i see it all around me. in the streets where i drive. on my campus. i see it in my friends, my girlfriend, my family. i see the greed, selfishness, and corruption in humanity everywhere i go. i am in no ways a saint, and i am trying to pacify my behaviors which lead to conflict. but it does hurt to see others behave in such a manner and not do anything about. are us humans evil by nature? is our nature to take advantage of others for our own gains without the consideration of others? the ones who do not (Mother Theresa, Gandhi, MLK, etc.) are all regarded as some form of special entity. but shouldn't everyone be acting like this? why is compassion, caring and helping others regarded as a special accomplishment? why dont all people act like this naturally? oy. /my philosophical ramblings of the day
Read the 7 Habits for Highly Effective People. It talks about a fundamental shift in personal philosophy from about 150 years ago to now; back in the day people valued what the author terms 'character ethic' where your values were the most important to get ahead in society. Now it's 'personality ethic' where your surface appearance is more important. Essentially we're in a 'me first' society now...so I wouldn't say that people are evil, just self-involved.
I have asked myself that before. To figure out if you are eveil do this: Get a little labrador puppy, take it to the top of a five story buliding. If you can throw it off the top, you are an evil person. I am guessing most people would not be able to do that whether they like dogs or not. So I have concluded that humans are not evil, just sometimes indifferent.
i guess this may get moved to D&D if there are enough responses but i actually think the opposite i think all people are born good but as they grow older they get influenced and molded by their environment around them and "turn evil" sort to say. but I do with the OP though its gotten really bad of late how things have become here. Every time I do something nice for someone they always ask me what I want in return or what I expect out of it. I dont expect anything I did it because it was the right thing to do. But I do get the same feeling though that whenever someone does something nice for me that they will want something back in return and I've had that used on me here at work when a co-workers mentions a nice thing they did for me as a reason for me to cover for them etc. the worse thing is that most people who are genuinely nice tend to be taken advantage of by their peers which probably turns leads them to stop being the person they once was since everyone has a breaking point
Capitalism is an implicit acceptance that unfettered selfishness and personal choice benefits society as a whole. Somewhere along the way, Americans took that as gross materialism with the warped idea that any kind spending is a patriotic duty. Only in America where stimulus rebate checks are cut with the intent for taxpayers to spend it all away. Capitalism is not evil. It's a system people choose to use. How people interpret how to 'win' that system can be evil. This is where greed and selfishness, plus its justifications for it, sets in.
innately evil, no. innately self-concerned, yes. "evil" is the easy path to taking care of yourself. "good" is putting yourself behind the needs of everyone else.
well put. we are self-serving creatures, but at the same time I would argue that empathy for other human beings is an instinctual characteristic. either way both characteristics are ammoral as you said..because it is the acts we perform to acheive those ends which define us as good or evil.
Actually, I think all humans are innately good. If you need any proof, visit a classroom of kindergartners. They accept all children regardless of color, disability, gender, etc. and treat them as equals.
Children are actually pretty good about sharing and bullying doesn't really start until a later age. Also, most kindergartners I've met don't steal.
Looks like you know a lot about Chinese culture. Very impressive. I think that's the sign of one of the ancient China schools of thought which believed everyone was born innocent and then grew up and became 'evil' to various degrees. But then there is another school of thought (I forgot their name) which believed everyone was born evil and then grew up and learned to become a better human being to various degrees. I'd advise the OP to research on these schools of thought which explain human behaviors from the philosophical point of view.
Sarcasm? Or is a ying-yang symbol proof of vast amounts of chinese philosophical learnings? Damn, I'm like confucius by that logic. Confucius say - luther head sucks.
No, you didn't read what I said. That poster gave the sign of Taoism (ying yang) which is an ancient Chinese school of thought. And if I remember correctly (please correct me if I was wrong), Taoism believed that everyone was born innocent. And so it makes sense to me since the poster said "Yes, They are innately good too" right before he posted that sign of Taoism. My interpretation is that he supports the idea that everyone is innately good and so he posted the sign of that school of thought.
They're EVIL as hell. They don't want to use capital letters when beginning sentences, and they don't want to come back to discuss their opening posts. That's EVIL to me. They're EEEEEE-vail... EEEEEEE-vail!!! Sincerely,
Since EVIL is a term humans made up based on various scales of morals I think this question is total BS.
