologies are one of the root causes of war and aggression - believing things that are not real and yet pasionately if not violently insisting they are the absolute truth. How many absolute truths are there? I cannot help but thinking that standing together, helping each other, keeping the world around us in tact - there really is nothing else, no other recipe. No other secret. No God. Just calmness, friendlyness, love and friendship. Just getting away from greed - no matter what greed, including the one leading to spiritual or religious possessiveness and consumerism.