Category: Let's talk
I saw a question posed on someone's Livejournal that I thought would be really interesting to ask here. If you accept the premise that the world is a cold, cruel, unfair place, then what would compel you to not be mean and cruel yourself? To my way of thinking, if you do, in fact, accept the premise that the world is cold and cruel and unfair, then I feel like that would compel me to be just the opposite. Otherwise, wouldn't I just be stooping to the level of the world? I think it would be up to me to at least make my corner of it as good as possible. And I'm not completely sure I buy the premise anyway. Oh yes, there is a lot in the world that's unfair and all the rest, but there's also a lot that is good. Anyway, just thought it would be an interesting question to throw out there.
If I believed in htat premace, I would kill myself because I wouldn't want to be cruel myself. LOL, but still. I would agree that I would try as hard as I could to help out the people who were on the other end of the world's cruelty, and I would fight the world.
Mathematicians categorize this type of problem with the label "The Prisoner's Dilemma". For those who watched "A Beautiful Mind", you might recall that John Nash used a very similar question as the basis for his Nobel Prize-winning discoveries.
So as to not bore the non-technical, non-geeky folks senseless, the answer is that those who make their corner of the world as good as possible are going to achieve more, on average, then those who don't. You actually do better by being good than by being cruel, even though it feels the opposite should be true. It isn't.
For that matter, it isn't true for life in general, for the entirety of life on Earth or even the dozen or so ancient lifeforms that make up each and every one of the cells in your body.
It goes a bit further. Those who are cruel because the world is cruel actually end up depriving themselves of more than they have deprived others, at least on average. That's nothing to do with karma, religion or anything like that, it's simply how the numbers work out. Yes, there are anomalies, but that's also just a consequence of the numbers. With a population of seven billion, even one in a billion chances are going to happen. It doesn't mean it's a remotely practical way of living life.
Alfar I like that, but I'm a numbers type of person.
In the long haul don't you think it's more important whether or not you can live with yourself when the game is over? I do.
Doesn't matter whether the rest of the world is selfish and cruel, it just matters whether or not I am.
If that's selfish, then so be it.
Bob
Wow! There is intelligent life on the zone.
I'm with the first poster to reply. I would go against the grain and try to be warm and kind. I'm not saying I can't be cruel, but if I am it's only when necessary. I like the results being nice achieve more.
Yes, the end result of being nice as opposed to cruel can be a great payoff. I've always believed that however we act will come back to us, or what goes around comes around. I've seen that in play time after time.
How do you feel about people who seem to tell others they have to just get used to how unfair things are. It's like saying not only that one must put up with life's unfairness without complaint, but to even try to make things better would upset the natural order of things and unspecified bad things would happen. Then again, maybe I'm reading too much into it and the real reason why people say to just get used to it is just code for "oh shut up and go away already." LOL!
Why does the world have to be cruel and unkind? In my experience it is like a big dish of tossed salad. You have your good things and your bad ones and they are all mixed and mushed up together. We have the hot peppers of anger, the sweetness of grape tomatoes, the saltiness of bacon bits, the crunch of cellery, , etc. etc. All of us are given rations of pansies and poop. We can choose to view the pansies as poop and the poop as poop or visa versa. Recently, I had a friend who was scheduled for hip replacement surgery. This is miserable and uncomfortable. All of us were entertained with "oy, oy, she will be laid up for two months. all she will do is nothing." I was like "yee ha. Bring on two months of enforced rest. I'd love to have the time to read books and not feel guilty."
It is our job to make our portion of the world better. We do this by loving our neighbor, being positive, and respecting ourselves. Love is the stronger force. Sometimes evil and hate will win the b atttle, but they will never be victorious in the war of life.
Oh, I personally agree with ya, but so many folks just keep repeating all these things about just how awful a thing life actually is, how cold and cruel and mean and unfair life and the entire planet, as in, the world, actually is, even if such folk avhe never left the state they were born in. Don't you try and convince me the evening news is the truth, either, because the TV set is mostly filler for advertising, much as I enjoy TV, not a complete mirror of reality. Fear and uncertainty make you buy things, I guess, and bad news is more spectacular than good news. But although life is not necessarily a picnic, it's really not that bad.
you go guy!!!!! Great points all godzilla!!!!
I also think that a population which lives in fear for small things is easier to control for big ones. Whoops. I sound like a whacko conspiracy theorist.
Anyway I'd hate to be a parent raising small kids today. There are so many things they have to be affraid of like swimming in the pool, playing outside, crawling on the floor, touching the fawcett, etc. etc. etc. I watch all these so called experts talk about the things these poor moms and dads must worry about and I can't breathe. What would these folk do if they had a real problem like their house burned down or a hurricane came and wiped them out. They expect to be taken care of and many have no coping skills whatsoever. Thank God many of us who are blind have had to develop these. Otherwise we'd be perpetually up that brown creek without a paddle.
Life is a choice. Every day we get up and decide how it will be for us. We can either be a victim or a victor. The shi* that happens can either be a misery marinade or a propellant to better things. Granted, often it ain't easy. If we succumb to the "woe is me life is a bit** and then we die" mentality we let the stuff that is trying to make us think thatway win.