1. Greed: it drives the world economy with out money is worthless.
2. Stupidity: How else would the greedy people make money. By preying on the stupid and gullable.
3. Sex: this has started and ended wars, forged civilizations and is geneticaly ingrained into the human genome, this is the ultimate of the 3, the drive to mate.
I would like to here your oppinions on this.
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I am not responsible for the stupidity of other people.
And there's protection, either of self or loved ones.
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You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend far too much time reading this sort of trash.
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Samaritan: "A good hot curry will help heal your wounds. That is, unless your religion forbids it".
Man: (Eyes growing wide) "No religion forbids a good hot curry".
-From some movie.
However, that isn't to say it can't be. I'm just not anticipating it. Heck, I didn't anticipate having to wake up early this morning, which shows you what I know.
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"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.
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You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend far too much time reading this sort of trash.
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Lisa: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Bart: "Not if you called them 'stench blossoms'..."
-The Simpsons
Just try to fit these in and you'll see how the world goes round.
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"My Name is Elmer Fudd, Millionaire. I own a Mansion and a Yacht."
Psychiatrist: "Again."
Does that make sense to anyone except me?
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What started in Jerusalem as a relationship, went on to become a philosophy in Athens, an institution in Rome, a culture in nothern Europe, and was turned into an enterprise in America.
-paraphrased, author unknown-
Plus he is funny as hell.
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I am not responsible for the stupidity of other people.
[This message has been edited by Necromancer (edited February 06, 2000).]
And people are not driven by stupidity. They act stupidly in response to their greed, fear, jealousy, etc.
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"You don't need eyes to see; you need VISION"
- Faithless / Reverence
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I am not responsible for the stupidity of other people.
[This message has been edited by Necromancer (edited February 06, 2000).]
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What started in Jerusalem as a relationship, went on to become a philosophy in Athens, an institution in Rome, a culture in nothern Europe, and was turned into an enterprise in America.
-paraphrased, author unknown-
[This message has been edited by bryce (edited February 06, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by bryce (edited February 06, 2000).]
In other words, people act to maximize their pleasure and minimize their pain.
By no means as universal as that aforementioned Bentham guy might have liked, but a good starting point.
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"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.
The theory was very basic and was organized into a pyramid. Basically, our day to day concerns take up only the very top of this pyramid and are subserviant to everything below it. It stated that basic needs override superficial ones. In other words, people will not worry about what to have for dinner tonight if they find they can no longer breathe! Nor will they be terribly worried about sex if they are starving.
I have no idea if this adds anything to the conversation or not. What I'm basically saying is that generally, survival instincts will always kick in first and foremost. Of course, as intelligent, conscious creatures, we have the ability to override these instincts based on moral or other ground. Only animals act purely and unthinkingly on instinct.
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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore
[This message has been edited by Aban Rune (edited February 07, 2000).]
Insanity.
Human beings are insane. Every single one of them. Now, the type of illness and the severity differes throughout the species, but they're all insane.
They're selfish, arrogant, self-destructive, vain, foresight-impaired sensation junkies.
If they weren't so damned amusing sometimes, I wouldn't want anything to do with them.
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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
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You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend far too much time reading this sort of trash.
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"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying."
Woody Allen
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"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.
And the less said about their mating rituals, the better.
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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
Lump yourself in there pal.
And while I will admit to bouts of all those things you mentioned among myself and those close to me, I certainly wouldn't list those things as my predominant qualities, or the predominant qualities of my parents...or girlfriend...or brother...or friends...
Now, I see the little smiley down there, but if you honestly believe that people, ALL people (and there a lot of total nut jobs out there) are THAT bad, maybe you just need to find some new people!
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"A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
Aban's Illustration www.thespeakeasy.com/alanfore
Oh, I forgot. For clawless, fangless primates, they're very aggressive. Probably some sort of omnivore inferiority complex.
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Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
[The following does not sum up the whole of my philosophy, nor is it even the greater part. As always (except when I'm absolutely certain of myself), the following is an inexpert opinion.]
It wasn't until a few thousand years ago (perhaps 10 or 20 or so, but it could be more -- I'm not quoting facts, but memory, and no, I wasn't an eye witness! Sheesh!) that we humans figured out how to make really useful tools like stone knives, spears, etc.
We HAD to develop a nasty disposition so the predators would take us off their menu. Of course, it takes a while longer to adapt to new situations than it does to create them. Nowadays, most of us don't have large, hungry predators just outside the camp, waiting to pounce on us if we're careless. (Would you go backpacking if the odds of getting devoured by predators wasn't almost zero?)
10,000 years ago, people lived in small communities or tribes. Everyone knew everyone else. If Yob the Troublemaker became too antisocial, everyone else beat the crap out of him. If he kept it up, he'd be banished. Stone knives and spears notwithstanding, a lone human in the wilderness still looks a lot like dinner to Bob, the hungry cave bear.
As civilizations became larger, "ecological niches" opened up for antisocially-inclined individuals. It was difficult to predate on your own kind when you actually knew them by name, but strangers are a whole 'nother ball o' wax.
Some folks think manners and "politeness" are an artificial veneer we apply to ourselves to mask the inner, more "noble" savage. That's delusional. Manners and "politeness" are tools we use to humanize strangers so we don't damage our society, something we are all a part of, whether we like to think of ourselves as "members" or not.
Others think that since everyone else tries not to be overly agressive, it's to their advantage to act as a wolf, when everyone else is a sheep. That's also delusional because:
On one level, politeness and manners are a way of recognizing that you are greeting a fellow predator, and showing proper respect, without minimizing your own potential dangerousness. After all, the custom of shaking hands originated partly to ensure that the person you were meeting wasn't armed, but it was also to reassure that person that you weren't armed either.
When people are rude or worse, they are expressing the belief that they are more dangerous than you are, and do not care whether they will offend someone who cannot or will not defend themselves. Sadly, they may not even be conscious of this attitude.
The rude guy in the restaurant who yells at the waitress, the library patron who "forgets" to return a book, the dinner guest who doesn't say "please" when asking someone to pass the potatoes are all expressing the same sentiment: "I'm more important than you, and I don't view you as an equal." The angry kids who shot up Columbine had much the same attitude. "We're the only predators in the crowd. We hate them all so let's kill them." Nice folks, huh?
I won't say that the past was better than the present. Racism is generally recognized as a very bad thing, where before, it was "just the way things are". Spousal and child abuse are no longer ignored. However, there seems to be an underlying philosophy that seems to say that fighting back against the abuse of others is just as bad as the abuse itself. I think that's B.S.
Unresisted violent behavior is rewarded. Resisted, it will diminish. And yes, resisting is dangerous. Not resisting is more so. If more rapists thought their potential victim might shoot them or beat the crap out of them, there would be fewer rapes.
Hmmm... It seems I have gotten off on a tangent. I'll step off the soapbox now.
--Baloo
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"Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain."
--FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER
Come Hither and Yawn...
[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited February 08, 2000).]
Sometimes you find sheep that think they're wolves, too, until they bite a real wolf, or another sheep that bites back.
We're getting a bit deep into the analogy, but that's fine.
What kind of animal goes about its business, not bothering anybody until you poke it, but then it attacks with ferocity? That'd be my analogy of self.
Ah! A HORNET!
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"Nobody knows this, but I'm scared all the time... of what I might do, if I ever let go." -- Michael Garibaldi
Or a porcupine
--Baloo
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"Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain."
--FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER
Come Hither and Yawn...