Mankind...
- Thread starter Fidelio
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Actually, I'm pretty much wildly and helplessly in love with and repelled by humanity simultaneously.
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Shai Gar
I see people in the same way I see animals. I think they are interesting, but also potentially destructive. I think the same way about hyenas.
More and more I have a sense of the cause and effects that produce destructive behaviors. I felt more hopeless about people when "evil" felt mysterious and inexplicable. Now I think it results from a combination of genetics and environment. If the source of the problem can be identified, then perhaps there is potential for a solution.
Edit: This way of viewing humanity necessitates that I see myself as equal to any other potential person. If I had their nature and nurture, there is no way to measure that I would be anything except exactly who they are.
More and more I have a sense of the cause and effects that produce destructive behaviors. I felt more hopeless about people when "evil" felt mysterious and inexplicable. Now I think it results from a combination of genetics and environment. If the source of the problem can be identified, then perhaps there is potential for a solution.
Edit: This way of viewing humanity necessitates that I see myself as equal to any other potential person. If I had their nature and nurture, there is no way to measure that I would be anything except exactly who they are.
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Shai Gar
Hyenas are a beautiful and misunderstood cat. They're an essential part of the savannah ecosystem.
I don't hate humanity, I do think evolution kind of dropped the ball a bit with us though.
I mean we are intelligent enough to be immensly powerful but not intelligent enough to fully understand (or acknowledge) the consequences of that power.
I mean we are intelligent enough to be immensly powerful but not intelligent enough to fully understand (or acknowledge) the consequences of that power.
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Yay! I like'em I do! That does reflect how I see people as well, with some additional layers.
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Shai Gar
If there was an overpopulation of hyenas, I wouldn't find them less interesting. They might present a problem that requires solution, but their individual value would have the same intrinsic worth in my perspesctive.
The potential global destruction that people are causing is an issue, and people have a different layer of responsibility because we can create and solve problems on a scale different from animals. Still, we are a product of nature just as we are with all our destructive tendencies. There is something in that which causes me to reserve one degree of judgment.
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Shai Gar
an overpopulation of hyenas would sort itself out by a lack of prey, and the bigger cats killing them.
The older I get, the more I love people. You'd think it would be the other way around. Or to quote the band Love "You know that I could be in love with almost everyone, I think that people are The greatest fun"
But I hated the world until I was about 22. I thought people were selfish, stupid and cruel. Its more complex than that though. I think most people mean well, but fall short. Deliberate cruelty is rare, most of what I thought was cruelty was self interest, short sightedness, fear, and greed. Still not great, but I don't think most people wake up and say "I wonder whose life I can destroy today?"
I guess I love people, but hate the way they choose to treat each other and themselves. Besides, how can you hate humanity and love yourself?
But I hated the world until I was about 22. I thought people were selfish, stupid and cruel. Its more complex than that though. I think most people mean well, but fall short. Deliberate cruelty is rare, most of what I thought was cruelty was self interest, short sightedness, fear, and greed. Still not great, but I don't think most people wake up and say "I wonder whose life I can destroy today?"
I guess I love people, but hate the way they choose to treat each other and themselves. Besides, how can you hate humanity and love yourself?
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Shai Gar
It's hard to say, but that our own over-population will sort itself out. Overpopulation leads to increased aggression over resources (wars), disease, and even global warming which causes more natural disasters and threatens to bury the coasts where people naturally congregate. These things can take time - more than our own lifetimes. Nature does tend to balance itself out, and for all our advanced tools, we are completely within nature being its direct product and being subject to its forces.
And even though there are people like that (because even one like that says a great deal about humanity), there is still a cause for such irrationality and destruction. When you have to come face to face with someone who is given over to extreme cruelty or destruction, you have to face this question. You are right that there is a connection between "humanity" and self. I see humanity as displaying all the possibilities for self.
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Shai Gar
Why did I know you would say something like that? ::shakes head:: Where's your cape. You can't be superman without a cape. Nietzsche died crazy and syphilitic, that's not how you want to go out is it?
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Shai Gar
Nietzsche wasn't a superman. He never said he was.
I agree with nightwing, capes are stupid. However I wear one during The Wet.
I agree with nightwing, capes are stupid. However I wear one during The Wet.
Quite unlikely. We are a dangerously powerful species considering how childish we are, but I think we tend to overestimate our own magnificense. I don't think we would be able to extinquish all life even if we really tried. Earth is a self correcting system: we have a worldwide nuclear war next year and go extinct, in a million years noone could tell such a thing had ever happened.
I guess I see it similarly to hating a tornado or an earthquake for its destruction. Yes, people are destructive and have displayed more cruelty than any species because we have a wider range of capacity. Perhaps hating humanity for it is another natural result. I guess my main point is that I am potentially all of those things as well as a person of humanity. Somehow recognizing it makes the causes clearer and hopefully that provides information that could help in solving the problem. When the whole is rejected as "other", then it is not as clearly understood and that tends to just reinforce the cycle of destruction.