Author Topic: Primitive society (what is *their* problem?)  (Read 7218 times)

Offline qualaxy_6uest

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Primitive society (what is *their* problem?)
« on: September 19, 2009, 03:59:53 AM »

When I was 9 I got attacked by a dog, who usually never minded me. To my defense, I wasn’t provoking him, I was just playing quietly nearby but something fused in his head and for a minute he saw me as a threat and reacted violently. You can avoid animals, if you like. It’s more difficult with people, however.

I’m not going to turn this into a personal venting about how I’ve been a subject to constant attacks in my childhood and adult life by various people  for no apparent  reasons.  I’m only now beginning to figure it out (I’m a bit different, apparently… but that’s another story).

I’m going to rant about attacks on people by people overall and would like to hear your theories about causes. Why or why or why or why people are so very much like animals?

The subject of human violence is so enormous I don’t know how to approach it. There’re so many variations of it. I’ll concentrate on one specific kind for now.

Here’s a quote about work violence from the Los Angeles Examiner’s article about the murder of Annie Le.

“The continuum begins with discourtesy, and from there moves through disrespect, intimidation, harassment, retaliation, verbal assault, and finally to physical aggression. Not everyone will begin with discourtesy and people may not show all of the behaviors. But this continuum gives a good idea of the broad range of behaviors that constitute workplace violence. All these behaviors can be broadly categorized as verbal behaviors or physical behaviors.”
How familiar.

Why on earth do people do that? What moves them? How do they justify their actions? What do they get from it? What is this all about? Why is it so widespread and why is our society NOT GETTING more humane? It should!


"ABC News, citing sources, reported Thursday that Clark, an animal laboratory technician, had sent a text message to Le on Sept. 8 -- hours before she was reported missing -- requesting a meeting to discuss the cleanliness of research animals' cages."
Insane?









Offline misfitguy

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Re: Primitive society (what is *their* problem?)
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2009, 09:28:15 PM »

You had mentioned in your first post you were looking forward to posting here.  I too looked forward to your second post and this one is a doozey.  First, let me answer your first question, "...why is our society NOT GETTING more humane?"  I'm not sure that it isn't.  Historically, we seem to be able to get along better than we did say a hundred years ago, or a thousand years ago and etc.  There are more people today living closer than ever before in history and generally we are a civil animal.  Of course, there are these exceptions and it is these exceptions that could possibly answer some of your other questions. 

We are human and a complex animal we are.  We,like other animals, not only have a brain but we also have a soul and the worst part of that little bit of engineering is that most people are simply not aware of their soul, don't respond to its directions nor do they try to nourish it.  This soul is what separates us from other animals. So these people are guideless and most times asocial and animalistic. 

The whole spectrum of Social/Psychology sciences believe they have identified other explanations of this sort of behavior.  The word "sociopath" comes to mind as one example.  This is an individual that does not get along with the rules of society.  They are usually self-centered and have no conscience or no ability to distinguish right from wrong and no remorse for any of their actions.  This guy will probably be labeled a sociopath. 

A lot of the attributes that most religions warn us about all the way back to the Greeks, such as greed, fear, avarice to name some, also help a person to justify their actions.  These are not answers that could ever give a person comfort with the questions you have, but they are some of the things that can cause aberrant behavior. 

Remember, I do believe that society is getting better, not worse.  Also we now have the ability to know what happened in California almost immediately, no matter where we live because of our incredible communications network we are connected with and so we now are aware of all the atrocities of humanity, not just those close to us.  If everything was getting worse, our news broadcasts would never have time for those cute little clips or footage about a car wreck in Texas.  There wouldn't ever be a "slow news day". 

Great topic.  Keep them coming

Mick
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Offline EdisonBoy

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Re: Primitive society (what is *their* problem?)
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2009, 05:20:24 PM »
I think I can offer an explanation if ya'll don't mind, and keep in mind that this is just my own personal take on the subject.  I think you guys have heard me rant on the corporate takeover of our society before, and may be getting tired of it.  Yes, I blame all our modern problems on that one thing so it starts to look like an obsession.  But, if you don't want to bear with me, then you don't have to read it.

Short and sweet - In a society run by corporations, society starts to look, act and even think like a corporation.  Corporations think only in terms of commodities - assets and liabilities.  (Yes, I used to be an accounting major, among a dozen others.)  People are also depersonalized.  Everybody (what they call "labor") becomes a commodity, either an asset (good for the company or society) or a liability (something that is subtracted from assets to give us capital).  If you can dispose of your liabilities, then capital benefits.

The problem is, if you apply the "accounting equation" to people, then some people start to be seen as assets to be used or liabilities to be disposed of.  Some people call this "social Darwinism."  In human society this type of corporate thinking is called (as Mick pointed out) sociopathic, but in the corporate world it is seen as normal.

(You guys keepin' up with me?)

So, what we have is people often times (because of the corporatization of civic society) who aren't thinking of people as people any more, but as objects (commodities) that are to be used, which is often the very definition of a sociopath.  Let's now say that a person is seen as not only a liability but an actual obstruction to the things that this individual wants.  The person is no longer a person in that individuals eyes, so it is OK in his eyes to use violence to either get that person's cooperation or eliminate that person altogether.  In their corporate-addled mind, they are simply liquidating a liability.

In addition to this, some get really resentful of having to be seen day in and day out all their lives as commodities.  They never know when that day will come when they will be flipped over to the liability side of the equation and **POOF** they get laid off or fired.  All that stress has to be building up in them and is just waiting for a trigger.  When that trigger comes ... well, that's where you get workplace violence.

But then again, some people are just loony-tunes, like that kid at Virginia Tech.

Well, there's my theory, and you can just decide for yourself whether I've got a point or whether I'm just full of sh**!  ~D~ ~D~ ~D~ ~D~ ~D~