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If there was an 100% chance we'd get away with murder, we'd do it! And many do get away with it! Those featured in True Crime books just weren't smart enough! The smartest criminals just laugh as they read these books! The solvable rate for murder is only 65% nationwide, so 35% will never get caught.
Those are the murders anyone knows about. The people reported missing who are not found aren't called murder until the body is found. Infant and child murders by parents are often not discovered for years and many more are likely never discovered and there are many adults who disappear but are not reported or missed.
I think you are correct, though. If you removed penalties and stigma from violent crime, murder would quickly become acceptable and the real human nature would come through. So, back to the original question; are humans good just because we have laws that keep our true natures at bay? Without all those laws keeping us from preying on one another, would we revert to our savage natures? I think we would.
I’ve had a pretty low opinion of humanity since high school and now, at 70 years old, I’ve seen little to make me change my mind. We’re little more than monkeys who have developed unusual communication skills and use them to try to impress and manipulate those around us. Of course there are exceptions but, IMO, they are exceedingly rare.
Often when my wife and I are out and about around crowds of people, we remind ourselves about the egg shell thin veneer of normalcy that surrounds most people and when you crack that open, what a surprise.
I’ve had a pretty low opinion of humanity since high school and now, at 70 years old, I’ve seen little to make me change my mind. We’re little more than monkeys who have developed unusual communication skills and use them to try to impress and manipulate those around us. Of course there are exceptions but, IMO, they are exceedingly rare.
Often when my wife and I are out and about around crowds of people, we remind ourselves about the egg shell thin veneer of normalcy that surrounds most people and when you crack that open, what a surprise.
Don’t insult monkeys. They often show greater ‘humanity’ than many humans.
Those are the murders anyone knows about. The people reported missing who are not found aren't called murder until the body is found. Infant and child murders by parents are often not discovered for years and many more are likely never discovered and there are many adults who disappear but are not reported or missed.
I think you are correct, though. If you removed penalties and stigma from violent crime, murder would quickly become acceptable and the real human nature would come through. So, back to the original question; are humans good just because we have laws that keep our true natures at bay? Without all those laws keeping us from preying on one another, would we revert to our savage natures? I think we would.
Oh yes, laws are the main reason, but I think religion has a part in this too, in order to exert that much control over the public, there needs to be some kind of fear of being judged when you die.
If there was no magic book telling us that stealing, killing, envy, lust is wrong, and there would be no consequences in this life AND after you die...I think society would look much different today, it would be a world where only the strong survive, it would be terrible.
If you look back thru history at various cultures, religion always played a big part.
I sometimes get on a run of watching stories and documentaries on YouTube. Of course, if you watch one, then it opens up a stream of videos in a similar vein. This morning I saw a story on the thousands of phony sober/halfway houses that prey on addicts for their insurance coverage - sometimes becoming resources for sex traffickers. It got me thinking about the totality of things that are happening in America and the world. But, since I live in America, that is more my concern.
When they discover a child porn website, they discover thousands of users. The, almost weekly (it seems) stories of children found living in unspeakable situations of abuse makes you wonder about the many who are never discovered. The estimated one million prostitutes in the country, all of whom have hundreds of clients a year - so who are all the men buying sex from these, usually desperate, women? You could go on and on about the multitude of terrible crimes that happen every day. From public officials embezzling millions to people murdering their families, if you made a list of all the people involved in the spectrum from petty dishonesty to the unspeakable, it would surely include tens of millions of individuals - all of whom are someone's neighbor, co-worker or family member.
It really leaves me with the feeling that the whole country is a thin veneer of decency covering a seething mass of hidden immorality. Obviously, it is not a new phenomenon. There are endless stories of truly terrible things that were institutionalized in the past. You could include the various white collar crimes and the collusion of government and industry to create the war machine.
So, the question is; Are humans intrinsically good or evil? How much of what we see is just a disguise?
I personally feel that humans are animals. We do things by instinct, such as eat, mate, bond socially, etc. One of our biggest instincts is to procreate. And as animals this will always be a drive of humans. I feel that this is why the porn industry is so successful, because it feeds the need for the instant gratification of a humans INSTINCT.
I don't believe that all humans have the same moral standards. But, who gets to set the moral standards anyways? A few rich white men? Those who hold the power? Those who employ the armies? Those who set the border lines for their countries?
The moral majority?
Just because the majority feels something is moral (thou shall not kill)-doesn't mean that another moral majority feels the exact opposite (killing is just).
What you feel is evil is probably due to your location on Earth and you've been taught to feel as evil. I'm not siding with pedophiles here, I'm just saying it's a touchy subject to people who won't see eye to eye with you and probably don't feel morally wrong in what they're doing.
But, who gets to set the moral standards anyways? A few rich white men?
I don't know where rich white men come into it. White men are a minority in the world. Are you saying that a society ruled by women would be more permissive towards violence? Surely not. That a world, minus whites would be a peaceable kingdom? The non-white world was mass murdering one another long before the whites showed up.
I'm always a bit dismayed by these kinds of threads. Doesn't anyone believe in or want to be the kind of person who looks at evil and wants to counteract it by being constructive? Because that's what I believe evil is - destruction is the essence of evil.
I know there are plenty of us out here who want to resist evil because I have met them. All kinds of people working in their own ways - holy-rollers, healers, benefactors, mentors, comedians, name it.
Too often I sense the attitude is, "What's one more evil act by me when there is so much more evil going on?"
If all you look at is evil that is all you will see and it will drag you in and cause either dissipation or despair. I like Nietzsche's quote, "And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee."
Evil is enormous and it appears that we are powerless over it but it is through individual acts added upon each other that we defeat evil in our own lives. Looking for good you will find that as well and it may inspire you to goodness rather than capitulation. We don't fight evil, we replace it with good.
In one of Will Durant's History books he proclaimed: Man has an equal desire to build and an equal desire to destroy.
We forget: It takes 100 years to build up a civilization and only one day to destroy it all!
Civilization is paper-thin! And those part of it!
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