This Metafilter thread has put me into an old well-worn groove wherein, despite many thoughts ignited and roman-candle launched across the night sky, I keep circling back inexorably to a conviction that people are evil, and that we are all circling the bowl waiting for that terminal clean-up flush, and so, before I get too terribly worked-up about it, I just move on.
Edit : Yes, I know :
“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Category:
non compos mentis
no kidding, eh? I went to the site, but didn’t click on anything for fear of contamination. I left as fast as I could and was relieved to see that most other people found it as repulsive as I did.
As the bumfight website and countless other current and historical examples illustrate, people definitely have a vast potential for evil. However, folks also have a vast potential for good. It is unfortunate for all of us that humanities dark side seems to get all the press.
i was hoping you were referring to a metatalk thread before i checked the link. 🙂
I saw that thread when it went up. After reading the description, I didn’t even follow the link or look at the comments until today. I couldn’t, the whole idea just turned my stomach.
Still, stav, I’ve noticed that you’ve got a pretty pessimistic view of things (at least here, I’ve really only been exposed to your more absurd side on MeFi and in the simian zone). I look at things like Bumfight with more of a Taoist eye. You must accept that the truly evil exists, just as you must accept that the truly good exists. You must also accept that each is a part of the human condition, therefore a part of each of us. That site makes me want to hunt down everyone of those fuckers, beat the shit out of them, light them on fire and piss on them to put it out. Still, I wouldn’t reject the whole damn race because they are part of it. Just like I wouldn’t consider the whole humanity thing a waste because we have a portion of the world whose only tradition seems to be war (and, oh, look, they’re at it again!)
As for the Emerson quote, I’m a bit unclear on the “confession of character” portion.
As for the Emerson quote, I’m a bit unclear on the “confession of character” portion.
Just trying to pre-empt any criticism of my character, there, eyeballkid.
I think the reason that you see more of my ‘shaking a mock-operatic-Shatnerian-fist-at-the-sky’ here that at MeFi is that the ‘bottle is a catch-all for my moods (and I am a moody bastard), good, bad or indifferent, whereas at MeFfi I am more conscious of the conversational nature of the place. No one wants to talk to a doom-merchant!
Although I do agree with what you say above, I reserve the right to be pessimistic about the species when I’m feeling grumpy. (/grin)
Have I met more Good People than Evil in my journeys? Yes, probably. But I’ve also observed that it takes very little to transform the best of us into snarling beasts, and so I do despair sometimes, the banality of evil notwithstanding…
Update
“We’ve developed a close relationship with many of them. They consider us their friends.”
Oooo-kay.