Humans: Basically good or evil?

HughFreakingDillon

rgambs said:

I think people are just animals trying to figure out how to be Gods.  We struggle between aggressive egocentristic survival instincts and the newly risen empathic cooperative tendancies.
Modern societies have shifted most people away from the middle toward empathic and cooperative behavior with selfish aggression peppered in, but it doesn't take much to bring the balance back to the zone where atrocities become commonplace.

I love your first line, gambs. that sounds like a line in a song. and I agree completely. I think since we basically "got out" of the food chain, survival no longer being our prime motivation for anything, people are confused as to what their role is/should be. there is a drive to BE SOMETHING, but no one knows what, since before it was a drive to just BE. 

I think, if our species survives, it will eventually evolve to transcend the capitalistic drive and become more of a "one" where we help each other out rather than fight for ourselves. 

but I think before that happens, a revolution will have to take place. a bloody one. or a catastrophic event where millions, possibly billions, die. I know, it sounds like a movie (and possibly a badly cliched one), but it's what I think will happen. 

brianlux

HughFreakingDillon said:

rgambs said:

I think people are just animals trying to figure out how to be Gods.  We struggle between aggressive egocentristic survival instincts and the newly risen empathic cooperative tendancies.
Modern societies have shifted most people away from the middle toward empathic and cooperative behavior with selfish aggression peppered in, but it doesn't take much to bring the balance back to the zone where atrocities become commonplace.

I love your first line, gambs. that sounds like a line in a song. and I agree completely. I think since we basically "got out" of the food chain, survival no longer being our prime motivation for anything, people are confused as to what their role is/should be. there is a drive to BE SOMETHING, but no one knows what, since before it was a drive to just BE. 

I think, if our species survives, it will eventually evolve to transcend the capitalistic drive and become more of a "one" where we help each other out rather than fight for ourselves. 

but I think before that happens, a revolution will have to take place. a bloody one. or a catastrophic event where millions, possibly billions, die. I know, it sounds like a movie (and possibly a badly cliched one), but it's what I think will happen. 

Excellent points, HFD. 

"I think, if our species survives, it will eventually evolve to transcend the capitalistic drive and become more of a "one" where we help each other out rather than fight for ourselves."

This was a supposed goal of the "Age of Aquarius" (boomer) generation.  It utterly failed when it came time to make babies, buy houses and commute from unsustainable suburbs to that jaaaaawwwwb.  Younger generations will have to do more than give lip service for something positive to happen.

"but I think before that happens, a revolution will have to take place. a bloody one. or a catastrophic event where millions, possibly billions, die. I know, it sounds like a movie (and possibly a badly cliched one), but it's what I think will happen. "

Yes, inevitable and unavoidable at this point.  But good things may rise from the ashes.  A counselor once told me that sometimes hitting rock bottom (which can verge on death) is the last chance for some people to rise above.  I think the same can be said for civilization.