A Simple question...

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Choark
 

A Simple question...

Unread postby Choark » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:30 am

"Have you lost faith in mankind?"

Comments seems to prop up all the time along those lines so I was generally kinda interested maybe in asking you all if, yes, do feel that you have no faith in mankind what-so-ever?

Personally I'm a "No, I have great faith in mankind." Honestly, I do. Considering I have less then five minutes to say why I have to make it brief but I still believe in the Common Man. He isn't a saint but I never asked him to be. Plus circumstances can make a wife beater a hero (Andrew Mathew R.I.P. You were an asshole almost all your life but you saved those kids life so you did something right) and all the bad things you hear on news is because thats what News is. You'll never hear of how Tom helped an old man down the street carry his T.V. into his house even though he was in a hurry because that just isn't News. However the fact some bullies put a smal child in a wheely bin and pushed em down a very big hill which unforantly fell onto the road into the path of a speeding car is...

But I do. I have faith in mankind and all mankind can achieve. And I still have faith mankind can and will better themselves and do right onto each other.

P.S. If your answer is "I never had faith in mankind" then I'll take that as a loss of faith just because. Simiarly if the answer is "Only if they find God" I'll take it you have faith in God over mankind themselves.

(No time to proof read - Add Post!)


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FF Fanatic 80
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Re: A Simple question...

Unread postby FF Fanatic 80 » Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:33 pm

Nope.

Do people suck?

Frequently.

Are there selfish, stupid people out there, who only think for themselves and have no concept of how their actions will screw over not only themselves, but everyone else around them?

Far too many.

But does that account for everyone on the planet?

Nope.

And that is why I still have some faith in humanity.


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PriamNevhausten
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Re: A Simple question...

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Tue Oct 11, 2005 2:07 pm

I would not call it 'faith,' but that is because the word is abhorrent to very many of my basic principles and tenets.

I trust most people to not do ridiculously stupid things. This trust has been betrayed many times, but I still hold out.

I trust most people to not stab their fellow (wo)man in the back without reason. This trust has also been betrayed, so often that I classify it as obsolete. But yet, I hold it anyway.

However. I believe most people will act completely selfishly if they are able to do so without dire repurcussions.

All in all, I am very apathetic towards the general populace of the planet. I think a lot of people are, too, but they often refuse to admit it. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

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Re: A Simple question...

Unread postby BrainWalker » Tue Oct 11, 2005 8:32 pm

The problem with trying to classify people as a whole is that there are so damn many of them. I believe that there is good and bad in all things, especially people. There are good people, and there are bad people, and there are people doing good things for bad reasons, and people doing bad things for good reasons, and people that are so complicated noone can figure out what their deal is.

I tend to believe that the average person doesn't want to be a douchebag, but I also tend to believe that most people just can't help themselves sometimes. Hell, even I'm guilty of that. Then of course there are people out there who actually do want to be douchebags and don't care to help themselves, but they're rather a minority, I think. I believe that there are enough people out there who want to do good that they just barely make up for the people who are too lazy, apathetic, or bastardly to do any.

In dealings with people, I tend to give people I meet the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are decent human beings. That usually holds true. Most people people want to have friends and allies, or at the very least, they tend to prefer diplomacy to conflict. However, I try not to rely on or to expect anything from anyone I haven't gotten to know at least a little bit.

Also, what Priam said about selfishness. <p><div style="text-align:center">Image</div></p>

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Re: A Simple question...

Unread postby Ganonfro » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:34 pm

How can you have faith in humanity to begin with? As a whole, we're in a grey area in attitudes. Many try to be good, while just as many end up being bad. Bad people get noticed more due to people seemingly only being interested in the bitterness of life, while the good aren't recognized or are underestimated. Having faith in something as inconsistant in actions as humans will just build you up for a great pile of disappointment. It all depends on where you look.

What I have lost faith in is the state of this country, and the people who are in charge of it.

So in answer to this question, I've lost faith in much of humanity that I've experienced.


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Kai
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Re: A Simple question...

Unread postby Kai » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:37 pm

I have faith in humanity's unending ability to be interesting at the very least.

As a wanna-be anthropologist, this is really all the faith that I need. <p>-------------------------
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Sandman "The Kindly Ones" </p>

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in a surprising turn of events...

Unread postby pd Rydia » Tue Oct 11, 2005 11:51 pm

No.


...


This is going to be strange to explain.


The 'default human' being, to me, is a carbon copy of myself. The entire copy never actually comes into play, but serves with select traits to "fill in the blanks" of what actual knowledge and stereotypes can't form, for me, an image of a person.

So, for instance, when I first met Catie, I was shocked to hell and back, because she was so short. (Sorry, Catie Image). I didn't pick up that knowledge, and I didn't have a stereotype by which to judge her height--so, she was my own height. Another example, when I first met Joe and Brian, I was surprised by Joe's amazingly red-headedness, and by all that facial hair (I tend to stereotype men to be clean-shaven--unsurprisingly, given trends--and darker-haired).


So.


I, personally, am of the opinion that I'm awesome. From around my teens, I've exponentially improved, and I've got room yet to grow. And I can do it now, because I'm not so busy all the time beating myself up for not being perfect.

Of course, I've said, done, thought stupid things. Been much less than I am now. If I saw who I was before, as a stranger today, I don't know if I'd /recognize/ the potential. I think I'd just...well, look at 'myself' like another worthless jerk, like I've done to other people who didn't make the mark.

So~... I carry that trait over to strangers. That is, the fantastic ability to reach appendix-exploding awesome.

I can't see it, or understand, especially not in people I don't know, or actively dislike. I just have faith. <p>
<div style="text-align:center">dictionary.com | encyclopædia dramatica</div></p>

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PriamNevhausten
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Re: in a surprising turn of events...

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:35 am

In response to Ganon: It's been said by a great many developmental psychologists that it is horrendously difficult to grow and mature, mentally speaking, without having developed a sense of hope, which is defined as trust that everything will eventually be okay no matter what happens. If that doesn't develop, then the rest of the growth is stunted, or at the very best slowed greatly, until hope does manifest. This is where 'faith in humanity' comes from--an extention of believing in the happy ending for all stories. And this is why most everyone has faith to lose. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>

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Re: in a surprising turn of events...

Unread postby Ganonfro » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:26 pm

To Priam: Sorry for making myself unclear. I have faith in the individual. Not the group as a whole. Once you gain hope/faith/belief/whathaveyou in a group of probably 5 or more, unless they're all of like mind, things will break down. To be clear, when you get to a group large enough where you don't know many of them, the sense of anonymity sets in, which lets people act like assholes to others, since they don't know them. See Penny Arcade's Gabriel's greater fuckwad theory.

On a side note, not all stories end happily. Some do, some don't. It just depends which ones you see.

If people wanted me to have faith in them, they should stop screwing things up. (mostly in relation to the government)


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PriamNevhausten
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Re: in a surprising turn of events...

Unread postby PriamNevhausten » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:09 pm

I never said it's true that all things end in flowers. I, personally, am of the opinion that hope is a crutch that is better used as firewood, but at least it helps one learn how to walk in the first place. <p><span style="font-size:xx-small;">"It's in the air, in the headlines in the newspapers, in the blurry images on television. It is a secret you have yet to grasp, although the first syllable has been spoken in a dream you cannot quite recall." --Unknown Armies</span></p>


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