Paradox of a perfect world

[Tylr Q Public]

Imagine a world in which nothing ever goes wrong, every one loves one and other and mankind has forgotten the meaning of words like jealousy, hate and sickness. Everyone grows old and dies in their sleep with a smile on their face.

Sounds good right?

But what meaning would life have if there were no obstacles to conquer, no personal victories that people would admire and perhaps the most disturbing thing about the perfect world would be that love would lose all meaning, because what makes love so special is that it's between two people. In a world where love is universal that intimacy is lost.

The world would seem almost boring to me. I'm not implying that our world shouldn't improve drastically.

I'm just asking you the question:

What is so perfect about a perfect world?

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How do you feel about this paradox

[Cavalier]

I believe the world we live in is a perfect world. Its in a balance of good and evil. Its in a perfect equilibrium and I wouldn't change a thing.

[Tylr Q Public]

what about poverty, disease, racism,...?

[Theresa]

I agree. This balance between good and evil is what defines our world and our perception of good and evil. If there were nothing bad in the world how could people step up and become the good people they are capable of being? There is a capacity for good and for evil in everyone of us. It's the choices that make us human and I think that is what makes this world perfectly imperfect. For every "evil" person there is for example one of us - a nerdfighter trying to decrease the worldsuck created by this person.
And all this, the good and the evil, the conflicts and the constant battle in everyone of us is what makes this world beautiful. Without that there wouldn't be literature, art, culture. There wouldn't be Brotherhood 2.0 or Nerdfighteria. There probably wouldn't be the Internet. Because in the world you described people would be content. And content is the opposite of curious and daring. The opposite of human.

[Eystein,]

I disagree, we don't need evil. Bad and annoying things perhaps, like accidents and obstacles, are ok. I don't think we need gangsters, trafficers, drug dealers, murderers, rapists, sociopaths and so on... It makes good TV, but I think we could manage without. But things would be different, but I fail to see why it is necessary to have such people around. Lazyness and boredom would probably kick people out of their couches, after all in such a world there would be nothing to watch on TV anyways...

[Rachel Jones]

Don't you think evil might be the natural progression of things? Nobody wants evil. It just happens.

[Dean Houston]

I think that isn't a perfect world for all the reasons above. But I think the point of life is to try and improve the world we live in and try to make it as best we can while still having to overcome the problems and obstacles we face.

[Captain Jacqui Sparrow]

Perfection can not exist alongside humanity. People make mistakes. To take that away is to defeat the purpose of being human. I think we should try to sort out the big stuff, like genocide, intolerance, theocratic dictators, poverty, etc. That would be as close to perfect as I can imagine.

Your idea of a perfect world is imperfect. I don't think that people are capable of perfection. The concept is kind of like trying to picture a vacuum or death. It's hard to think about because it's so different from what we see and what is real--life to us. (obviously vacuums and death are real, but you don't find yourself in the middle of a giant vacuum every day, and it's hard to be dead while going on with your everyday life unless you're a zombie or something.)
I don't know a single person who can come up with what is actually a perfect world.

[Eystein,]

I think that a world where people dies, is imperfect to begin with... At least from aging, which is a sickness, we just don't think it is because we all have it.

The ancients had at least three different terms for different kinds of love: Amor, Philia and Agape. Although, there's no unambiguous defenition of the word agape; it could mean unconditional love of everything and everyone, but also love for things that you do, like craftmanship, art and innovation. It may also include the love of spouse and family. I think everyone would have to be filled with this kind of love.

I think amor, is the most problematic, because it's the love of passion and sexual affection. So a bit tricky if there should be no jealousy and hate. I think everyone would have to be quite lenient and sharing, as well as sexually attractive, for this to go around without bumbs and bruises.

I think Philia is the only love that would become somewhat meaningless. It would still exist, but because it's the love of friends and people you know well; you would take it for granted, because nothing would ever happen to them. In a perfect world you would never experience the fear of loosing them, and you would never have to fight to keep them because everyone would be so lovable.

So love is not only between two people, that's just a social convention which would have to be reassessed before a perfect world could be achieved... That being said, the universe isn't actually made up of cushions, so even if we could fill every heart with love, and exterminate all human evil, we'd still get hurt by nature. We'd still have car accidents, avalanches, earthquakes, supervolcanic eruptions and meteor impacts to worry about.

[Olivia]

I want our world to be more perfect than it is now, but at the same time I don't want it to be "POOF! LOOK! IT'S JUST THE WAY I WANT IT!"
Completely "perfect," however, is definitely undesirable.

[Poindexter NZ]

Perfect is a pipe dream. Even the perfect world you're talking about isn't perfect for a lot of people because love has no meaning. So, There will never be a perfect world because perfect doesn't and cant really real.

[Wire-teeth]

Exactly. Like it or not, it is necessary to suffer. All art is based on suffering/dealing with evil. Without any "bad," there is really no reason to live.

[Fiona Bee]

I don't believe in an "evil person". I have great faith in the good of mankind and believe that it is naturally embedded into each person the capacity to love their fellow human beings. If you look at the people you pass by on the street, each person is loved and can love. The only thing that keeps this world from being the Utopia you describe is the human mind losing its focus in life. We become blinded by money, selfish game, greed, hurt, etc. If these "poisons" were eliminated, there would be nothing to mask our minds from the state in which they naturally are: the care and concern for ourselves and those around us.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is more to the imperfection of our world. Maybe a human being really can be horrible down to the core. But i'm not alone in my thoughts. Draco Malfoy in HP is a perfect example of this. Was he evil? Selfish down to his nature? You tell me. All i know is those poisons that cause us to change from our natural selves as humans are essential for the running of life. Let me ask you this: how would you know happiness if you never felt sadness? (to quote Hank's song Anglerfish "you can't feel alone if its all you've ever known").