posted
Well, yes, there are a good number who will treat you decently enough if you approach them without making any sudden movements. But others will charge you just for making eye contact. Some of them, though... they mess their nests, they neglect their young, they club each other over the heads at the SLIGHTEST provocation. They tend to have a herd mentality, gathering for comfort and mutual protection, but stampeding when afraid, easily shepherded but prone to losses from predation. Occasionally, you can find a few engaged in cooperative ventures... provided they can keep the more destructive ones at bay. Rather difficult to train, they tend to revert to old habits as soon as you're not looking.
And the less said about their mating rituals, the better.
------------------ Calvin: "No efficiency, no accountability... I tell you, Hobbes, it's a lousy way to run a Universe." -- Bill Watterson
posted
First: I'm sorry but I can't help but notice the continued use of the words "they" and "their". If everybody is so bad, don't you mean "we" and "our"?
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!
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
posted
Well, you try competing at a disadvantage against lions and tigers and bears (oh, MY!) for millions of years and see if you don't develop an attitude.
[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:
Some of the sheep are actually wolves,
Some of the sheep are really sheepdogs (police, military, etc.),
Some of the sheep bite back (responsible citizens).
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
------------------ "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).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
