When you look at human history...

[gustavofring]

Is it really that weird of social phobics to be a bit scared of people?

Look at all the collective failings humanity has gone through, from the Holocaust to the Jonestown mass suicides. Just read the newspaper, read about all the wars, acts of extremism, crimes, the frauds, the thefts, the murders. How sometimes, initiatives with good intentions can turn into monsters. You would almost turn paranoid schizophrenic from it!

Sometimes I feel a bit paranoid for tendecies present in humans. Our "dark side". It may not always prevail on large scale like afforementioned examples, but on a less violent and more personal and localised scale, like bullying. The sheer terror humans are able to put on fellow human beings is awful, but our own need for security and peace can also turn into a monster. Good and bad are very ambigious, and often just things humans say to themselves to justify their actions.

Ugh. Just ranting a bit. Don't want to turn anyone depressed here.

 

[Chess]

A little bit. I've seen a lot of nasty, highly unexpected things done in my own life, the most frightening of which has been seeing otherwise placid and friendly people turn on their friends for personal benefit.

I cope by being stingy with my trust and such, which makes people angry in itself. It feels like lose-lose sometimes.

 

[Section_31]

This is one of the reasons i hate the human race.

just not certain individuals within it.

 

[HappySquidward]

The media, wether for education or entertainment, usually focuses on the negative side of human beings. Lets face it, most people are interested in conflict rather than resolve. So, as a result, the world is perceived as a dark place, especially for those who hide from it. This over shadows all the good being done in the world.

 

[coyote]

....seven billion people all think that they're perfect and it's the other 6,999,999,999 people who are flawed

 

[gustavofring]

The media, wether for education or entertainment, usually focuses on the negative side of human beings. Lets face it, most people are interested in conflict rather than resolve. So, as a result, the world is perceived as a dark place, especially for those who hide from it. This over shadows all the good being done in the world.

Yeah I agree. The media puts hyper focus on conflicts, making it seem like the world is at war daily. But still, just the knowledge that humans are capable of committing horrible things, can make me a bit distrustful.

It's purely my own fault though, I've become a bit fascinated the last 2 days with the story surrounding the Jonestown cult. That was so twisted and evil, and to think people would let themselves be manupilated like that...

But yeah like you said, if you focus on something a lot, you tend to forget to see the good or the neutral in this world.

 

[GraybeardGhost]

The only thing wrong with the human race is all the people in it. For all our fancy buttons and zippers and computers and iPods and smog-belching automobiles and posh houses and pinky rings, we're still just cave men in disguise. Intellectually, most of us have come a long way from the eat-sleep-hump-repeat mentality of our grunting hominid ancestors, but they haven't entirely left the building. We may have caged the beast, but the beast remains a beast, and sooner or later it will get out and devour us.

I've often thought that the only real hope for this planet is to wipe out humanity—every last one of us—in order to give the earth a chance to heal itself. Fast-forward a few million years or so, and perhaps something clever will have evolved, probably from the platypus (which I've always seen as a work in progress), to take up the ball we've so artfully dropped and make something decent of this whirling little rock. We'll have to see, although I suppose that might be difficult, considering the scenario.

 

[BlackPuma]

This isn't a problem with humanity so much, I think, as it is with progressing intelligent life. We're a young species, making many, many immature mistakes on both mass and individual scale. I think if snails were to be intelligent instead of us they would've made similar mistakes.

And there would be a snail guy typing this comment on his slime resistant keyboard about a hypothetical situation where humans were the intelligent species rather then snails. Silly snail guy with his weird hypotheticals..

 

[mikebird]

Whoooah! This is good

You've set me off. You've inspired me.

Riots last summer. Revolt. Rebellion. Wars. Suicide. Homelessness.

Everything that's happened to me after a reasonable few years; I was never ready to be prevented from furthering my career. There's a grand scale for any event. Unemployment can be seen per country, per region, per male/female...

It's all personal - rejection

Every day's different - bright or dull. It's coming to a halt. Had a deep desire to get hold of a recruiter up close and threaten, harm, torture. Too many of 'em - thousands to address one-at-a-time and make it personal. I'd rather be in their office with a grenade rather than end it with a bottle o' pills or jump into a train.

Where's the evil? I ain't lazy or stupid. Born to grind hard & make £$€¥
Out of work for one day. Does that make you a criminal? Put in jail?

Or is the evil in those who prevent a person from working for a fulfilled life?

 

[coyote]

have you ever been to an old, run-down, over-crowded zoo?

one where all the animals are packed into filthy cages - clawing and scratching, stressed, sick, and gnawing their limbs off to break free?

why hate the individual species for acting the way they do under those conditions?

well, we're just another animal, and our cities are merely the zoos we've forced ourselves into

we just need to find another way to be - that's healthier for everyone

 

[bleach]

so just hiding away from the world is supposed to be better? fear avoidance only deadens the soul and deprives you of all the best things in life. experiencing anything worthwhile inolves risk. there is risk in sharing yourself with the world. you have to brave the worst to experience the best. the alternative is a lonely, frightened life, empty and irrelevant to anyone else, even to yourself. and if that's the case you shouldn't fear death, because there is nothing to live for anyway.

 

[HappySquidward]

so just hiding away from the world is supposed to be better? fear avoidance only deadens the soul and deprives you of all the best things in life. experiencing anything worthwhile inolves risk. there is risk in sharing yourself with the world. you have to brave the worst to experience the best. the alternative is a lonely, frightened life, empty and irrelevant to anyone else, even to yourself. and if that's the case you shouldn't fear death, because there is nothing to live for anyway.

I strongly agree with this

 

[coyote]

so just hiding away from the world is supposed to be better? fear avoidance only deadens the soul and deprives you of all the best things in life. experiencing anything worthwhile inolves risk. there is risk in sharing yourself with the world. you have to brave the worst to experience the best. the alternative is a lonely, frightened life, empty and irrelevant to anyone else, even to yourself. and if that's the case you shouldn't fear death, because there is nothing to live for anyway.

I strongly agree with this

me, too

...

 

[mikebird]

have you ever been to an old, run-down, over-crowded zoo?

one where all the animals are packed into filthy cages - clawing and scratching, stressed, sick, and gnawing their limbs off to break free?

why hate the individual species for acting the way they do under those conditions?

well, we're just another animal, and our cities are merely the zoos we've forced ourselves into

we just need to find another way to be - that's healthier for everyone

Praiseworthy!!

I want to add 'gnawing off another's limbs' to my agenda. Jigsaw

My proposed tool of torture, when no grenades or cordite are publicly available in our country, might serve well, as a nailgun

 

[gustavofring]

so just hiding away from the world is supposed to be better? fear avoidance only deadens the soul and deprives you of all the best things in life. experiencing anything worthwhile inolves risk. there is risk in sharing yourself with the world. you have to brave the worst to experience the best. the alternative is a lonely, frightened life, empty and irrelevant to anyone else, even to yourself. and if that's the case you shouldn't fear death, because there is nothing to live for anyway.

I agree, but I don't think I suggested hiding away from the world

I was studying some cases of collective human failures and it dawned on me that given our violent history it's not so strange humans can be afraid of other human beings. Just to relativate the "irrationality" of it a bit. I don't mean turn into a scared recluse.

 

[mikebird]

What sets a person apart from being a cleaner, bin man, minion, peasant, with a home, from a company owner, Director, CEO, who owns his own island / empire (James Bond villain)?

Someone tell me?

Heritage? Personality? Cigarette / cigar smoker? Body size? Loudest voice? Number of siblings?

 

[gustavofring]

How is this relevant?

 

[user deleted]

Is it really that weird of social phobics to be a bit scared of people?

Look at all the collective failings humanity has gone through, from the Holocaust to the Jonestown mass suicides. Just read the newspaper, read about all the wars, acts of extremism, crimes, the frauds, the thefts, the murders. How sometimes, initiatives with good intentions can turn into monsters. You would almost turn paranoid schizophrenic from it!

Sometimes I feel a bit paranoid for tendecies present in humans. Our "dark side". It may not always prevail on large scale like afforementioned examples, but on a less violent and more personal and localised scale, like bullying. The sheer terror humans are able to put on fellow human beings is awful, but our own need for security and peace can also turn into a monster. Good and bad are very ambigious, and often just things humans say to themselves to justify their actions.

Ugh. Just ranting a bit. Don't want to turn anyone depressed here.

What upsets me isn't just the fact horrible things happen, but the casual acceptance, off-hand cruelty, and wilful ignorance of these occurrences.

For me, having social anxiety means that I frequently don't speak in conversation, I don't just wait to speak, I really listen. I also pay attention to the things that go on around me. I'm haunted by them. It isn't just the major things, either. The smaller things too. One thing that recently stuck with me was: 'I don't get how anyone can be homeless. They're just lazy'.

I don't know whether maybe I'm too sensitive, and that I obsess too much on bad things that happen to people. At times, I do feel paralysed by it and that's not a good thing. In some ways maybe I'd be happier if I didn't. I find it too difficult to accept the brutality of life sometimes. I don't know whether I'm just too judgemental of others, and I just assume people don't care, but it often seems to me that they don't.

I try now to tell myself that everybody is going through something, and that pain is relative. I can't just assume that people don't give a crap, or that their lives are completely uncomplicated and problem-free. I also try not to judge people too harshly for their actions, but sometimes that's hard. I find it impossible to believe that we are all agathokakological** creatures. Some of the horrific crimes that people commit completely obfuscate any goodness within them.

I apologise for this post being completely disjointed and lacking in cogency, but I did want to mention this quote:

'Mankind's greatest cruelty is our casual blindness to the despair of others.'

- J Michael Straczynski


(Which I heard in this excellent story/song)

La Dispute - Eight - YouTube


**I've been waiting to use this word for bloody ages.

 

[Opaline]

^I totally could have written that.

 

[Starry]

have you ever been to an old, run-down, over-crowded zoo?

one where all the animals are packed into filthy cages - clawing and scratching, stressed, sick, and gnawing their limbs off to break free?

why hate the individual species for acting the way they do under those conditions?

well, we're just another animal, and our cities are merely the zoos we've forced ourselves into

we just need to find another way to be - that's healthier for everyone

I completely agree!

Humans have such a huge capability for love, goodness, kindness... The ability to appreciate and create beauty through art and music (Which btw "cave man ancestors" also had.) So much which is positive. Corruption and evil exist, and usually when people gain power over others, when people are all crowded together (as Coyote said) and have no freedom, when we are controlled and downtrodden. We all have our flaws, but so much beauty exists too. History may be filled with evil and violence, but it also has a fair share of good people, those who stood up against evil, those who were self-sacrificing and helped others...

I firmly believe that the majority of people are not bad, but neither are they good... Those are two extremes, most people fall in between. It seems to me that the extreme good and bad are probably fairly balanced in terms of proportion of the whole, but because the bad creates fear, we notice that more. How many people pay attention to the man who spends all his free time helping the homeless compared with the man who attacks people and steals from them?