WE’VE ALWAYS FOUGHT, IT’S JUST THAT THE WEAPONS THAT WE USE HAVE CHANGED.This makes me think of the saying: “guns don't kill people, people kill people”. Yes, I am not really a fan of guns but the saying gets the point across. What I mean is that it’s the nature of humankind that causes problems and the weapon itself. We blame the gun for the problem but a gun cannot discharge itself, it requires a person to do that. After all who invented weapons anyway? Humans. Why? this site gives a brief history of "Gun used " in the world war one. this one is
BAD FROM BIRTH Often people who are generally good will find themselves doing wrong just because it doesn’t seem wrong anymore. Like keeping the money you saw someone dropped, or
lying about yourself, or doing other things to make yourself appear better than you actually are to impress others. Sometimes I feel like we are born evil - if not, then how do children learn to lie? Parents don't teach them to (normally) but
we still notice children lying, and stealing. Even jealousy and anger are expressed by babies, who definitely don't get taught these things. Maybe we're not born as evil as the devil, but we are definitely not born to be good in many waysBy evil I mean, as humans we create problems in this beautiful world; for example killing people is forbidden in almost every culture or religion, however it doesn’t stop many people who choose to go along this path. I believe goodness does not exist in this world any more. We were born with sin, and it is shown by the way that we begin lying and stealing at a young age without being taught. Along with much other "evil" behaviour, such as bullying, fighting and vandalism which can be seen as early as primary aged children. this site gives a brief history of "kids being being evil.
GREED MAKES US WORSE, BUT WE WERE BAD ANYWAY.Just being a human being is a problem, right? I mean, you don't just exist, you have to struggle to exist in this world. If we didn't have to struggle to survive, there would be no problems. For example rich people are getting richer just because they are using poor people, with employers failing to pay a living wage or to redistribute their wealth. However, this doesn’t give poor people the right to go and kill for money but they still go and commit crime. I mean humans are the cause of evil whether it is religion, culture or economics. There will always be people that want something and will do anything to get it.
THERE HAS NEVER BEEN PEACE – PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT PEACE IS.Peace is a great idea, but has it ever happened? Let’s look at the history of the world, there have always been wars. People always have enemies, the name of the enemy just changes. From time in memorial there has been conflict, battles between Christians and Pagans, Romans and Greeks, more recently the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and flare ups in countries like Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Pakistan. Will there ever be a time when there is no conflict in the world, and everyone is living in peace?
WORSE THAN ANIMALS - Human Beings behave even Worse than Animals.
If you really think about it, human beings do not care much about noble qualities, humans often think about bad things and are good at being destructive, cruel, and greedy. This makes me think about the Native American people that used to go head hunting, they would kill their enemies then cut their heads off and bring their heads home and tease the women...sounds awful. However animals give trouble only to those who give them trouble; otherwise they live in peace with one another (unless they’re hungry). But humans hurt those who do not hurt them at all. Without any reason they begin to blame and cause trouble, harming people who are unblemished and who have given them no cause for provocation. Humans also enter into all kinds of improper work which they have no right to be engaged in, for example experiments on animals or cloning humans. It is for these and lots of other reasons that our world is being destroyed and it appears that no one really cares much. Humanity is becoming increasingly selfish. Whatever people say, whatever they do, whatever they think, it is laced with selfish motives.
Animals do not have such selfishness. Animals are not harming other animals and accumulating wealth. Therefore, in many ways humans behave worse than animals. But why are humans this way?
REFERENCES
Hamer. M (March 05, 2009) Human Cruelty To Humans. Retrieved from http://www.countercurrents.org/hamer050309.htm
Duffy.M (August 22, 2009) Weapons of War – Machine Guns. Retrieved from http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/machineguns.htm
Ford.D (May 03, 2010) Why Good People Do Bad Things. Retrieved from http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/Why-Good%20-People-Do-Bad-Things-Excerpt.html
author unknown (November 23, 2009) Top 10 Evil Children. Retrieved from http://listverse.com/2007/11/23/top-10-evil-children/
Sick.M (November 15, 2007) Greedy for money. Retrieved from http://www.moneysick.com/2007/11/15/greedy-for-money/
Nhat-Hanh.T (July 03, 2004) There is no path to peace. The path is peace. Retrieved fromhttp://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1510
Keltner.D (april 04, 2002) Humans are selfish. Retrieved from
http://www.altruists.org/static/files/The%20Evolution%20of%20Compassion%20(Dacher%20Keltner).pdf
This is a very interesting topic you have chosen. I Dont nessaceraly believe in the concept of "good" and "evil". In my opinion these are human constructs that only carry weight dependant on what our personal and our societies specific sense of morality is. Therefore- I dont believe your claim that we are "worse" than animals is entirely correct; a broad range of animals have the exact same aggresive and selfish traits that we possess, the only thing that makes us excessively worse or more "evil" is our capacity for destructive invention, and our patriotic devotion to other negative human constructs such as - Nationalism, Theism and political idealogies. These I believe are the true devices that can at times be "evil", their elimination could perhaps one day foster an environment where our evolution could stray away from the percieved negative traits of greed and selfishness etc.
ReplyDeleteBut then we arrive at the next issue- Our competitiveness is what helped make us so "successful". So would we want to totally eliminate every instance of competitive/selfish nature? Or would we want to instead change what we are competitive about? Its a hard one.
Think of the Lion. When a new male Lion takes a pride of females, he will almost definitely kill the existing cubs. This is because the cubs will take 2 years for the female to raise, before she is ready to mate again. The cubs are also competition for food for the new lion, his cubs, and could also be future competition for leadership of the pride. There may have been a time long ago when not every male lion killed the existing cubs. But the likelyhood is- this lion would have had very few offspring compared to a lion that did kill the cubs; considering Male lions usually only retain a pride for 2-3 years. In this way nature and evolution can at times be naturally creating more brutal tendancies in animals. In our society, with our morals; this deed would be equated with baby killing, but instead we film it and put it on Animal Planet.
Also of note is the fact that a large amount of other male animals also kill infants that are not their own, including two of our closest relatives- gorrillas and chimpanzees.
Our genetic lineage is governed by sexual selection. Females in particular throughout the animal world and human society directly decide the outcome of the next generation through mate selection. If we could create an environment where intelligence and other more noble traits are sought after by females- rather the males percieved competitive advantage over other males- then perhaps we could move towards a better society (this is slowly happening already). But then again, its starting to sound like i just need to get laid.
I believe there is hope for humanity. Every day, one can witness small selfless and compassionate acts and omissions by every day normal people. The problem is of course, not everyone is like this, so it is my belief that the surrounding constructs and laws that govern people will therefore have to change, and potentially encroach upon our freedom for the greater good.
Wow. That's quite a blog. Sorry, I would have read it sooner, but I was busy fornicating.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, that's quite a loaded topic, so bravo for tackling it. But I'm not sure I agree entirely. Sure, there might be a lot of evil out there. And sure, people might have commited a lot of evil in the past,like always picking on Germany during the second world war for instance. That was like fifty countries against one - totally unfair.
But I think that there's also a lot of good out there in people. Like Harrison Ford, or the Coors. (Check out the 'Live in london Dvd' - Andrea Corr's an angel)
Personally I don't really believe in God versus Satan in the catholic sense. but maybe we're all bound by the same force*.
And i really dont think everyone is born evil. Maybe people are born with the choice to be swayed either way, and what you're feeling is that these days the balance might be tipped slightly towards people being cynical and negative instead of pleasant and warm (like Dave Letterman).
* I'm glad you asked.
Well the force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, and penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.
-Obi Wan Kenobi, (Star Wars, A New Hope) 1977
P.S. Strong is Vader, mind what you have learned, save you it can!
ReplyDeleteI am learning a lot.
ReplyDeletethanks
******PEACE********