Question:
Do you think human beings are inherently vile, self seeking and malevolent?
Fairly straightforward question really.
I think we are. Pretty much. I think human beings are, I guess you could say, the worst animal on the planet. And at the end of the day, we only do good things when we're forced to do them. Either for socioeconomic reasons or to save face.
Thoughts???
*I know that my position is a bit cynical and despondent if not pessimistic, but there you have it*
Thoughts???
I do good things because I'm psychologically reinforced to do them.
I do good things because I get a warm and fuzzy feeling for helping someone.
I also get a good and warm fuzzy feeling when I put someone in pain.
It's a weird, stressing combo.
I can say that we're mostly neutral at birth but socio-economical pressures (poverty, high expectations etc.) and bad paradigms (awful heroes, teachers, parents, friends, celebrities etc.) makes us annoying sick greedy bastards.
One can become a true disciple of Confucius, Buddha or Jesus if he's not under bombardment of vile culture, society and economy.
Indeed if you have a fortified mind with established ethics and philosophy, it's less likely to be influenced by those pressures and bad paradigms.
Not neccessarily vile, but people do tend to be selfish. Like, they want to talk about themselves but do not want to listen to others. I notice that quite often. People just put on friendly faces, nod and say "uh-huh", but they do not really care about you or your opinion. Yet they could talk about themselves for hours. Or how some would just only agree to help others or do something similarly good only if there's a reward. Thus, I've become quite apathetic myself. Then again, I'm not saying I'm a better individual since I like watching others suffer. We can call people violent, greedy, downright rude or disrespectful, but at the end of the day none of that will matter one bit, sadly. Others ain't gonna change so we just gotta accept' em the way they are. Feel free to disagree should you feel the need to reply.
Question:
Do you think human beings are inherently vile, self seeking and malevolent?
Fairly straightforward question really.
I think we are. Pretty much. I think human beings are, I guess you could say, the worst animal on the planet. And at the end of the day, we only do good things when we're forced to do them. Either for socioeconomic reasons or to save face.
No, not really. Vileness and malevolence are both subjective, but from my point of view, their are plenty of animals that are more distasteful than us. Houseflies, for instance. It all depends on what animal you are using as a base of comparison. If your definition of "worst" is "having caused the most extinctions" then you would be correct in saying that humans are the worst animal, but it would hardly make us the worst organism. A lot of biocentrist environmentalist I've met on the internet seem to think that being the only eukaryotic species known to cause a mass extinction makes humanity an exceptional species, but lets get real, we have nothing on prokaryotes. Cyanobacteria caused one mass extinction by flooding the atmosphere with toxic oxygen, and another by consuming so much carbon dioxide that the whole earth froze over. (The sun was much dimmer at the time.) Since then, anaerobic prokaryotes have caused several more. The Permian-Triassic event very well may have been caused by methane producing archaea, and I highly doubt that our mass extinction event will ever grow to be something as impressive as that.
With that said, whether or not causing a mass extinction is evil is a matter of your point of view. Some people worship Nature herself as a Goddess, and she doesn't seem to have any qualms with any of our children. Perhaps it is our purpose the lay the biosphere to waste and make room for whatever it is that will follow.
As for how humans treat each other, we don't really have any organisms of similar cognitive ability to compare ourselves to when deciding if we are good or evil.
Also: If humans are the worst animals on the planet, would that not make mosquitoes the most noble animals on the planet for killing the most of us? You don't want to praise mosquitoes, do you?
Too much deep thinking for me this early in the morning.
Obviously humans should be compared with dogs... watch dogs!
Obviously humans should be compared with dogs... watch dogs!
If a dog barks his head off at 5 in the morning out in the woods where no one can hear him, is he still a bad boy?
I can say that we're mostly neutral at birth but socio-economical pressures (poverty, high expectations etc.) and bad paradigms (awful heroes, teachers, parents, friends, celebrities etc.) makes us annoying sick greedy bastards.
One can become a true disciple of Confucius, Buddha or Jesus if he's not under bombardment of vile culture, society and economy.
Indeed if you have a fortified mind with established ethics and philosophy, it's less likely to be influenced by those pressures and bad paradigms.
Exactly.
If you raise a child in a culture where being greedy/selfish is seen as helping you get ahead in life then you are setting the groundwork for the child to become greedy/selfish. Conversely, if you raise a child in a culture that values helping others out this increases the likelihood that they will help others out.
There is also an evolutionary component in this being that by being selfish/greedy then you are increasing your chances for survival, but the reverse is also true. If a person is altruistic they increase the odds of the person that they helped helping them in return. If person X helps person Y out person Y would be indebted to Person X (even if Person X did not intend to be paid back for it). There was a type of bird (that I forget the name of) where a mated pair would sometimes let a non-related bird help them tend to their children and in turn the mated pair would help out the unrelated bird later.
Does that mean that Person Y will always help out Person X later? No, but since most people tend to believe in "fairness" it is still likely that it will eventually pay off to help other people.
I'm far too tired but I hope I made some semblance of sense with that.
Nope.Do you think human beings are inherently vile, self seeking and malevolent?
Obviously humans should be compared with dogs... watch dogs!
Or did you mean... watch doges
Humans are free will agents unto themselves.
1. I don't think self-seeking is inherently vile or malevolent at all.
2. No.
Question:
Do you think human beings are inherently vile, self seeking and malevolent?
Humans are inherently social with a big focus on small social groups (families). That also means those groups compete with each other to ensure their own survival/prosperity.
Everything else is a question of how pronounced an individual tendencies and affinities towards specific rules and motivations are.
So no, humans are not inherently vile and malevolent, though the self seeking aspect does apply in a broader sense.
Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
Can't answer this without getting religious. Suffice it to say that I don't believe in the concept of original sin.
I agree. If anything, sin merely represents what we see across the board in nature and other animals.Can't answer this without getting religious. Suffice it to say that I don't believe in the concept of original sin.
Can't answer this without getting religious. Suffice it to say that I don't believe in the concept of original sin.
Honestly, as a Catholic, it's even hard to swallow original sin. It's important in religious rituals, but it's just so stupid.
Honestly, as a Catholic, it's even hard to swallow original sin. It's important in religious rituals, but it's just so stupid.
On the flip side, "Original Sin: Hard to Swallow" sounds like a bad porn movie.
Or it's a glutton eating too much turkey. Freaking dirty minds. 
Or it's a glutton eating too much turkey. Freaking dirty minds.
Just dirty, I don't know why you had to drag birds into this.
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