(March 16, 2010 at 3:18 pm)tackattack Wrote:

(March 16, 2010 at 2:55 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

(March 16, 2010 at 2:46 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: I prefer to think positively and of reasons to have a faith in humanity restored. It's a positive statement about the potential observed amid the usual dross.

Optimist!

pessimist

But we have evidence on our side!

"War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades"
--George Carlin

Particularly the Ice Capades.

I look at wendy wright and just facepalm until my hand bleeds.

Perhaps it's at that time one first sees the world and those in it having the audacity to not meet one's personal expectations.

This was a process for me,which began in 1963 at age 16. That was the year I saw film of the liberation of some of the Nazis death camps. I threw up.

My horror was not just the devastating images ,but at the realisation that most rank and file Nazis and ordinary Germans who ran and provided support for the camps weer NOT monsters,but 'ordinary; people doing evil things, I concluded that most human beings are capable of any action,depending on circumstance.

Today I always expect the worst behaviour,whilst hoping for the best. That means I'm never surprised or disappointed and am often pleasantly, surprised.


000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000


References;

"Hitler's Willing Executioners; Orinary Germans And The Holocaust' (Daniel Jonah Goldhagen)

Quote:Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996) is a book by American writer Daniel Goldhagen that posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust because of a unique and virulent "eliminationist antisemitism" in the German identity, which had developed in the preceding centuries. Goldhagen asserted that this special mentality grew out of medieval attitudes from a religious basis, but was eventually secularized.

Goldhagen's book stoked controversy and debate, in Germany and the United States. Some historians have characterized its reception as an extension of the Historikerstreit, the German historiographical debate of the 1980s that sought to explain Nazi history. The book was a "publishing phenomenon",[1] achieving fame in both the United States and Germany, despite its "mostly scathing" reception among historians,[2] who were unusually vocal in condemning it as ahistorical and, in the words of Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, "totally wrong about everything" and "worthless".[3][4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_...ecutioners


"SS- GB" (fiction:Len Deighton)

Quote:SS-GB is an alternate history novel by Len Deighton, set in a United Kingdom fictionally conquered and occupied by Germany during World War II. The novel's title refers to the branch of the Nazi SS that controls Britain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-GB

This book caused outrage when released in the UK .

@min- evidence ... what is this... I know not of what you speak

@padriac- I agree. Sometimes with confronted with the true depth of pain, suffering and hate we humans are capable of it's very daunting. I think a lot of people turn away from God because of this. It's much easier to believe that it's some "sky-daddy's" fault and reject him than to accept we are all individually capable of such attrocities and reject our own nature.

Faith in humanity means a lot of different things to different people. To me faith in humanity means that you faith in your/a society or community that they will do the right thing and that you do something for what you believe or want to stand up for and not because you were forced to do it. When you have "faith in humanity" it kind of makes you feel proud and that you can do anything (as long as it isn't illegal) lol.. You can put it into action many different ways. You could do a little charity work to help the kids in need. You could do a little clean up around your neighbour hood to help your environment

(March 17, 2010 at 12:06 am)tackattack Wrote: @padriac- I agree. Sometimes with confronted with the true depth of pain, suffering and hate we humans are capable of it's very daunting. I think a lot of people turn away from God because of this. It's much easier to believe that it's some "sky-daddy's" fault and reject him than to accept we are all individually capable of such attrocities and reject our own nature.

No, we don't blame god, we just realize that there is no god to blame.

It's all humanities fault, all the bad stuff and all the good stuff.

Zen Badger Wrote:It's all humanities fault, all the bad stuff and all the good stuff.

The interesting thing I've found about blame is that it is distributed among all of the components (in regards to the impact each has made)... rather than wrested in a single thing. Example being: an avalanche kills a skier. It is not entirely the avalanches fault... and it is not entirely the skier's fault either. Blame regarding the skier's death stretches from the friend who invited the now deceased to go skiing with him... to the mother who chose not to call the skier that day (which would have included the precious time in which the avalanche took place)... to the traffic that day being so 'good'.

I reject the claim that "it is all humanity's fault"... as that seems to me folly. A good deal of things may indeed be our fault... but it remains that we are not responsible for all things.

But should blame be distributed to all parties involved or just the primary cause. Do we punish the abusive parents of the serial killer who murders people? I think it's human nature to assign blame in the most simplistic singular method because our perspectives are not all encompassing. I would also disagree that it's all humanities fault and rephrase it to it's all a human's fault, if not nature.

Quote:@min- evidence ... what is this... I know not of what you speak Smile

Right. Therein lies the problem.