Honestly, people in general, not necessarily bad or evil, but stupid and ignorant and generally don't care for others, mind this is obviously a HUGE generalization as everyone is different and it usually depends on the person
Do you believe people are generally good?
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It depends where and how they raised, it's not a default setting.
If you are born to reasonably well off family and raised in first world country then yes you would be generally good because you had no need to do bad things and you would be punished for them.
If you are born poor in a war torn third world country, then chances are you will not be good person. Because you will end up child soldier killing and raping your entire violent life.
If you are born to reasonably well off family and raised in first world country then yes you would be generally good because you had no need to do bad things and you would be punished for them.
If you are born poor in a war torn third world country, then chances are you will not be good person. Because you will end up child soldier killing and raping your entire violent life.
No, but I don't think people are generally bad either. I think people are generally selfish (wish there was a less emotionally loaded term for what I mean by that) and will look out for them and theirs. Circumstances may require that they be either good or bad (or a mixture of both) to achieve that.
Morality is socially constructed. Behaviours that are unthinkable now would have been praised at various points in the past. Same goes for how some things are perceived across different cultures. The definitions of "good" and "bad" or "evil" change over time, so the idea that humans are somehow innately "good" or "bad" is nonsensical.
Morality is socially constructed. Behaviours that are unthinkable now would have been praised at various points in the past. Same goes for how some things are perceived across different cultures. The definitions of "good" and "bad" or "evil" change over time, so the idea that humans are somehow innately "good" or "bad" is nonsensical.
People are generally good, for themselves.
People look out for themselves. They make friends, and may even convince themselves that they do things FOR their friends, but really they just do things to KEEP their friends. Same goes for family. People do things for family to keep them close. If they stop, they drift apart.
It's like a game. You earn faction with people by doing things for them. If you go through this life without doing something for someone else, nobody, and I mean nobody, will ever decide to care for you. You have to pay for it.
That fact alone is why there are no good people in this world.
Well.... very rarely, there are. But those people are usually swallowed up by the world and destroyed...
It's depressing. It's a strange thing to be human. I think it's part of the curse of self awareness, of conscious thought.
There is more 'humanity' in a colony of ants, than in all of the people in this world.
People look out for themselves. They make friends, and may even convince themselves that they do things FOR their friends, but really they just do things to KEEP their friends. Same goes for family. People do things for family to keep them close. If they stop, they drift apart.
It's like a game. You earn faction with people by doing things for them. If you go through this life without doing something for someone else, nobody, and I mean nobody, will ever decide to care for you. You have to pay for it.
That fact alone is why there are no good people in this world.
Well.... very rarely, there are. But those people are usually swallowed up by the world and destroyed...
It's depressing. It's a strange thing to be human. I think it's part of the curse of self awareness, of conscious thought.
There is more 'humanity' in a colony of ants, than in all of the people in this world.
Evil unto one individual may jus tbe justice to another, things are nowhere near so black and white.JoJo said:
I believe people are generally good at heart, and do what they believe is right. No matter how misguided they may be, if they are of sdound mind, they will do what they consider just and right. However that may not align with what the rest of us consider true.
A solid example may be that my father once broke a mans left arm, jaw and both legs with his bare hands. An act of evil, yes?
Now what if I told you he did this after said man broke a pool cue over my mothers back.
Now it's much more justified.
If someone hit my girlfriend with a poolcue broken bones would be the last of their concerns
I think people are mostly neutral, maybe leaning towards good, people can be selfish at some moments, but also do some things like donations to charity or sharing a link to some article or video about the plight of a group of people but they won't do things like sell all their games and comics and such to raise money, or go to a 3rd world country to build houses for the people.
People are generally good when they know the person they are dealing with. Or in a small community were there are penalties for treating someone like crap.
When people can remain anonymous, it's a lot murkier. It becomes a chore to sympathize with someone you'll never see or hear from again.
When people can remain anonymous, it's a lot murkier. It becomes a chore to sympathize with someone you'll never see or hear from again.
I believe people are generally benign. Most people pretty much only care about themselves, but that means they mostly leave others alone. Yes, the more ambitious and ruthless will go out and exploit or force their ways on others, but the majority simply don't care.
Not exactly "good", but the bar for goodness is rather low. So long as you're not a dick, you're considered a good person. Even if that means you don't actually help anyone.
Not exactly "good", but the bar for goodness is rather low. So long as you're not a dick, you're considered a good person. Even if that means you don't actually help anyone.
I think people like to think they are good, but whatever "goodness" they have tends to be self serving or directed to those they know.
Also acting good/evil is in the eyes of the beholder I find a lot of the times. I remember for example one time when I was younger I was considered a bad person for badly beating someone up.
From my perspective I didn't start the fight and even acted submissive at first and was willing to walk away and appear "a pussy" in front of the crowd that had gathered to watch but as soon as the guy laid a hand on me I flipped out and lost control of myself in a frenzy of fear and hatred. People were so horrified by how berzerk I went I was the bad guy in that story (nevermind that said people were the ones cheering on the fight at first and rooting for someone to throw the first punch) yet I don't feel that is entirely accurate. Perspective is everything.
Also acting good/evil is in the eyes of the beholder I find a lot of the times. I remember for example one time when I was younger I was considered a bad person for badly beating someone up.
From my perspective I didn't start the fight and even acted submissive at first and was willing to walk away and appear "a pussy" in front of the crowd that had gathered to watch but as soon as the guy laid a hand on me I flipped out and lost control of myself in a frenzy of fear and hatred. People were so horrified by how berzerk I went I was the bad guy in that story (nevermind that said people were the ones cheering on the fight at first and rooting for someone to throw the first punch) yet I don't feel that is entirely accurate. Perspective is everything.
People can be good when they have everything they need/want in surplus, take that away and you'll see how "good" most people are.
Not too long ago I was on a train that was cancelled in the middle of its run during peak hour, which where I'm from generally means sardine can trains. This meant that the next train would have an entire train load of people trying to get on a train that was practically full.
The maelstrom I observed next was both enlightening and hilarious, with the shoving and pushing akin to a heavy metal rock concert, with people trying to get both on and off at the same time causing a deadlock that likely saw several injuries and many more getting stuck on the train missing their stop. The whole situation was made infinitely more amusing due to the fact another train was only 5 minutes away.
I thought to myself, if this is how "regular" people behave just to get home 5 minutes earlier, how would people act if they were say trying to get the last piece of food or water.
Not too long ago I was on a train that was cancelled in the middle of its run during peak hour, which where I'm from generally means sardine can trains. This meant that the next train would have an entire train load of people trying to get on a train that was practically full.
The maelstrom I observed next was both enlightening and hilarious, with the shoving and pushing akin to a heavy metal rock concert, with people trying to get both on and off at the same time causing a deadlock that likely saw several injuries and many more getting stuck on the train missing their stop. The whole situation was made infinitely more amusing due to the fact another train was only 5 minutes away.
I thought to myself, if this is how "regular" people behave just to get home 5 minutes earlier, how would people act if they were say trying to get the last piece of food or water.
No. First of all "good" and "evil" are hard to quantify. And secondly I don't think human beings are predisposed towards either good or evil, but have equal capacity for both.
Well, I think almost all people intend to be good, and almost all people believe they are good (or at least not bad).
That's not the same thing as actually being good though. I don't believe people are generally good, no.
That's speaking very, very broadly, though.
That's not the same thing as actually being good though. I don't believe people are generally good, no.
That's speaking very, very broadly, though.
As I see it all people are born as a bad person However they are only bad people because they know nothing.
Information is one of the vital component of morality, and judgement, I would defiantly buy a cheap gold watch if a had not know it was stolen. most of the things I've seen as bad contains dismissive reactions with varying anger (Bullying, Stigmas, Bigotry, Stealing, Murder, Genocide, etc) ALL come from not knowing all the facts. Of course there are people who know the fact but do it anyways but that's the definition of evil. So no I don't think people are good at heart but they can be with truth and context.
Information is one of the vital component of morality, and judgement, I would defiantly buy a cheap gold watch if a had not know it was stolen. most of the things I've seen as bad contains dismissive reactions with varying anger (Bullying, Stigmas, Bigotry, Stealing, Murder, Genocide, etc) ALL come from not knowing all the facts. Of course there are people who know the fact but do it anyways but that's the definition of evil. So no I don't think people are good at heart but they can be with truth and context.
Malcolm Muggeridge- 'The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.'
The tapestry of history is indelibly stained by our capacity for horror, its details picked out with shining examples of our highest ideals. I think we can agree that most people know right from wrong, most of the time. But that in and of itself means nothing. Because a person knowing a thing to be right or wrong does not mean that they care. You may also say that when we want to, we can justify anything to ourselves.
So, no. I do not. Apart from all other considerations, I know myself too well to accept the idea that I am essentially good.
The tapestry of history is indelibly stained by our capacity for horror, its details picked out with shining examples of our highest ideals. I think we can agree that most people know right from wrong, most of the time. But that in and of itself means nothing. Because a person knowing a thing to be right or wrong does not mean that they care. You may also say that when we want to, we can justify anything to ourselves.
So, no. I do not. Apart from all other considerations, I know myself too well to accept the idea that I am essentially good.
No.
That said, 'good' and 'bad' are largely constructs of the acceptance or deviation from larger social, cultural and biological maxims from which we derive those definitions. There are no heroes or monsters, only self aware animals bewildered by the implications of sentience.
Speaking practically, if you want to look at it in terms of people who act with caring, aware, decency towards each other on one side, versus antisocial behavior manifested in low empathy, unconcern and predatory interpersonal behavior, you get the same standard bell curve of deviation where the majority of individuals are basically neutral and drift slightly to the + or - polarities of what we consider good and bad. The more extreme expressions of 'good' or 'bad' come from fewer and fewer people in correlation: How many Mahatma Gandhi(s) Carl Panzram(s) do you run into regularly? Regardless of the postive or negative influence they effect on individual and societal health, they're both rare exceptional deviations from what's normal. They both occupy the far flung 99.9+ percentile of opposite ends, regarding peacefully prosocial vs violently antisocial behavior, respectively. John Q Citizen is in the dead center.
This post was presented by a lot of vodka and disassociatives, so take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I believe it to be fundamentally true.
Also, incidentally, while I realize (or at least hope) most people know who and what Gahndi is / was, Carl Panzram is less well known, but since this is a gaming forum I'll succinctly describe him as the nearest example to a historically accurate instance of a GTA5 Trevor Philips personality of note.
That said, 'good' and 'bad' are largely constructs of the acceptance or deviation from larger social, cultural and biological maxims from which we derive those definitions. There are no heroes or monsters, only self aware animals bewildered by the implications of sentience.
Speaking practically, if you want to look at it in terms of people who act with caring, aware, decency towards each other on one side, versus antisocial behavior manifested in low empathy, unconcern and predatory interpersonal behavior, you get the same standard bell curve of deviation where the majority of individuals are basically neutral and drift slightly to the + or - polarities of what we consider good and bad. The more extreme expressions of 'good' or 'bad' come from fewer and fewer people in correlation: How many Mahatma Gandhi(s) Carl Panzram(s) do you run into regularly? Regardless of the postive or negative influence they effect on individual and societal health, they're both rare exceptional deviations from what's normal. They both occupy the far flung 99.9+ percentile of opposite ends, regarding peacefully prosocial vs violently antisocial behavior, respectively. John Q Citizen is in the dead center.
This post was presented by a lot of vodka and disassociatives, so take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I believe it to be fundamentally true.
Also, incidentally, while I realize (or at least hope) most people know who and what Gahndi is / was, Carl Panzram is less well known, but since this is a gaming forum I'll succinctly describe him as the nearest example to a historically accurate instance of a GTA5 Trevor Philips personality of note.
Hmm, but here's the problem. Nobody ever thinks they're doing bad. We're all the heroes of our own story.
The problem is that people are easily manipulated, and prone to irrational fear. This is when our animistic side manifests. It happened during the French Revolution, when desperate, vengeful people fought for liberty, only to give a handful of people total power. They then killed thousands while searching for counter revolutionaries. It happened during the Rape of Nanking. This happened again in communist China, when people sought counter revolutionaries and perceived enemies of Mao Zedong. It happened during the witch hunts in Europe. It happened in America during WW2, and during the period of McCarthyism.
People aren't inherently bad, but we're gullible, and afraid, and we're followers, which means that evil men can get in power and convince us to support them, usually by creating a foreign threat based on intolerance. To some degree it's still true today, in the way we view the Middle East. I don't think people are generally good or bad, I think they're generally sheep. Just look at the Milgrim Experiment.
That said, and this is very important, to claim that people are fundamentally bad is intellectually dishonest. While that violent, ignorant, side of us is always there, the above examples were rare anomalies. We live in the most peaceful time in world history. World violence has been steadily decreasing for generations. War atrocities have been decreasing. Crime rates have been decreasing, completely independent of the state of our economy. Medicine is better than its ever been. Increased crop yields and a stabilizing world population means that hunger will become more manageable in the future, perhaps before we die. The internet and world trade, combined with the last several hundred years of world travel, has created a world culture. One of the biggest music videos in the world last year was from South Korea. I just watched an anime from Japan after reading a book from England. The concept of "the other," the concept that led to the above atrocities, is diminishing as we begin to understand one another. Our species has advanced more in the last 300 years than in all of human history before that. So are humans capable of horrors? Of course, I've seen the victims of such crimes myself. But, scientifically speaking, people are becoming more rational, and the world is becoming a safer place in which to sleep.
The problem is that people are easily manipulated, and prone to irrational fear. This is when our animistic side manifests. It happened during the French Revolution, when desperate, vengeful people fought for liberty, only to give a handful of people total power. They then killed thousands while searching for counter revolutionaries. It happened during the Rape of Nanking. This happened again in communist China, when people sought counter revolutionaries and perceived enemies of Mao Zedong. It happened during the witch hunts in Europe. It happened in America during WW2, and during the period of McCarthyism.
People aren't inherently bad, but we're gullible, and afraid, and we're followers, which means that evil men can get in power and convince us to support them, usually by creating a foreign threat based on intolerance. To some degree it's still true today, in the way we view the Middle East. I don't think people are generally good or bad, I think they're generally sheep. Just look at the Milgrim Experiment.
That said, and this is very important, to claim that people are fundamentally bad is intellectually dishonest. While that violent, ignorant, side of us is always there, the above examples were rare anomalies. We live in the most peaceful time in world history. World violence has been steadily decreasing for generations. War atrocities have been decreasing. Crime rates have been decreasing, completely independent of the state of our economy. Medicine is better than its ever been. Increased crop yields and a stabilizing world population means that hunger will become more manageable in the future, perhaps before we die. The internet and world trade, combined with the last several hundred years of world travel, has created a world culture. One of the biggest music videos in the world last year was from South Korea. I just watched an anime from Japan after reading a book from England. The concept of "the other," the concept that led to the above atrocities, is diminishing as we begin to understand one another. Our species has advanced more in the last 300 years than in all of human history before that. So are humans capable of horrors? Of course, I've seen the victims of such crimes myself. But, scientifically speaking, people are becoming more rational, and the world is becoming a safer place in which to sleep.
I do not consider most people to be good or bad. Most people follow the rules, not out of morality, but to avoid the consequences of social justice. When given a truly moral decision, most people do not choose the "good" choice, or the "bad" choice, they choose what is most convenient for themselves. See, most people are neither good nor evil, they are selfish. Not to the point of maliciousness, but selfish none the less.
Already read it... Better than the movie...
OT: Yes... However, what someone can see as "good" can also be seen as "bad" by someone else...
So, the answer is both "yes" and "no"... (Although, I like to believe more of the formal...)
Edit: We're all born neutral before our morals kick in...
OT: Yes... However, what someone can see as "good" can also be seen as "bad" by someone else...
So, the answer is both "yes" and "no"... (Although, I like to believe more of the formal...)
Edit: We're all born neutral before our morals kick in...