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People don’t always do the right thing. Some people believe it is because it is in our human nature to be cruel to others. Or do you think that there are other forces behind the seemingly cruel acts (like adherence to authority, valuing social etiquette, self preservation, fear, etc.)?
It’s the strangest thing how people can act like their antisocial and “fuck the world” behavior has any power behind it. The only reason assholes and “controversial people” are allowed to exist is because they’re sucking the administrative dick of the higher ups in modern society that protects them like a little brat.
Friendliness, kindness, and social etiquette is 100% necessary for survival among humans. If not even more important than individual survival skills. We are a herd species, and if you’ve ever experienced any lifestyle that doesn’t have any government safety nets, like tribal/nomadic/homestead communities, you’ll understand that being a punk means you won’t survive.
That’s why I can’t stand these “I hate people” and “I do what I want” people because they literally only get by because they leech off of big daddy enforcement support.
So no I don’t believe cruelty is in human nature. Because being cruel would have you outcasted and most likely you would die on your own. Humans fucking /suck/ at solo living. Our nature tells us to survive and thrive in a healthy herd and to do that you have to be a likeable person.
Babies are not cruel, and I think that humans that come from growing babies are not cruel unless life puts them in the path to be that way.
Idk, some people are good natured naturally, most it has to do with their upbringing. I grew up in the ghettos and yet somehow still have some (very small amount though) faith in humanity.
A lot of the people who are cruel are sociopaths, and you can't grow a conscience
Cruelty for cruelty's sake? No. Cruelty for alternative reasons? Yes. That is true about so many other animals aswell though.
A single animal, killing 10 of its own kind is unheard of, a single human is known to have killed 1000s (even on single days). Evils like Vlad the Impaler, Hitler, Osama, etc are only ever humans. Humans have caused more warfare and destruction than any other begins. Other animals only mainly kill for their own survival, but the greedy nature of mankind exceeds all. There are countless examples, and one of them is
https://www.isitnormal.com/post/iin-we-should-stop-animal-trophy-hunting--265701
There is little doubt the world will be a better place had our wretched kind never existed.
Yeah, for sure. Humans cause most cruelty. I think a major thing missing from that point is potential and capacity. Obviously we've evolved to be at the top and have far more factors to how we live that can result in more positives and more negatives, incentives, etc. We have more situations with how we live that can result in cruelty more than other animals but if, hypothetically, another species of animal achieved the same level humans are on now the levels of cruelty would be the same, or worse.
I agree with what you said. We have the capability and they do not. But Hypothesis are only ever hypothesis tho, the reality is other animals neither have the capability nor the incentives of exhibiting the cruelty humans have done throughout history. Cruelty for survival is necessary but most of our cruel acts have been driven by things beyond that, greed, humans are the greediest beings in the solar system and I doubt there is any other kind in the Universe (if they exists at all) as greedy as us. Regardless humans are the only beings with the capabilities and incentives for the cruelty they have displayed [like say during the 1970s Khemer Rouge regime in Combodia, not only 30 % of the population was wiped out but they conducted some of the cruelst experiments known on the face of the Earth, here are some of the examples copied from reliable sources:
A medic who worked inside S-21 told that a 17-year-old girl had her throat slit and her abdomen pierced before being beaten and put into water for the whole night. This procedure was repeated many times and it was carried out without anesthetics.
In a hospital of Kampong Cham province, child medics cut out the intestines of a living non-consenting person and they joined their ends in order to study the healing process. The patient died after three days due to the "operation".
In the same hospital, other "physicians" trained by the Khmer Rouge opened the chest of a living person, just to see the heart beating. The operation resulted in the immediate death of the patient. (source: http://www.d.dccam.org/Tribunal/Analysis/pdf/Prosecuting_Khmer_Rouge_Medical_Practices_as_Crimes_against_Humanity.pdf)
these are just three examples of the many cruelty committed by orders of the regime]
And thats just one case, the Holocaust and others such featured worse. Maybe if other animals had the same capability they would too, but they do not, and humans are the only beings that had the capability to conduct such acts of cruelty and they have acted on it. Now we might argue all humans aren't like that, but as Sigmund Freud said "given the opportunity all humans will commit evil (not the exact line, well something close to that). The cruelty of our kind's main driving force is not to just boast around our capabilities, but because humans are the greediest of all, a principle of economics: limited resources (all animals can adapt to that), unlimited wants (only humans exhibits). My earlier post gave the example of ivory trade, people can live well without needing to keep animal body parts as trophy but they still go for it for their greed. All the good actions (mostly corrective) our kind has taken (like preserving lands for breeding animals) would not have been necessary had our kind not damaged them in the first place. The main point I tried to say is that the world would be a better place without us. That too is a hypothesis, but I strongly believe in it.
Yes but at the same time the inverse is also true, no other animal has helped others, be it their own kind or not, anywhere near to the same extent humans have. This to me suggests that the only reason why our species is more cruel is because we've socially adapted beyond any other species we know of to the point other avenues of evil and good are open to us far more easily than any other species.
Like I said there's no need to help when the damage isn't done yet, like animals have less capability to harm,. they heavy less capability to help, and humans help each others from mostly human induced harm (like say human police foiling a human induced robbery) . All these stuffs like global warming are human induced, and when humans talk about stopping the progress that was initiated since the beginning of the industrial revolution, they are only talking about rectifying their own mistake. Also animals do help, herds of migrant wilder beasts protect e other from predictors (lions, hyenas, etc). The real question has any beings caused more harm to the world, their own kind and all other kinds than humans? I think we both know the answer to that.
Read Carl Jungs ideas on the “shadow”
Not only is it normal, it’s healthy to have and accept a bad side.
Humans are neutral you do what you want to do for yourself or your friends.
I think mostly it's to do with other factors, such as you outlined, but there is also a tendency towards sadism in young men who get extreme, unchecked power e.g. Caligula, Nero, Commodus.
I don't think that cruelty is in our nature at all.
What is in our nature though, as it is with all living creatures, is survival. Some people do believe that to get ahead and survive the best way for them they need to be cruel and selfish. Some people also entirely lack the ability to feel for others either because they're psychopaths or because they're just so set on getting what they want that they close everything else out including peoples feelings. Many things can also contribute to a person acting cruel such as insecurity and mental health issues like depression or anxiety. That's because when you already feel like absolute shit other people get on your nerves incredibly easily and pisses you off. Those people don't really mean to be cruel either, they just aren't happy, that is a problem that could get fixed if society could offer more help to more people who needs it. Many things shape people to act cruel or to just "shut off", but I don't think that it's in our nature from birth. Humans are social creatures, even those of us who enjoy being alone need some amount of social life from time to time, therefore I think that it's more in our nature to be kind and to care for each other like you need to do in group.
I dunno about all of that, but chimpanzees are our closes relatives, so...
Cruel could mean different things to different people.
That being said intentionally being cruel that clearly without a doubt is cruel most likely spawns from hate and jealousy.
Doing the right thing is subjective. We mostly agree on what these are but the idea of good and bad are mostly a human construct. Much of this was taught through religion but it was there before before religion took hold. It is part of creating a cohesive society. Society makes these rules and enforces them in both obvious and subtle ways.
But if it is human nature to be cruel, it is human nature to be kind. You can do both with the same action depending on perspective.