What's the Worst Event in History?

kafka.:

? just one really terrible act?

German empires dominated Central Europe from 961 until after WWII (some would argue that they still do based on what's happening in Greece right now), WWII was not a one of a kind event, it simply was the culmination of German imperialism stretching back in history for over a millennia.

I was speaking of people who blamed the country, which did not exist in 961 CE. Imperialism is not an evil itself, either; it's the atrocities that are committed in its names that lead to the terrible events.

And I was really just saying that as my personal response to the question of what we consider to be the worst event that ever happened in history. I wasn't trying to start a debate, I was merely answering the question with what I think. If you read the very unsubtle words between the lines in my statement, then you know which nation's imperialism I view to be the worst. The point of my statement wasn't even to say that Germany has only had one wrong, just that much more favored countries have done so much more and so much worse wrongs than Germany.

World War II. Just all the innocent people who died because they weren't blonde or were Jewish was just so wrong, it's unbelievable. And horrible.

Also, Jack the Ripper. What Jack did was awful.

Ahhhhron:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii205/aaronappell/usaserial.jpg

Oh my gosh, that is just about the truest thing I've ever seen. Sad, isn't it?

Xsoteria:

^Speaking of unnoticed brutalities and genocides, nanjing rape seems to be awfuly unknown to people I spoke to. In the wikipedia article, the summary of the event doesn't seem as bad when compared to some other stuff we know of, but the horrific parts are further down in the text, mostly testimonies and descriptions.

Also, wikipedia seems to have left out the parts about evicerations and vivisections on live people and prisoners, as well as some questionable experiments. Although I could be wrong as I only skimmed through the article.

Oh my gosh. I was reading that article was all like, "That's awful!"

I don't think the Holocaust was the worst event that happened in history. Yes, it was horrible but, in my opinion, it was definitely not the worst. Or anywhere near that..

The appearance of religion because it lead to so much death, discrimination, destruction, war, etc.

@ open dru's mouth.
Religion was a natural progression of human nature. It's in our nature to have supernatural beliefs. It goes against our nature to reject all forms of supernatural belief. So that's like saying "the appearance of the left ear." Religion wasn't some scam that a few people cooked up and somehow spread the word to every human civilisation - globally - throughout all history - so I don't think it counts as an 'event'.

Edit: Though one could specifically suggest "the rise of Christianity" or something similar.

@ pravda.
There's a difference between having beliefs and having an organized religion with a leader that everyone is required to listen to/obey. Beliefs are fine. I think organized religion is the reason for a lot of the worlds problems.

open dru's mouth.:

@ pravda.
There's a difference between having beliefs and having an organized religion with a leader that everyone is required to listen to/obey. Beliefs are fine. I think organized religion is the reason for a lot of the worlds problems.

I mean, yes, of course, organized religion has led to a lot of bad things - I can think of countless examples - inquisition, crusades, saying that AIDS is a plague sent from God, etc - but to feel the need to single out organized religion, not e.g. excessive militarization or imperialism and its derivations nationalism, racism, etc, as 'the reason for a lot of the world's problems' shows that you have a very white American view on what the world's problems are. From my end of the world, it looks like the worst things that have happened in the last one hundred years or so have been two world wars, douzens of genocides, of colonial empires more or less willing to admit they are colonial empires and of oppressive regimes imposed by foreign countries, the near constant poverty in which most of the globe has been sunk by a handful of greedy countries and the ever increasing threat of environmental disasters. And although organized religion did participate to all of these problems in some way, it did not initiate them and I don't see how removing organized religion from history would do anything except maybe deprive a lot of people of their source of very necessary aid - not just spiritual or emotional, but also medical, financial, educational, etc.

@ kafka.
I would appreciate it you could refrain from making such xenophobic and patrronizing comments. Do not attack my race or my nationality, please. Firstly, I can't help either of them. Secondly, they do not make me inherently ignorant like you are suggesting. Shame on you for stereotyping all white Americans in that fashion.

What are the Crusades? What is the war being fought in Palestine and Israel right now if not over some fucking strip of land Jesus supposedly got crucified on or whatever?

I know this is a Wiki article, but if I'm making up religious wars, why are there so many cited here?

Please stop mocking me. I'm not an idiot and I really, really don't appreciate it.

hear dru's song.:

@ kafka.
I would appreciate it you could refrain from making such xenophobic and patrronizing comments. Do not attack my race or my nationality, please. Firstly, I can't help either of them. Secondly, they do not make me inherently ignorant like you are suggesting. Shame on you for stereotyping all white Americans in that fashion.

You can't help either your race or your nationality, true, but what you can help is being completely oblivious of the fact they affect your perception of the world (NB: I was clear about the fact that my race and nationality affect my perception of the world) and that people who are not white Americans have very different problems from the problems that you have precisely because they're not white Americans. But this seems to be a possibility you're so violently against that instead of responding to my arguments (by saying, for example, that genocides are a thing of the past), you decided to accuse of xenophobia an Eastern European immigrant who experiences xenophobia from people like you 24/7.

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What are the Crusades? What is the war being fought in Palestine and Israel right now if not over some fucking strip of land Jesus supposedly got crucified on or whatever?

The conflict between Palestine and Israel is mostly between Muslims and Jews, why would Jesus have anything to do with it?

Quote

I know this is a Wiki article, but if I'm making up religious wars, why are there so many cited here?

Please stop mocking me. I'm not an idiot and I really, really don't appreciate it.

If you actually read that wikipedia page, you will notice that almost all of the conflicts cited have been resolved and the ones that haven't been resolved are very isolated, imperialism (and it's derivatives), on the other hand, is very, very widely spread and affects almost everybody to a certain degree.

@ kafka.
Because they're fighting over the Gaza strip.

My race and nationality have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that several wars have been waged in the name of religion and I don't want them brought up again. I'm leaving this thread now because I refuse to defend myself against such ridiculous accusations.

Holocaust

I find it very difficult to pinpoint at which point in history was actually the worst. The Holocaust, Rwanda, the Crusades and the settling in America are all very obvious massacres, but the worst event in history is the evolution of man. Though positive in most respects, all man has done is harm the planet and harm each other. Yes, organised religion and different cultures developed clashes in history, causing harm to people, they wouldn't have happened if we were still apes.

I don't see how the Crusades even makes the list, in the Crusades we are talking 1-3 million deaths over the course of over 200 years, this is nothing in comparison to modern wars, the Vietnam war took the lives of over 3 million people in 20 or so years, and in World War 2 alone we are talking 60 million deaths in 6 years. The crusades is a lightning rod for controversy, but don't blow it out of proportion in terms of actual death total.

Kurtni:

I don't understand the value in choosing between horrific events like that in the first place which is why threads like this, and the slavery v. holocaust thread kind of irk me.

Heeey, that was my responsibility. But you have to understand that I posted it because other people were saying The Holocaust was worse.

When it comes to people saying what's worse, it's measured by damages done and the affect it has. It's also based on personal beliefs and effectiveness as well. The thing is, when people feel an event is worse than another event, it's probably because they have first hand experience of an event. For the one's who think it's foolish to compare, it's probably because they have no experience of effectiveness of the event.

So it doesn't completely irk me when people compare events, I just wish that people wouldn't have a biased point of view on it the way many do (including myself, I must admit, but that's because of a lack of knowledge) and consider the things they don't know.

@ Ayana Sioux
What do you consider "first hand experience"?

@ Alex; periphery.
When you experience it yourself, and not someone experiencing it through witness or something like that.

@ Ayana Sioux
Hmm, well I'm not sure I agree that we should withhold any comparison just because we've never experienced (e.g.) the Holocaust first hand.