On your rant, Elenbarathi

[sathor]

You disabled comments but I want my two cents damnit...and this is a jumbled rant in and of itself.

What you described is pretty much where we're going anyway...so, don't fret. The 60s are long dead, very few people stand up for anything, and the highest rated news programs in the country are Fox/conservative (hypocrite) based. We support imperialism when we perform it, and denounce it when other countries perform even lesser versions of it (russia/ukraine.) Rational arguments (climate change, ecosystem damage) are unacceptable in the face of corporate profit.

You know as well as I do that people are what they are. Most aren't quite smart enough to think for themselves, and the powers that be abuse the hell out of it. It starts with the parents and then public education follows. PA is currently trying to destroy charter schools, on that same note.

People really are brainwashed by entertainment and media...whether they realize it or not. I truly believe that, with all of my heart.

But an interesting thought came to me today as I was discussing something with some guys at work. People like to talk about how our society (capitalism/fend for yourself mentality) creates disproportionate amounts of sociopathy...what if that's not the case at all? What if idealism is a false virtue? Here's a thought: maybe sociopathy is psychopathy under a system of law - and maybe, human beings have a strong tendency to be psychopathic because for thousands of years, psychopaths would have had the best survivability and ability to procreate (especially when law was not very good at what it did - no forensics, no cameras, no photographs, no life-like drawings.)

Maybe the nature of man ISN'T inherently good, and maybe as the population has overgrown itself, it's had to express itself in all sorts of hideous ways that aren't openly malignant because we were lucky enough to develop a system of law.

But then, some of us are born inherently good, doesn't it seem? Or at least, we had the right influences to become so.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

The 60's may be long dead, but the legacy goes on. I remember when the Cuyahoga River caught fire: imagine if all those activists had just.... not been?

I think humans are inherently aggressive social primates, and as such, naturally display a staggering variety of both aggressive and social behaviors in different circumstances. Infants vary a lot in their innate emotional sensitivity, aside from differences in the care they receive and the kind of early social experiences they have.

'Goodness' is usually tallied up by the various Virtues: honesty, kindness, patience, generosity and so on. However, I don't think these are qualities a person possesses, so much as behavioral options which a person habitually chooses, based on what behaviors have been rewarded in the past.

Human beings don't actually have a strong tendency to be psychopaths - only about 1% of the population are - and sociopaths and psychopaths are quite different. I think psychopaths are rare in the population because they are at a serious selective disadvantage in breeding. Why should they breed, after all? They don't fall in love; they don't love children - and children are a very considerable, long-term burden. Also, most people do notice when another person doesn't give a damn about them, and refrain from procreating with such persons where possible.

The book Deer Hunting With Jesus explains a whole lot about what's behind the whole 'Peasants For Plutocracy' thing, and why rational arguments bounce right off it. But I think some people ARE waking up at last. One may hope, at least!

[sathor.livejournal.com]

I much enjoyed the excerpt from Deer Hunting with Jesus. That's my town...my whole county...minus the "everybody knows how to play guitar" bit. Working poor republicans, some of them quite extremist in their views (most glaringly are my fellow union-member conservatives who don't seem to realize their entire livelihoods are in jeopardy every time they vote red.) Culture is frowned upon around here unless you play classic rock or country covers in a bar band. There are pockets of resistance but I feel as though most of them are not very large and very exclusive...limited to small groups of friends...never larger gatherings. Even people who are artsy seem to lack heavily in the deepness category, which I always thought went hand in hand with art...I've been proven wrong multiple times recently with some artsy women I stumbled across. Maybe I ask too much. I -think- my intellectual level might really drive a wedge between me and ANYONE I meet...especially the fairer sex here. The only women who seem to be able to handle me are QUITE a bit older.

The legacy of the 60s should live on...it lives on in me, even if I can't seem to find like-minded people as serious about free love and free thought and illumination as I am. I find the band Tool is one of my favorite moderns because they seem to exhibit so many qualities in their art that reminds me of the acid bands and the whole theme of those days long before I was born. Same goes for the comedian Bill Hicks, who is now deceased (you'd love him I'm sure, if you don't already.)

I'm a very non-aggressive social primate...some gurus claim that my non-aggressiveness may even be the reason I have so many female troubles.

-hugs-