:thinking:

 

Answer the poll and tell me why.

 

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.

There's no poll.

 

Also, define 'good'.

You mean if people know good manners from birth? Hell no.

Our instinct is to survive and get what we want when we want it, so if we wouldn't be taught all of these manners we would be a bunch of greedy, horny apes. (Then again...)

Nah

Neither.

can I get a definition pweese.

Oh, in general?

Eh

I want to believe it but no

There's no poll.

 

Damn gurl u fast

I love how you deliberately ignore my question and go on to comment about how fast I replied to the thread

There's no poll.

 

Also, define 'good'.

You mean if people know good manners from birth? Hell no.

Our instinct is to survive and get what we want when we want it, so if we wouldn't be taught all of these manners we would be a bunch of greedy, horny apes. (Then again...)

 

Yeah : (

 

Nah

 

:disappointed: I think you may be right :disappointed:

 

can I get a definition pweese.

 

Behavior showing high moral standards and respect for others. I dunno.

 

Oh, in general?

Eh

I want to believe it but no

 

Yeah, in general. I hope people are.

I love how you deliberately ignore my question and go on to comment about how fast I replied to the thread

 

I was working on it. Damn gurl

I was working on it. Damn gurl

Learn to keep up with me old man

You guys stop answering the third option :angry:

Behavior showing high moral standards and respect for others. I dunno.

 

k.k.k.

 

It's completely contingent on the deterministic structures at play. The idea of observing people in a 'natural' state is a myth imho. You can't divorce people from their experiences, and I think evolution has dismissed the whole tabula rasa idea.

k.k.k.

 

It's completely contingent on the deterministic structures at play. The idea of observing people in a 'natural' state is a myth imho. You can't divorce people from their experiences, and I think evolution has dismissed the whole tabula rasa idea.

I practically raped my dictionary trying to read this post

I practically raped my dictionary trying to read this post

 

did you impregnate it?

 

practically...

We're expecting in June.

Theoretically.

Good people are born good and bad people are born bad

 

that's what i think

I think people are born.

The trouble comes with the way you define the word good. My definition of good and your definition of good are similar in ways, yet I'm sure different in ways. One act of a man I may see as heroic and you may see as irredeemably bad. Humanity has been around for two hundred thousand years and we still haven't reach a conclusion on what "good" is. And we never will.

 

But what is important to note is the intent behind the actions. Even Adolf Hitler was doing what he though was "good" for others. Yes, with a bit of rational thinking we can see that he was probably wrong about most of his opinions - but don't forget that he sucked a lot of people in. Normal, decent, hard working people not dissimilar to you or me were sucked in. People weren't sucked in by Nazism because they wanted to be evil and wanted to destroy the world, they were sucked in because they thought this was the chance to really stand up and fix the problems of Germany and at a larger scale, the Earth.

 

I think many of us tend to misremember bad deeds and skewer them completely out of perspective. You could encounter one hundred people one day. Ninety nine of them are perfectly civil to you, some even go out of their way to help you out. But one person makes a rude comment about you and upsets you. What do you do? You leave at the end of the day thinking "God! People are so horrible!". Even though the overwhelming majority of people did nothing of harm towards you, our minds get ever so caught up with the one thing that offended us or hurt us and that's all we focus on.

 

I think we are all guilty of doing this. I catch myself doing it a lot.

 

I've had awful things happen to me throughout my life, and I grew up in a country with virtually non stop warfare. As a result I lost two brothers and a father. I hit rock bottom and by the time I turned 16 I was, for all intensive purposes, an absolute shithead. I was so caught up on the intense feeling of loss I felt that my entire world view was warped. I saw the bad in everyone, even my family. I had trouble with the police, I was self destructive and I was very quickly running out of life. I felt as if I could walk in front of a bus and my anger would remain long after my soul had left. I felt as if my anger was eternally tethered to the soil.

 

Skip forward a few months and I am sitting eating breakfast in a juvenile justice hall with some friends when I had what I think was an epiphany. All those years during the war I felt like someone owed me something. I felt like someone was to blame. I let my cynicism for humanity completely erode the person I was and even to this day I haven't recovered from that.

 

Then I realised something important. I realised that I didn't need someone to blame any more. I didn't need to feel angry any more. The bad things that happen in life happen. They just do. It doesn't matter if you're a theist, an atheist or a fuckin' monkey - the bad things are still going to just happen. And there is nothing we can do to change that at all. Being cynical or distrustful just makes this worse, because it is an admission of defeat. It is the intellectual equivalent of lying down and proclaiming "I give up!".

 

Are people inherently good or bad? Hell, I don't know and to be honest I don't think it matters. What matters is making sure that yourself and the ones you love are thoughtful, compassionate people. What matters is making sure that a few bad eggs won't spoil your day. The more people who do this, than the less people there are who view people to be innately bad.

 

I guess my thoughts are summed up with the classic adage; "life is what you make it". If you think people are mostly bad, then you'll both perceive and receive them in that fashion.

tl;dr

 

 

(kidding)

tl;dr

 

 

(kidding)

 

lol omg how did u com up wit dat. hilarious!

People be cray.

There's so much to judge in what is good and bad. In some cases part of it depends on how much a person is influenced by others on how they turn out. Some people don't have much of a chance to be good because of the surroundings they are brought up in and if they are heavily influenced by those around them and they develop ways in which to assimilate what is happenning around them which are generally seen as lacking lacking empathy then they need to have a lot of strength to buckle against this sometimes accidental conditioning and search deeply to develop their more empathetic characteristics.

 

We all have certain instincts which revolve around reproduction but sometimes humans perception on exactly what reality is and what is important can become distorted. It's why those who don't have the strength can become more easily manipulated or continue what others perceive as negative morals etc through to further generations or spread them across the relationships they have.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have time to re-read and check just how much of that made sense but I know what I mean, whether I'm correct or not is another matter. Surroundings (for those who don't have the strength to control their own personal development) and ways of assimilating the world around them/perception matter a lot as opposed to simply being born good or bad. It's why serial killers' personal lives int he early years often follow similar patterns.

 

So nurture over nature, though certain characteristics have been proved to pass through generations. That doesn't mean a person can't deal with these characteristics or make changes to them if they wish to. It requires strength though.

People are born this way LOL

 

Seriously, people are born people. They're not born EVIL, that's for sure, and then what do you call "good" ?

So I'm afraid I can't answer to your question :|

I believe we are born with the instinct to survive and be successful

through any means necessary

But then I think we're all born with the instinct to protect and to sympathise with others.

 

So a bit of good and a bit of bad