nietzsche

Just curious if other's agree with me that love is man's greatest weakness. At least on an individual level.

It makes sense. What is more powerful than love? If we have it and then have it revoked we are left a quivering mess. If we don't have it we seem incomplete.

I guess you could say that while a man has love he is more powerful, but a true power, such as knowledge, can not be stripped of you. It can be distorted and wrong but unlike love it can't be taken away in an instant. Thats why I look at love as a weakness.

Im not trying to cast it into negative light at all, I just find it to be a great weakness to man.

debaser

Greed.


Worse than love any day of the week.

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Jasmar

intelligence

dunkelhelmut

Power

The reasoning is similar to greed. Many people want power and will do almost anything to get it.

Very few people with power know how to use it respectfully. Most people with power abuse it or are unqualified to use it.

dtheriault

Fear.

Fear can destroy love, fear can turn intelligence into evil, fear can corrupt power. fear can paralyze good people into inaction.

Fear.

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"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

crow_daw

One could make a case for Pride.

But you could also argue against almost anything being the answer.

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more fire

I could say women, hahahaha.....
but seriously, greed is pretty endemic across the world. As somone once said, too much is never enough.

TheKak

I would have to go with greed here. You cant really use greed in a good way, though the rest of the emotions listed you CAN use in a good way (fear, power, intelligence...eh maybe pride is stretching it, but it doesnt even touch greed).

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kurty[B]

Kinda falls along with greed, but selfishness.

We're too busy looking out for "our best interests" do we ever really take into account the best interest for the group or society as a whole... To be honest, I don't.

dtheriault

i would have a hard time to argue against the

greed/selfish/ego-centric weakness thing.

remember the key to life holy grail was compassion which is learning to share suffering

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"Remember, it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen." -Homer

Unless you are the freakin Highlander, what is the point in learning how to fight with a sword?

lurkette

I think our greatest weakness is fear of "other-ness." Love doesn't strike me as a weakness at all. What you're looking at as weakness, in terms of love, is actually fear of its absence, not love itself.

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guy2003

Gunna go with greed.

Katyblu

Greed definitely because it cause the corruption of power and other attributes...

ellipsys

i'd say that man's greatest weakness on the whole is not so much greed as it is lack of foresight. the inability of people to actually see the outcome of their actions, regardless of intent, facilitates the actions brought about by greed, envy, maliciousness, etc. if one truly sought to gain power over the world and had the foresight to know that he could obtain it through peaceful negotiation and compromise, do you think he would start by killing and conquering?

striderkevin

Power, money, and women.

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Drunk Ballerina

what about the idea that "romantic love" is an invention that has only been with us for a few centuries?

XenuHubbard

I would say "fear" - isn't that the basis for greed, pride, etc.?

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mepitans

Having boundries is man's biggest weakness. If there was no good there would be no evil, if there was no life there would be no death, it would all just be. It is hard to explain it using words, at least for me.

almostaugust

Greed.

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'And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass'

Johnny Rotten

I'd actually go with fear on this one, although I would have said greed before. I think greed is promoted by a distorted need for security--security from the things we fear, no matter how unavoidable they are.

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"The idea that money doesn't buy you happiness is a lie put about by the rich, to stop the poor from killing them." -- Michael Caine

pr0f3n

Fear

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In heaven all the interesting people are missing.
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anti fishstick

ever seen donnie darko where the teacher says there are only two emotions in which stems all other feelings and emotions? they are fear and love.. i'd have to go with fear. bcos yes, it is the basis for greed.. pride.. etc. and also bigotry, racism, homophobia. FEAR. and why consider love as a "weakness"? there is also the fear of love.

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Mephisto2

Man's greatest weakness?

Women and beer...

i8one2

That only one point of view is correct. our own.

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"Nothing That Gives Pleasure is Bad"

Quality is for those who know
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sportsrule101

self elevating, self righteousness that he places on himself

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Katyblu

Ooooo, good answer. Can I change mine to this?

Varese

im not a human, so none of this love stuff really affects me. I'd have to say the whole bladder/anus thing. Shitting takes too much time. The same for sleeping.

Moonduck

Tsk, man's greatness weakness is desire. Desire is the cause of all suffering. Without desire, there is no greed. Without desire, there is no selfishness.

MacGnG

i dunno, but i'm sure it's not boobies...
ok so it probably is

i'd agree with greed tho.

cliv

As I see it, almost anything that gives pleasure or avoids pain has the potential to be a weakness if it's taken to an extreme.

Let me give a couple of examples...

Fear exists for self preservation (for example avoiding hungry lions). Fear taken to the extreme can lead to racism, etc.

Pride is good for keeping up self esteem. Pride taken to an extreme can end up as self righteousness.

irseg

Damn, a lot of people don't like greed.

Here's what I think of the matter. Did people who invented things and came up with new ideas genuinely do it solely for the betterment of society? Would Henry Ford have revolutionized mass production (which made the car an everyday item and changed transportation forever) if there was no chance of getting money and power out of it? Or would Thomas Edison invent everything he did? Of course not, most everyone who accomplished things did them it's something they enjoyed doing, and they wanted to profit from it. Selfishness and greed, right there. And their actions benefitted everyone else as a side benefit.

Look at the innovations, technology. and quality of life that come out of a communist society where greed is outlawed, versus a capitalist society.

John Henry

Existence=>Entropy=>Mortality?

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"No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."

s8ins child

PRIDE if that is hit it definatly rips a man apart

Nefir

Man's greatest weakness is that he often forgets that despite being "sentient", he's still a hairless ape. We still have animal instincts, and alot of times they cause the base feelings mentioned above to come to the surface.

Greed, pride, jealosy, etc. would not exist once the human race has physically evolved enough to make most of the emotions we feel cease to exist. There would be no more need to fight one another.

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ARTelevision

the ego

in other words, the person who we think we are

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Memalvada

I think man's greatest weakness is the ease with which other emotions get in the way of reason.

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anti fishstick

i think the ego is more of man's personal weakness while things like greed/fear is global. although, i think change starts from within before it can go out globally so the ego is a very good point..

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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

scoobydugan

How the hell can intelligence be a weakness? If anything it's a blessing....Greed is the biggest weakness...people have been saying that since day 1

tinfoil

I would say ignorance or complacency.

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Easytiger

If love is our greatest weakness, then it is also our greatest strength. Anybody who has found true love could tell you that.