Gosh, the world and it's inhabitants are pretty f-ed up.
If you look at history from a really global perspective it really is not as bad as it seems. There is a marvelous book called "The Good Old Days They Were Terrible!" by a man named Otto Bettmann. It is a very quick and easy read and focuses on everyday life in the U.S. from roughly the close of the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century. It looks at various aspects of life (work, food, transportation, crime, etc.) and the picture is not pretty. Life just sucked for everyone (even the rich although they had it a lot better) in ways that we can't imagine since we take so much for granted. (For example, as weird as it seems the traffic fatality rates were much higher before the introduction of the automobile.) The lesson of the book is not really obvious at first but what it is really saying is the that human condition
continually improves although we may have transitory setbacks that often seem worse than they are in the greater scheme of things - not surprising perhaps since Bettmann had escaped from Nazi Germany in the early thirties and as a historian was fully aware of the scope of that monstrosity.
Another really impressive and ultimately uplifting view of humanity is presented in a fascinating and powerful documentary series by Jacob Bronowski called "The Ascent of Man" - the 13th (and final) hour long episode is particulary amazing. I can't reccommend this series highly enough.
It's a very deep topic but overall I think people are inherently good. Why? Think about it. Everyone is born into this world as a clean slate. Serial killers weren't born serial killers, even they were innocent babies once. The evil, jealousy, malicious intent, greed and all that other crap that makes someone turn bad all comes from influence of others and environment. It's how they're brought up, or their life situation or whatever. There are so many factors of why people turn out the way they do. But my point was that everyone starts out good and in general that good stays with us though through life we learn bad and good and no one is 100% good, nor 100% bad.
Agreed, however saints weren't born saints either. I'd venture to say that infants have no sense of morality at all, they are neutral beings.
Their morality is shaped by the environments in which they grew up.
To put it in as little words as possible I think "most" people by nature are more than likely to react to something using negative emotions as opposed to positive ones.
For example:
People are more likely to write negative reviews as opposed to positive ones....Let's say an item was sold and 100 people purchased it, you see 20 bad reviews about it and 1 positive review about it.
So 80% of the people who bought it were happy with it and 20% were "not" happy with it (I am sure there is a flaw somewhere but I know this stuff is fact).
Does it make people negative by nature? I have no idea but that is my thoughts on it...
People are fundamentally good, but most don't have the will to act to stop violence against others be it for fear, for being weak, for having other, personal reasons (shit going on with their lives, etc...). That doesn't make them bad people.
Most will help in ways that they don't have to be inconvenienced during their days by donating money or food. Those are good acts regardless.
Sure, it makes looks like most people are bad because of violent minority, but that is definitely not the case. And that is coming from someone who has seen some of the worst that are out there.
Comments
People are fundamentally ignorant and self-righteous.
When someone makes a broad sweeping statement like this I always wonder if they're including themselves in the generalization.
Gosh, the world and it's inhabitants are pretty f-ed up.
If you look at history from a really global perspective it really is not as bad as it seems. There is a marvelous book called "The Good Old Days They Were Terrible!" by a man named Otto Bettmann. It is a very quick and easy read and focuses on everyday life in the U.S. from roughly the close of the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century. It looks at various aspects of life (work, food, transportation, crime, etc.) and the picture is not pretty. Life just sucked for everyone (even the rich although they had it a lot better) in ways that we can't imagine since we take so much for granted. (For example, as weird as it seems the traffic fatality rates were much higher before the introduction of the automobile.) The lesson of the book is not really obvious at first but what it is really saying is the that human condition
continually improves although we may have transitory setbacks that often seem worse than they are in the greater scheme of things - not surprising perhaps since Bettmann had escaped from Nazi Germany in the early thirties and as a historian was fully aware of the scope of that monstrosity.
Another really impressive and ultimately uplifting view of humanity is presented in a fascinating and powerful documentary series by Jacob Bronowski called "The Ascent of Man" - the 13th (and final) hour long episode is particulary amazing. I can't reccommend this series highly enough.
It's a very deep topic but overall I think people are inherently good. Why? Think about it. Everyone is born into this world as a clean slate. Serial killers weren't born serial killers, even they were innocent babies once. The evil, jealousy, malicious intent, greed and all that other crap that makes someone turn bad all comes from influence of others and environment. It's how they're brought up, or their life situation or whatever. There are so many factors of why people turn out the way they do. But my point was that everyone starts out good and in general that good stays with us though through life we learn bad and good and no one is 100% good, nor 100% bad.
Agreed, however saints weren't born saints either. I'd venture to say that infants have no sense of morality at all, they are neutral beings.
Their morality is shaped by the environments in which they grew up.
For example:
People are more likely to write negative reviews as opposed to positive ones....Let's say an item was sold and 100 people purchased it, you see 20 bad reviews about it and 1 positive review about it.
So 80% of the people who bought it were happy with it and 20% were "not" happy with it (I am sure there is a flaw somewhere but I know this stuff is fact).
Does it make people negative by nature? I have no idea but that is my thoughts on it...
Most will help in ways that they don't have to be inconvenienced during their days by donating money or food. Those are good acts regardless.
Sure, it makes looks like most people are bad because of violent minority, but that is definitely not the case. And that is coming from someone who has seen some of the worst that are out there.