people are good

[joekerr31]

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/WhatWouldYouDo/Story?id=4377984&page=1

anyone seen the recent abc primetime special where they created mock scenarios to see how passer bys would react.

in one they had 3 teenagers harassing a homeless person (they were all actors mind you).

anyway, each time someone stepped in and confronted the kids.

just a follow up to my thread a while ago about people in general being good.

 

[ZenGodMod]

Funny how its the same people that would ignore the same homeless guy if he was just asking for coins.
What about if the teens carried knives and didn't behave like @ssholes?
People are general good, true! But to an extent. And that extent is weak. Does anyone here recycle.
Good post thou.

 

[wjh]

i admire your optimism joekerr!

i would tend to agree, with limitation.

there's only so much people will risk for the sake of others, especially when no one is watching.

 

[LoneSilver]

Deleted

 

[mrRuckus]

People are general good, true! But to an extent. And that extent is weak. Does anyone here recycle.
Good post thou.

Recycling takes more energy than it conserves. It is a political cash cow.

 

[Ever onward]

I like your optimism Joekerr. But ZenGodMod has a point:

Funny how its the same people that would ignore the same homeless guy if he was just asking for coins.
What about if the teens carried knives and didn't behave like @ssholes?
People are general good, true! But to an extent. And that extent is weak. Does anyone here recycle.
Good post thou.

A lot of people like to tell themselves that they are a good person and consequently, a lot of "good" behavior is a person feeding their own ego. What I mean is that in some cases a person may be acting like they believe a good person should act and do not have genuine compassion for those they believe they are helping.

But Joekerr - I think that deep below the ego level people genuinely want to do the right thing. Props for the optimistic post. I would Rep you if I hadn't already done so awhile back.

 

[ZenGodMod]

To be utterly cruel and honest, people are what they choose to be. Giving change to a homeless person in the long run does??

You right, in the long run it does little. How about giving a 'home' to the 'home-less'?
Doing that and recycling does take great charity and ones effort. We all have our limits and these small limits i believe will surely never surpass the great effortless evil that is our ego and ignorance.
Being 'good' is possible, what i believe or what i think joeker wants to say is Let us try our best as people to try and bring out the best in people. Just like this forum even with its endless arguements it has helped so many, because generaly we are good people.

 

[Bonhomme]

Recycling takes more energy than it conserves. It is a political cash cow.

For it to be otherwise would be equivalent to a perpetual motion machine.

But does recycling take more energy and resources than mining and manufacturing raw ore or cutting down and processing trees into paper and cardboard?

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

While I applaud joekers optimism, and also think that a "belief" that most people are good is useful and will get you far, I believe this study is not valid, as it is not accurate.

You can design any study you like to "prove" what you are trying to prove. perhasp through their "hope" that people would step in and stop the "violence" the actors some how "telegraphed" that something wasn't right, which the passerbys picked up as a kind of "its safe for me to get invovled" vibe.

While I do believe that people are generally "good" in a altruistic selfish kind of way, this study unscientific and flawed, and proves nothing.

A much better and more scientific study IMHO, was several years ago where the news station deposited about 10 child-like wallets, with only a 5 dollar bill inside on which was written "happy 5th birday from grandma" and a phone number inside the wallet. I think about half the wallets were returned. but what about the other half?

What about that girl that was raped in new york in the 60's and like 20 people heard her crying for help and nobody called the cops?

Why do some countries feel it neccesary to pass laws that punish witness's to crimes and accidents that don't offer asssitance?

What about that famous "experiment" where people gave some poor guy "electric shocks" (that were fake, but they believed they were real)?

And the old arugment : How in the FVKK was the holocaust possible?

yes, if you look, you can find all kinds of instances of people being good, AND people being bad. So whats a DJ to do?

 

[Bonhomme]

Recycling a previous post from another thread on the same subject:

Treat people as if they are good (at least until they give you reason to do otherwise), but cover your backside as if people are rotten to the core.

 

[ketostix]

yes, if you look, you can find all kinds of instances of people being good, AND people being bad.

Right, people are good and people are bad,and some people are mostly good or mostly bad. So I partially agree with joker that some people are mostly good. But what bothers me about Joekerr's post on this topic is he seems to be saying because some people are good, a majority of people are perdominately good. I'm not so sure of that conclusion. It could be that a majority of people are a mix of good and perdominately bad.

 

[STR8UP]

Right, people are good and people are bad,and some people are mostly good or mostly bad. So I partially agree with joker that some people are mostly good. But what bothers me about Joekerr's post on this topic is he seems to be saying because some people are good, a majority of people are perdominately good. I'm not so sure of that conclusion. It could be that a majority of people are a mix of good and perdominately bad.

Yea, you can throw as much of a positive spin on it as you want, and depending upon your mood you will cast people in a good or bad light, but at the end of the day PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE.

Good and bad are subjective judgment calls, not fact or fiction. If people were inherently "good" it would throw off the natural balance of things in the same way if people were inherently "bad". The world will balance itself out regardless of what any of us does or thinks.

I'll be damned if I give a homeless person a penny of my money, but there's a good chance that if I saw one getting threatened with violence I would step in.

Am I "good" or "bad"? Neither one....I just "am".

 

[Bonhomme]

Good points, STR8UP.

But I still think it's best to treat people as if they're good, but cover yourself as if they're bad.

It reminds me of the "prince and the pauper" accident/experiment in which a "special ed" and a "gifted" class were switched. Treating the "slow" kids as if they were "gifted" improved their performance, while the opposite happened with the "gifted" students who were treated as if they were "slow."

 

[Bible_Belt]

I'll be damned if I give a homeless person a penny of my money

hell, try it, it's fun. It's not like a dollar buys much else. The ones who are begging are actually the industrious ones, most just lie around in front of the shelter.

 

[STR8UP]

hell, try it, it's fun. It's not like a dollar buys much else. The ones who are begging are actually the industrious ones, most just lie around in front of the shelter.

My standard line is "Sorry, got no money." One of them threatened to kick my ass one time, and I wasn't even rude to him.

I live downtown so I get harassed all the time. To be honest, it's quite annoying. You can't even sit at a sidewalk cafe and enjoy a beer without getting bothered every five minutes.

Actually, I have a good friend and an ex g/f who worked for a mental health facility. I learned that a good portion of the homeless population are mentally ill, which would explain why this one dude has been collecting soap bottles and shopping carts and launching verbal tirades at inanimate objects behind my store for the past week.

I sympathize to an extent, but when some dude drops trou and takes a sh!t (ON CAMERA, mind you) directly in front of the entrance to my business, I have to wonder WHY I would feel sorry for anyone. I have my own problems and I don't go around pissing and sh!tting on peoples doorsteps and harassing them and threatening to beat them up over some change.

In days gone by people had to fend for themselves and if they didn't they wouldn't be around for long. Today you can pretty much give up and one way or another SOMEONE will take care of you.

Doesn't seem like a very efficient way to eliminate weak genes if you ask me, but oh well. As George Carlin would say, "One day the world will shake us off like a bad case of fleas", so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Luthor Rex]

I sympathize to an extent, but when some dude drops trou and takes a sh!t (ON CAMERA, mind you) directly in front of the entrance to my business, I have to wonder WHY I would feel sorry for anyone. I have my own problems and I don't go around pissing and sh!tting on peoples doorsteps and harassing them and threatening to beat them up over some change.

Well maybe that's why you've had these recent problems STR8UP! Maybe you should go and piss and sh!t on someone else's doorstep! It might make you feel better!

Did you ever think of that? No, I bet you didn't.

Go and piss and **** on a doorstep today and you'll fell better about yourself.

The more you know... *insert rainbow here*

 

[Mr. Me]

I think what it proves is that people don't like obnoxious teenagers and are willing to reprimand them.

 

[Luveno]

Good and evil are relative labels that moronic people take as fact.

There is no proof as to what is good or what is evil. THey are just subjective terms used to describe experiences to physical stimuli.

Good = things are beneficial to YOU, whether its money or the feeling you get after you defend a homeless guy from obnoxious teens

Bad = things that are a hindrance to YOU, whether its losing money, or that feeling you get when you see a homeless guy getting harassed by obnoxious teens.

I think we are just animals, who are each trying to obtain happiness and "good" feelings. While some people feel "bad" when "bad" things happen to people, others don't. These are the ones that will exploit you for their own personal gain.

Thusly, since it is very difficult to tell which people are exploitative, I trust nobody.

 

[STR8UP]

I think we are just animals, who are each trying to obtain happiness and "good" feelings.

Careful.....most people aren't open minded enough to accept the fact that humans are controlled primarily by biological needs just like any other animal.

Thusly, since it is very difficult to tell which people are exploitative, I trust nobody.

ALL people exploit others for personal gain. Most of the time we don't even realize we are doing it. When dealing with people it is NEVER wise to give the benefit of the doubt until they have proven themselves.

 

[ketostix]

Good and evil are relative labels that moronic people take as fact.

There is no proof as to what is good or what is evil. THey are just subjective terms used to describe experiences to physical stimuli.

Good = things are beneficial to YOU, whether its money or the feeling you get after you defend a homeless guy from obnoxious teens

Bad = things that are a hindrance to YOU, whether its losing money, or that feeling you get when you see a homeless guy getting harassed by obnoxious teens.

I think we are just animals, who are each trying to obtain happiness and "good" feelings. While some people feel "bad" when "bad" things happen to people, others don't. These are the ones that will exploit you for their own personal gain.

Thusly, since it is very difficult to tell which people are exploitative, I trust nobody.

While I agree with Str8up that people aren't always even cognizant of their own exploitive, self-centered nature, I truely believe that every sane, normal person instinctively knows right from wrong, good from bad or evil, fair from unfair. And I believe some people, probably not many, are relatively good. I also believe from my own experience and my knowledge of most other people's experience that I know, people's bad deeds outweigh their good deeds. So if I were to put a label or a generalization on it, I'd lean to the conclusion that people are bad.