Pledge Support Why do people behave as they do? By caroline on Mar 29 2010, last modified on Jun 29 2010. Featured

Is there such a thing as evil?

A friend just sent me an email re-the conflict taking place in the Middle East. In response to what drives some people to do what they do, here are some thoughts from my reply:

Or is it less that they are passionate about being nasty, and more about asserting themselves in ways they've become so frighteningly accustomed to use? Humans can be quite bizarre in that way - justifying our existence through self-importance over another. Some would argue mammalian traits. I would argue inhibition of  spirit. For if a soul is emotionally strong, self-belief shines through and the need to prove our being becomes null and void.

Fear is the only true evil.

The only remedy is love.

It's good to hear more and more conversations on change and discussions on the meaning of religion and race. There is no black and white. Never will be. Society got so used to fitting things into boxes in ways they could readily comprehend, with 'law and order'/manipulation of minds through hierarchical governance keeping it so. Yet this is all changing now. People are beginning to question. They have a voice. The more people who get involved in the conversations now beginning to take place, the more blacks and whites will fade into greys.

Yes there's a way to go, but the ball is finally rolling and change is on its way. Thinking is changing from survival of the fittest to unity.

ps - cluetrain manifesto

Tagged As: Behavior Change Conflict Conversational Fear More... Hierarchy Human People Society Survival Of The Fittest Unity

Tools

 

1

 

 Print  No History  Report Abuse (0)

 Subscribe

 Subscribe

uViews From caroline

New Comments

All New Content

Manage Subscriptions

 Follow caroline

 Follow caroline

LinkedIn Twitter YouTube http://www.thecitizensmedia.com/

Comments

Leave a Comment   Nested View  Flat View

Re: Why do people behave as they do?

By mu on Thursday, April 01, 2010, 20:57.

	I tend to think that evil is a little more banal than that. There doesn't seem to be that much active evil in the world, most of it seems to be a simple lack of concern. If you see another person or animal as a simple object then hacking them to pieces is no different than turning a tree into some boards to make a table. During wars and similar violent events, the enemies are dehumanized and turned into objects so that soldiers can butcher them without their empathy getting in the way. We even give the others special names so we don't have to think of them as human beings, so that we can avoid identifying with them. We all know the names, I won't bother providing examples as that would just distract everyone from the matter at hand. An interesting corollary of this view of evil is that large bureaucracies – governments, corporations, unions, and all the rest – are inherently evil. The distance between a decision and the effects of that decision always become large enough to negate empathy. Without empathy, other people are little more than bags of meat and end up being treated as faceless objects. Consider sociopaths [wikipedia.org] . Most people would consider such people to be evil but they're not evil because they are actively evil, they're evil because they have no empathy. Also keep in mind that functional psychopaths are often quite successful executives. That's enough navel gazing for today.	0
	Tools   Tools  Link to this comment  Email  Report Abuse Reply

Re: Why do people behave as they do?

By mu on Thursday, April 01, 2010, 21:31.

	This clip from The Ascent of Man [zefrank.com] by Jacob Bronowski seems apropos here.	0
	Tools   Tools  Link to this comment  Email  Report Abuse Reply

Leave a Comment   Nested View  Flat View