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trenton

Humanity's greatest failures

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I am curious about this topic. When we learn history, we learn about successful movements and humanity's greatest achievements. I doubt that this paints the true picture of history. The full story can only be told through the long list of well meaning individuals and groups who failed when they were the lone voice of reason. If you look at history more completely, you realize that being a hero often boils down to dumb luck.

1. Claudette Colvin

This woman is not very well known. She is Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks. She refused to give up her seat to a white man, but was labeled a trouble maker and didn't accomplish anything with this stand against racial discrimination. This has implications for police brutality. George Floyd was the example that got attention. There were many more forgotten victims of police brutality, but it is not until an injustice receives a lot of attention that it begins to be corrected. There are likely many forgotten victims who suffered a similar fate.

2. Jan Hus

This is the Martin Luther before Martin Luther. I am referring to the protestant reformation in response to church corruption concerning indulgences. Basically, you give the pope money to be forgiven for your sins. Jan Hus and many others stood against this corrupt practice for over 100 years. This man and others like him were executed for the attempted reformation. It was not until Martin Luther wrote 95 theses and it actually worked. There were 100 years worth of failure before that.

3. The Maji Maji rebellion

This was a rebellion triggered by German colonialism in Africa. Ngwale was the leader of the rebellion and he gave his followers magic water, hoping it would protect them from bullets. The limits of magical thinking were demonstrated brutally through several massacres.  The failed rebellion against slavery ended in widespread famine. In fact there were two similar rebellions prior to this that I didn't know about. The Abushiri revolt of 1888–1889 and the Wahehe Rebellion of 1891–1898 ended in a similar catastrophe.

4. History written by the losers

Any victory in history is simultaneously a defeat. Any war won is also a war lost. Any movement that succeeds does so often because it triumphed over its opposition. Life is a zero sum game.

5. Environmental concerns

In many cases environmental movements fail brutally. There are examples with oil companies taking over governments in Africa and South America through lobbying and then suppressing environmental movements even more effectively then they do in America. Many countries have horrible birth defects and widespread illness due to pollution caused by these companies. For example, Chevron owes about 50 billion dollars but refuses to pay. I wouldn't say that this movement failed yet, but there are failed heroes in jail on false charges when they confront the corruption of oil companies across the globe.

Other issues like ocean pollution and climate change may realistically end up in examples of failed movements. Water wars are already happening due to climate change induced droughts and it is only going to get worse. I think humanity will survive, but the global population is projected to decline. Water wars will be the biggest tragedy of the 21st century and potentially the greatest catastrophe in human history and they seem inevitable. In my opinion this is the greatest threat to humanity and we need better management of global resources to ensure that as few countries collapse as possible. More issues like the drought of the Colorado river will only become more common. Will someone attempt to ease my fears concerning water wars, or is my assessment correct?

If you can tell me about other failed heroes and movements, then that would be great. This is interesting to learn about. Thank you.

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