Not normal if you define normal as the majority opinion. However, he is completely normal if you define normal as sane and rational.
Misanthropes, like myself, can have fun but only with a select few, trusted people who have proven themselves to be different than the rest. People who aren't as toxic and cruel as the world around them.
Sometimes, there is a rational basis for misanthropy. For example, if someone has been horribly (and I mean horribly) treated by 99.9% of people they've encountered. In these cases, it's a phobic response to people, a self-defense mechanism against perceived threats.
But this is so seldom the case with self-declared misanthropes. They are usually just the extreme end of pessimism; all they see is the worst of everything, the doom and gloom, they are totally oblivious to the sunshine and rainbows that happen with equal frequency.
With equal frequency? Give me an example of something positive that is just as far reaching and just as touching as war or starvation or poverty. Misanthropy makes sense because the world need not be this way; yet humans, by their own choice, have created a world where there is seldom good. It is not called pessimism when it is reality.
Your perception of reality is skewed to the negative. All you see is the most negative extremes of human behaviour; war, poverty, suffering. You don't see the huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive, for our mutual benefit, even down to the tiniest of actions (politeness, altruism, kindness).
If it wasn't for this continuous, mutually beneficial effort to work together, you and I probably wouldn't be here. Maybe you'd prefer that, but from my experience, there is enough joy in the world to make life worth living for most people.
"This won't go anywhere."
That's a negative view point! How *dare* you be negative!
"You don't see the huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive"
Majority? Since when? Haha, if this is the best world that your "majority" can create, then that is laughably pathetic. "Thriving", yes, because those children in Africa sure are thriving; the majority are *very* helpful people.
"[T]here is enough joy in the world to make life worth living for most people."
Joy in the world, no. Joy in the mind, yes. The outside world, if viewed without toxic mythology or drugs, is an overwhelmingly negative place. The mind, however, can create infinite joy.
Tell me, good man, if the world is such a happy-happy place, why is it that the vast majority of people rely on emotional leeching, on drugs, on television, on alcohol, on religion-- why do people feel the need to depend on toxic lies and deceit, simply to get through the day?
The world is a horrible place, and it won't get any better if people keep "looking on the bright side". You cannot cure a cancer you refuse to see, my friend.
You know what "those children in Africa" would be doing if they felt like you? They'd be killing themselves before they had a chance to starve to death.
You know what you find in communities stricken by poverty and violence, instead? An overwhelming desire to live, to overcome, to find joy.
Look back 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years at human history.
Compare that with now.
See how far we've come as a whole.
So what if the journey isn't over? So what if there's still inequality, poverty, hatred, violence, war, famine... Are we supposed to use the worst extremes of humanity to justify a resentment of the whole? Are we supposed to become recluses, burdened by our bitterness, not seeking to further progress but instead disavowing our species?
That's a cowardly cynic's reaction to a difficult problem.
If you can't see the "huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive, for our mutual benefit", then as far as I'm concerned, you're missing out on a significant (and gratifying) portion of life. One which provides hope - hope which pushes people to cure 'the cancers' you speak of.
'This won't go anywhere' was right, because you clearly have a fundamentally negative disposition. I don't "look on the bright side", I look at the whole picture, which is as replete with light as it is darkness. You, on the other hand, 'look on the dark side', you see the world as horrible and joy as delusion.
On this we'll have to agree to disagree. Enjoy your Wii.
Agree to disagree, indeed, my friend. I think the one point we both share is that the world has problems we need to solve and we must solve them.
"They'd be killing themselves before they had a chance to starve to death."
Wrong. They would no longer hold on to the false hope that other people would step in to save them and instead solve the problems themselves--permanently.
IIN that I'm a Antinatalist?
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Not normal if you define normal as the majority opinion. However, he is completely normal if you define normal as sane and rational.
Misanthropes, like myself, can have fun but only with a select few, trusted people who have proven themselves to be different than the rest. People who aren't as toxic and cruel as the world around them.
--
disthing
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I define normal as average, typical, common.
So yes, it's not normal.
Sometimes, there is a rational basis for misanthropy. For example, if someone has been horribly (and I mean horribly) treated by 99.9% of people they've encountered. In these cases, it's a phobic response to people, a self-defense mechanism against perceived threats.
But this is so seldom the case with self-declared misanthropes. They are usually just the extreme end of pessimism; all they see is the worst of everything, the doom and gloom, they are totally oblivious to the sunshine and rainbows that happen with equal frequency.
--
wii3willrule
9 years ago
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With equal frequency? Give me an example of something positive that is just as far reaching and just as touching as war or starvation or poverty. Misanthropy makes sense because the world need not be this way; yet humans, by their own choice, have created a world where there is seldom good. It is not called pessimism when it is reality.
--
disthing
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This won't go anywhere.
Your perception of reality is skewed to the negative. All you see is the most negative extremes of human behaviour; war, poverty, suffering. You don't see the huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive, for our mutual benefit, even down to the tiniest of actions (politeness, altruism, kindness).
If it wasn't for this continuous, mutually beneficial effort to work together, you and I probably wouldn't be here. Maybe you'd prefer that, but from my experience, there is enough joy in the world to make life worth living for most people.
--
wii3willrule
9 years ago
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"This won't go anywhere."
That's a negative view point! How *dare* you be negative!
"You don't see the huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive"
Majority? Since when? Haha, if this is the best world that your "majority" can create, then that is laughably pathetic. "Thriving", yes, because those children in Africa sure are thriving; the majority are *very* helpful people.
"[T]here is enough joy in the world to make life worth living for most people."
Joy in the world, no. Joy in the mind, yes. The outside world, if viewed without toxic mythology or drugs, is an overwhelmingly negative place. The mind, however, can create infinite joy.
Tell me, good man, if the world is such a happy-happy place, why is it that the vast majority of people rely on emotional leeching, on drugs, on television, on alcohol, on religion-- why do people feel the need to depend on toxic lies and deceit, simply to get through the day?
The world is a horrible place, and it won't get any better if people keep "looking on the bright side". You cannot cure a cancer you refuse to see, my friend.
--
disthing
9 years ago
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pl
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You know what "those children in Africa" would be doing if they felt like you? They'd be killing themselves before they had a chance to starve to death.
You know what you find in communities stricken by poverty and violence, instead? An overwhelming desire to live, to overcome, to find joy.
Look back 100 years, 1000 years, 10,000 years at human history.
Compare that with now.
See how far we've come as a whole.
So what if the journey isn't over? So what if there's still inequality, poverty, hatred, violence, war, famine... Are we supposed to use the worst extremes of humanity to justify a resentment of the whole? Are we supposed to become recluses, burdened by our bitterness, not seeking to further progress but instead disavowing our species?
That's a cowardly cynic's reaction to a difficult problem.
If you can't see the "huge and continuous effort from the majority of people to work together to survive - and thrive, for our mutual benefit", then as far as I'm concerned, you're missing out on a significant (and gratifying) portion of life. One which provides hope - hope which pushes people to cure 'the cancers' you speak of.
'This won't go anywhere' was right, because you clearly have a fundamentally negative disposition. I don't "look on the bright side", I look at the whole picture, which is as replete with light as it is darkness. You, on the other hand, 'look on the dark side', you see the world as horrible and joy as delusion.
On this we'll have to agree to disagree. Enjoy your Wii.
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wii3willrule
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Agree to disagree, indeed, my friend. I think the one point we both share is that the world has problems we need to solve and we must solve them.
"They'd be killing themselves before they had a chance to starve to death."
Wrong. They would no longer hold on to the false hope that other people would step in to save them and instead solve the problems themselves--permanently.