Could the whole world be solved in one line?

[sixtyandaquarter]

You can't use: "no one be assholes". I know, I know - we all have to stick to it in this hypothetical. However how many people have you called an asshole for doing something to someone, only to have them rebunk it with "I'm not an asshole, they deserved it."
How many people truly believe they haven't committed murders when they killed someone, because of their own definition.

You can't use "don't be selfish" because how many people honestly believe their selfish acts to gain control or power or gain is a selfless act, a duty they are doing to help others. Many people have done some horrible power greedy things, in their minds honestly believing it was their responsibility to do so, to help others.
Some people have done incredibly good things out of being selfish - hell almost every great social and economic stride in our history has been made on the idea of helping ourselves - even when helping others the intent was pay back.

Do what you want to, but don't harm others. You still have to define harm. Wyatt mentioned porn and homosexuality - well some people truly believe that is harmful. Some people believe doing harm to someone who is doing harm is negateful (or whatever word I'm looking for?), that two wrongs in this instance does in fact make a right.
We are now stuck. They can't do harm... but they can't protect from perceived harm either. I can get really deep on this, but I'll stop because honestly it just leads in a circle.

Don't be a dumb ass.
Define dumb ass. Rape is a dumb ass - okay. See there you have it, but unless you stated it there is room for interpretation. But it took you several statements to define, and since I see "one line" I'm taking that as out.
So, without those add ons there could be fun here. Don't be a dumb ass - it's a great line from a crime movie I wish I could remember, set in the 30's but it was made in the 60's. The guys were killing people - but one guy kept trying to one up people. Instead of shooting them in the vital chest area (the bigger target) he was wasting bullets going for head shots.
"Whadya think yer doin'?! Don't be a dumb ass aim for the chest!"
So, kill people - but do it quickly without wasting as much ammo is not being a dumb ass - by interpretation of the 1 line, I'm not a dumb ass and I'm sticking to the line.

I still don't think 1 law/rule/line/what have you, could ever possibly save 1 person let alone the entire world. EVEN if everyone followed it. One line leads room for definition and there is no way out. My best possible option would still be torn to shreds by anyone who bothered to look at it from a slanted view. Yums best would be torn apart. Wyatt's. Venetia's. My little shots were crap, imagine if this was real and it really had impact.

My equally horrible attempt at the 1 saving line, where everyone must follow and the world would be saved:
"Kill yourself as fast as possible in the least destructive way you can imagine."
The world is saved. Once everyone follows my law simply once, there will be no more wars, arguments, fights, anything. The human race will be at peace.

 

[Yum]

You can't use "don't be selfish" because how many people honestly believe their selfish acts to gain control or power or gain is a selfless act, a duty they are doing to help others. Many people have done some horrible power greedy things, in their minds honestly believing it was their responsibility to do so, to help others.

Yeah that was what I was looking for, although I was hoping it'd be typed up in a more logical way such as: People don't have complete information on how the world works, therefore because of this their selfless acts for others may not be the best because due to unknown factors they failed to take into account.

Oh, but OOT, politically, it's a good tool, promoting selflessness ^ _ ^ you can make the lambs do everything you want...

Some people have done incredibly good things out of being selfish - hell almost every great social and economic stride in our history has been made on the idea of helping ourselves - even when helping others the intent was pay back.

Right. Although I'm kind of feeling melancholy by the fact that after you finish reading this sentence, you'll probably look up George Soros in wikipedia.

My best possible option would still be torn to shreds by anyone who bothered to look at it from a slanted view. Yums best would be torn apart. Wyatt's. Venetia's. My little shots were crap,

Duh. You think so? -_-

 

[Ellie]

Selfishness is one of those very vague things that really, doesn't exist.

So you help an old lady cross the road. Selfless. Well, why did you do it? To make yourself feel better? Then you're getting something in return. To get brownie points from people watching you, getting something in return.

 

[Reives]

Then you'd get into the whole argument with psychological and ethical egoism. :x One argument against that, for example, is that if your mind values helping others so much as to actually make you act on it, what is more selfless than that, in its core?

But the root of all these things comes down to the fact that the interpretation of vocabularies are not universally uniform.

 

[BeastmodeBank357]

One line that can solve many problems. . .

Calm down.

 

[Beadly_Dastard]

The problem is the subjectivity of the word "Harm".  In order to determine the existence of harm, one first has to view the situation through a deontological lens.  And the major problem with that is its subjectivity (If all but one person agrees that shooting fireworks is harmless, is it still harmless?)

This still completely overlooks the fact that humans survive by harming others.  Every dollar that I earn is one dollar that you do no not earn.  Every bite of yummy, delicious steak that I take deprives you of the same bite.  I know that these are semi-trivial examples, but they just serve to illustrate the fact that the theoretical sentence is subject to perversion.  Or, something like that...

 

[Red Dawn]

Wyatt, I believe it is possible to be totally selfless. You could help someone do something because they'd be in trouble or otherwise less-well-off, or perhaps they just don't want to do it so you're speeding it up. What do you get out of it? Nothing. You could feel better about yourself, but that isn't something definite.
Also, if you get something out of it (A warm fuzzy feeling inside) but lose something as well (You're late for work and miss out on a promotion), and you were aware you would lose that, since you're losing more than you're gaining then you're being selfless.

 

[snuggles]

Wyatt, I believe it is possible to be totally selfless. You could help someone do something because they'd be in trouble or otherwise less-well-off, or perhaps they just don't want to do it so you're speeding it up. What do you get out of it? Nothing. You could feel better about yourself, but that isn't something definite.
Also, if you get something out of it (A warm fuzzy feeling inside) but lose something as well (You're late for work and miss out on a promotion), and you were aware you would lose that, since you're losing more than you're gaining then you're being selfless.

Who says the fuzzy feeling is worth less than a promotion? Neither has an absolute value, just whatever value you personally place on it, and apparently the fuzzies are enough reason to give up the promotion. Yeah, most people would value the promotion more, but most people wouldn't stop to help, either.

 

[Red Dawn]

If I would choose a promotion over a warm fuzzy feeling, then it's worth more to me. I just help that person because I don't want them to miss out, but I'm sad that I do.

 

[ChaosMaxima]

Do whatever the hell you want so long as it does not harm others and/or yourself in the process.

Murder: Harms other, and yourself. (You can be sentenced to death or something).
Rape: Harms others.
Stealing: Harms others.
Pornography: Hm... well...
Hentai: ...
Drinking alcohol: Harms yourself.
Drinking alcohol *in excess in public*: Harms yourself.
Smoking: Harms yourself.
Smoking *in public*: Harms yourself and others.
Lesbian/gay/bisexual/transexual/straight: CAN harm yourself or your partner, as one of you (or both) can get AIDS or something.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I'm sorry I just have to point this out.

Lesbian/gay/bisexual/transexual/straight: CAN harm yourself or your partner, as one of you (or both) can get AIDS or something.

So just stop having sex and procreating.  Everyone lives in a beaker for 9 months because you can fall down the stairs pregnant.  Sure, you didn't mean to do it but you just killed someone, just like sure you probably didn't mean to get AIDs but you just killed someone.  Just because you could.  Apparently.

In other words "sex: can get aids or other STD"
Can't send someone to prison either because it would harm them and could harm others.
Can't have fun either apparently.  Oh, and porn is a "hm... well...", that's funny you could pull a muscle - ha, bad joke parade har har.

You have "sentenced to death" but you can't harm others.  That's the thing.  I don't care if it's a hypothetical, if we're going black and white with a sentence, we gotta keep it black and white.

 

[Skye_Vrbas]

How about:

"Try not to solve the whole world in one line."

paradox 

You see, I think you can never solve the complexity of this reality in 1 line.
But I do believe in lines that contain great truth.

 

[Ellie]

Or maybe, the real answer is:

"Shit happens, this is just life, get over it".

In that nothing will ever be perfect, and even if the world could be solved in one simple line / pamphlet / book it wouldn't really make any difference, as humanity would always be able to find problems.