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basic goodness
azstrummer — (archived)

Your take on things is very non-threatening Frank and you would be a valuable neighbor. We differ a bit though on the basic goodness of mankind. I'm not sure it's something we're born with but instead a survival skill we've acquired through years of societal development. Problem is it's only as good as the external stimulus we're experiencing at any given time.

I'm afraid the records show that there becomes a point in human disasters where societal mores break down and we revert back to our greedy survivalist selves. We generally manage to make it through those times because there is this small minority of humans that seem to be able to rise above that trend and put the species above their own narrow self-interests. However, most of our historical records only deal with times when humans really didn't possess the ability to destroy all life as we now can. Murderous regimes of the past were limited to small geographic areas or segments of local culture. Today a single individual can hold the lives of immense numbers of people in their hands and I think it's healthy to consider the worst case.

That said, it's also not healthy to dwell on just the horrific outcome but also to cultivate that small group of self-sacrificing individuals to keep the rest of us grounded. I too have hope but it's just tempered with some realism.

Art

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