I hiked down the mountain one morning not long ago. As I came to a quiet road at the mountain base, I noticed three kids waiting for their school bus. As I walked by, I gave them a bright, “Good morning.” All three shrank back in silent terror with grimaced faces. I walked on, though feeling a bit less cheerful than before. I don’t blame these kids for their impolite and anti-social behavior. It’s their parent's hysterical paranoia that worries me. As silly as it may sound, my first notice of this phenomenon came with the unfortunate demise of Halloween trick-or-treating. My own generation fondly reminisces about those happy evenings when we’d cover five miles on foot with our friends, and return home with half of a pillow-slip filled with candy. Mom didn’t drive us house-to-house and walk behind us, right up to the door with an Uzi under her jacket. We didn’t put the apples we received under an X-ray machine to ferret out razor blades, and our candy didn’t go through a mass spectrometer to sort out the candy sure to be found laced with rat poison. One acquaintance drives her daughter only to houses owned by people she knows. Despite this precaution, she still destroys her daughter’s tick-or-treat candy and replaces it with her own store-bought candy! We love to remember the wonderful times we had, yet we wouldn’t dream of letting our own children have such fun. Everyone knows that unlike today, people could be trusted in the "good old days." I came across a book in the library with the macabre title of, Wisconsin Death Trip. It’s written by Michael Lesy, and chronicles the rampant and savage crime in "the good old days." Here is a short excerpt from a review of it by John Hoh: “Debates rage today about the state of society. Many feel that people and situations are getting worse by the day. Viewing the evening news we hear about drive-by shootings, children brandishing guns, increasing occurrences of domestic abuse. Often our nostalgic memories long for a simpler day when neighbors helped each, everyone knew everyone else in town, families and neighborhoods were at peace, and people respected each other. There were no drugs, no gangs, and no domestic squabbles. Into this arena comes Michael Lesy's book, Wisconsin Death Trip. This book soon shatters those myths of previous generations living in peaceful, idyllic tranquility. First, let me express my wonder at those who view the past with rose colored glasses and see a better time. The average life expectancy was much shorter; a part of our past as a nation is a past filled with the bloodshed wrought by gangsters, robbers, and hoodlums prowling our city streets…” The gruesome newspaper stories and photographs in this book reinforce my appreciation for not having to live in the “good old days.” Generally, people today are far more civilized than were their ancestors. However, our perception is quite the opposite. Too many of us believe that we live in the midst of a seething cauldron of amorality. Both the media and our uncritical acceptance of the daily deluge of crime reports are to blame for this belief. If a child is abducted in Los Angeles, we immediately know about it on the East Coast. We hear about every major crime in our nation of 270 million inhabitants. Crimes involving children are especially apt to make the national press. Humans evolved in village settings where their news of others was limited to a few hundred persons at the most. In today’s interconnected world we have instant access to the criminal activity of nearly 9 billion people. Given the efficiency of our news gathering organizations, coupled with such mind-boggling numbers of people, it's inevitable that we have such a daily outpouring of stories of murder, rape, kidnapping, etc. It's the nature of the “news” business that we hear so little of the good that humans do everyday. The press finds good people to be boring, and much prefers to write about axe-murderers. The erroneous belief that your neighbor is more apt to be an axe-murderer is not an innocuous belief. A number of ethicists (Steven Pinker comes to mind) have explained that people tend to calibrate their moral compass to what they perceive is the average moral standard of their society. That is; most people would rather not be a saint or a sinner, they would rather simply be “normal.” A problem arises however, when people have a skewed perception of what the average moral behavior of their neighbor actually is. If we only think that men act worse than they actually act, we recalibrate our own moral standards to reflect this perceived lower standard. Another result of this erroneous belief is that we come to fear what we should not. An analogous story comes to mind: A few years ago, a friend told me that his company had hosted a Chinese visitor for six weeks. Despite numerous social invitations by the resident employees, the visitor preferred to remain alone inside the house provided for her on the company grounds after her working hours. Eventually the word got around that she would be returning to China having only seen as much of Vermont as could be seen while driving from the airport to the company headquarters. A more urgent request was made to the guest that she should do some sight-seeing. This time the guest explained her hesitance. All of her life she had heard stories of the terrible crime in America. She’d been terrified out of her wits that she had to make the trip to America at all. I suppose if you or I had to make a business trip to Columbia, South America, we might have an idea of how she felt about visiting Vermont. It’s ironic that she was afraid to walk on the street in the same county where I leave the door of my house unlocked, unless I’m going away on a trip. Similarly, parents instill an irrational fear and mistrust of adults in their children. Children are far more likely to die in an automobile accident than at the hands of a murderer, yet why have the children not been taught to shrink back in fear when it's time to go by car to their soccer practice? No, we teach them that this is your house and this is your car; you are safe here. The rest of the world is a bad place, full of bad people whom you should have nothing to do with. In truth, children are much more likely to become a victim at the hands of someone they know rather than a stranger. Instead of being taught to fear and mistrust adults, children should be taught that they are members of a complete society and owe their very lives to people they might never have met. Think of the labor of the farmer you will never meet, yet without the product of his toil you would be dead in a matter of months. There is a minute chance that one day you might be assaulted or even murdered by a “stranger”. However, without the constant help we receive from “strangers,” each of us would surely die in a short time. In other words, there is a tiny possibility that a man might one day harm you, but an absolute certainty that millions of men work daily to help you. So which is the more reasonable, that we generally love or fear other men? Michael
Thank you for the memories. I too, remember what is like to go out for a night of trick or treat Halloween, without a car, without escorts, and without worry. To come home with a paper bag filled with goodies to enjoy without worry that it was somehow tampered with. Sometimes, of later years, I would dress as a ghoul, set up the stereo with Halloween sounds and gruesome stories for the Trick or Treaters and generally have as much fun with the kids as they had. For those little ones that were scared, I would take the mask off to show the real ghoul. All in hopes that in their later years they would have as fond of memories as I did when I was a kid. Somehow that and public trust in their fellow man has been stolen. In some small sense that makes us the worse for the bargain. To see the wariness in strangers, especially the kids, is sad. I grew up where people waved at you and said hello to strangers and I for one know that is right. I still wave at strangers passing in their cars on the country roads and still see others that do that. I know that is not the norm in the large cities. I would not change that or lose that willingness to say hello. It seems to be such a small thing, that waving to someone you don’t know. I practice that here at sciforums also. I would be willing to say that there are more who have been welcomed by me than any other individual on the forums here. So now you know the rest of the story…
Absolutely correct Wet1, you neatly said in two paragraphs what took me half-a-chapter to say. As with you, my rule of thumb on the backroads is; if it moves, wave at it. Likewise, I take every opportunity to greet those that cross my daily path. A kind word requires nearly an insignificant effort, yet I well know that the pleasure of those made to feel welcome is anything but insignificant. Life is a risk. As in the case of the Chinese business guest, we can choose to remain inside our house, we can cower in fear under our beds in hopes of lessening the chance that someone might one day hurt us. Or, we can embrace the world. We can laugh and smile with friends and strangers alike. We can take pleasure at our being part of something greater than ourselves. We can become part of a society of just and honorable men. Of course by doing so, we open ourselves up to risk. Yet what good do we ever gain without accepting risk? It takes courage to cross a bridge, or to board an airplane. To live a life of eternal fear and distrust is clearly an undignified and unworthy existence for a man. People are basically good. The vast majority of us share your hope for a better world and have the courage and conviction that would bring us to it. So, let's throw off this insane fear of each other that leads only to weakness and paralysis. Let's teach our children that there's far more to gain by stepping forth to greet a stranger than by recoiling in fear from the very sight of him. Michael
I never trust a person who describes himself/herself as an "ethicist". What the hell gives them any credibility whatsoever concerning ethics and standards? People are not basically good. Some people are pure scum. Some people may be good, but many are bad, and most are somewhere in the middle. The world is no more dangerous today than it was thirty years ago. Generally increases in crime rates and such are a direct result of population increases. Also keep in mind that people today in some countries are a lot more open and willing to talk about some things, and a lot more willing to go to the police about some things.
An ethicist is merely one who studies ethics, as a psychologist is one who studies psychology. The ethicist does not demand we follow a set of ethical principles any more than the psychologist demands we acquire a specific psychological profile. Are you a good man Adam? I notice that you have a curiosity about ethical questions. It also didn't escape my attention that you refused to take part in last week's flame-war. You generally treat others with respect. Even when provoked, I've not seen you reply with malice or profanity. With this in mind, I'll venture to say that you probably are quite a good man, certainly better than most. I think that I could trust you on a date with my daughter, if I had a daughter that is. If you told me I'm wrong in this deduction, I'd simply reply that if you walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, then you are most likely a duck. So like it or not, unless you in the future display some yet unseen, dark side of your personality; you have been christened by myself, and likely by a number of others on this group as well, as very likely a good man. Now that this is out of the way, let's take up your disputation of my belief that most people are basically good; with your assertion that: I couldn't have said it better myself Adam. Most people are somewhere in the middle of the ethical bell curve. To be in the middle implies that some are worse, while some are better. Indeed, to paraphrase your quote, some men are the Ted Bundys of the world, while others are the Mother Theresas of the world. Most men are neither. Most men are neither bad, nor great. They are merely good. As I said in my earlier post, most of us wish to be neither saints nor sinners, we only wish to be seen to be normal. And to do so involves that bit about recalibrating one's moral compass to that which we perceive to be the norm. To be good is not to be outstanding, this is why we also have the adjectives, "better" and "best" at our disposal. You might remember Socrates' assertion that, "The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." Doubtless, many on this group would argue the truth of this statement, but I think it hits closer to the truth than not. I believe that a man may be taught goodness, much as one might teach him mathematics. As you know, having been being taught mathematics does not make one a mathematician. Likewise, having been taught goodness does not make a good man. But in mathematics as in goodness, it is the practice of the art that leads to its full development. I have a number of reasons for saying this. Let me expand on one for a moment. I believe that when a man is presented with anything from a simple situation to an outright moral dilemma, his unconscious mind is first to take up the challenge of finding a response. This is accomplished by the presentation of a menu of "pre-recorded" options for any given situation. In most cases the unconscious mind makes the choice quite easily and the result is simply passed down later to the conscious mind for a rubber-stamped approval. In cases where we are presented with dilemmas, the unconscious mind recognizes that it is not able to deal with the issue, so the menu itself is passed down to the conscious mind for more careful deliberation. You might think of Arnold in his original role as The Terminator. Do you remember the scene where someone knocked a the door and his "mind" literally put up a menu of options for him to choose from? It's nearly the same with us. Our unconscious mind produces this menu. When a quick response is required to straightforward situations, the unconscious mind itself makes the choice and elicits an immediate response from us. In situations where we are afforded more leisure in our response, our unconscious passes the menu down to the conscious mind. Unlike the unconscious mind however, the conscious mind has the option of choosing an item from the menu, or choosing none of the above! Our conscious mind might even introduce an entirely different solution than those listed on the menu. But where do the specific items on this menu come from in the first place? Mostly, they come from the history of our past consciously-made moral decisions. In the course of a life, our conscious-self progressively teaches our unconscious-self what are the possible responses we might wish to make under certain circumstances. Our unconscious-self continually says, "Oh I see, when that happens, this is a possible desired option for a response." The more often we make a given conscious-decision, the higher up on the menu it goes. Let me give you an example. Suppose I was figuratively "raised by wolves" (I nearly was, but that's another story). Let's suppose that in my family, violence was commonly used as a means to an end. As I grew up in this enviroment my observations and behavior continually reinforced that the top selections on my moral menu would primarily be violent ones. Now consider that very late one evening as I walked by a dimly-lit back street, I happened to notice a well-dressed man lying drunk in the gutter. I look around to see what I think might be a police car far in the distance, yet moving slowly towards me. There is no time for a conscious choice, without "thinking" I reach my hand into his coat pocket, pull out his wallet, and run away as fast as possible. Due to time constraints, my unconscious took care of the situation entirely. The moral choices present on my menu were perhaps: 1) Grab his money and run. 2) Kick him in the head, grab his money and run. 3) Strangle him to death, grab his money, and run. ... ... ... 74) Help him to his feet, walk him over to a telephone booth, and call a taxi for him. Stay with him till the cab arrives, and send him safely on his way home. Next, consider the same situation, except, other than the wealthy drunk the streets are quite empty. There is no pressing need for my unconscious-self to make a quick decision, so the same menu is handed down to my conscious-self. But now I have time to make up my mind, and in doing so, to consider the risks and consequences of my actions. I might choose option number 3). I might choose number 74). Or I might come up with an entirely novel solution. But whatever I finally do, this decision will be given a high place on my menu in the future. So, our daily conscious decisions about everything we do in life, build lists of option to be consulted in the future. A man with a history of kindness towards his fellow man might have an entirely different menu. On his menu, what was number 74 on my own wicked menu might in fact be given a number one placement, while what was my number 1 option might be number 236 on his menu. If the good man were presented the first situation, where time was of the essence, his unconscious mind would never consider option number 236. This is what I mean when I say that it is possible to teach a man goodness, yet only practice at goodness will produce a good man. Even the bad man has the possibility of renumbering his moral menu. He only has to begin to consciously make good moral decisions and the process of restructuring will have begun. This is why in another post I suggested that we always make a habit of doing small acts of goodness, such as returning a store overpayment promptly. We are eternally in the process of training, or restructuring our moral menu, and I would live in fear if I thought that the top menu items presented to my unconscious-self were sprinkled with murder, theft, or rape. I would be terrified to walk around with such unconscious menus in case I might fall into a situation where I had to rely on my unconscious-self for a quick decision. By the time I became aware of what I had done, my knife might be in a man's heart, or a raped woman might lie at my feet. The only way to insure this never happens is to reinforce with each conscious decision made at leisure, that the top choices on my menu will be good choices. This way, I know that when I do have to go on auto-pilot, I have no worry that what I do will bring me regret. God, this post got out-of-hand. Sorry. Is anyone actually still reading this? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Michael
The heck of it is, those razor blades and needles in the apples? Didn't really happen, it was just an urban legend the media picked up and propagated to increase circulation. I recall reading an article in the paper a couple years back around Halloween, a reporter tried to track the stories down to their origin, and was utterly unable to find even ONE instance where it had really happened. A lot of the rest of that is similarly the fault of the media. School shootings? Very rare, (School kids are more likely to die of being struck by lightning.) and aside from a string of copy-cat crimes after the Columbine hysteria, no more common than in the past. It's just that it used to be reported only locally, like most crimes, now it's the headline in your paper if it happens on the other side of the globe. Gun accidents? Rarer today than at any time since they started recording the statistics. Lower in absolute terms, despite an increased population owning more guns. Murder? Unless you're either a criminal, (Most murder victims are criminals killed in disputes with other criminals.) or live in one of a few very dangerous murder hotspots, your chances of being murdered are vanishingly small. Basicly, the media are scaring us to death to sell newspapers, and increase viewership. And the false perceptions that are created are warping our society.
The only reason I didn't participate in last week's flame-fest is because I couldn't think of anything witty to say. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Am I a good man? Not really. I hate a lot, I'm quite happy to do violence, I'm quite happy with the idea of revenge, et cetera. A dark side to my personality? There's only one side, and it's 100% grey. Only ever read a tiny bit of stuff from those Greek philosophers, and that was many years ago. What I remember most about Socrates is that he was an ugly bastard, he tended to walk barefoot, and his society screwed him over because he spoke against the party line. The funny and I suppose inspiring thing about Socrates, to me, is not any specific words he said, but the fact that he said words which have had more lasting and noticable effect on the world than all the nuclear bombs ever detonated. Heck, the phrase "Shit happens" will probably be with us in one million years, in one form or another, provided we don't blow ourselves up. As for people doing good and why, I think it was in Othello that one of the characters said that humans are governed by a balance. On one side is what we want, and on the other side is what we think we can get away with. Shakespeare used entirely different words that I can't recall, but that's what he said. I think for many people that is true; they are governed by nothing more than their own desires and fears. Very unfortunate. But then some people are govered by a balance of wanting to do good, and wanting to remain safe and secure. And then, probably most people have a bit of each of those balances in them. I also think the subconscious mind is the first to make decisions about our reactions. For those who are guided by fear, their reactions will probably end up selfish. However, I think that strong will involves the ability to have the conscious mind choose our reactions, even when the subconscious mind might want to react out of fear. Regarding your examples, of the guy in the gutter... Both my sister and myself have been in that situation. In my sister's case, the guy was injured and bleeding, and the people standing around were doing nothing. She called an ambulance and tried to stop his bleeding and make him comfortable. I would write more, but my girlfriend is naked...
So much for you getting to date my hypothetical daughter, Adam Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Michael
Adam, No. If the crime rate increases and the population increases, the rate of crime/population will stay slightly the same. This doesn't happen. The crime rates goes way up... Statistics are widely used to trick people. It works very well in this sense...
Population increase gives us a population density increase. I would think crime rates remain at an even increase as population density increases.
Hey AdamAnt, I attended a noon-time Celtic music fiddle recital yesterday. The pretty blonde fiddler had a super-stage personality as well as talent; she joked between reels, jigs and slide pieces. I was still tapping my toes as I left the concert and walked across the street. As I was crossing the street, a lanky kid walking in front of me suddenly spit on the ground. The breeze blew bits of his goober right into my face. I felt a sudden rage well up within me. In my earlier days I would have probably caught up to him and spit back in his face. I probably already told you how much of a bully I used to be. Yet sure enough, the menu appeared. I quickly decided that this kid was likely "raised by wolves," and there was little to gain from me unloading on him. Besides, no matter what happened, I'd still have to find a bathroom and wash my face. So I let it pass. A Taoist might say that I "emptied the boat." Anyway, it occured to me as I continued up the street that Adam might use this event to reinforce his idea that "People suck." At the next street corner, I was surprised by a pleasant woman who asked me if I wanted a "Ben & Jerry's Peace Pop." I had forgotten that it was "Dairy Day" in Vermont. This is the day that we honor our many dairy farmers. I also should explain that "Ben & Jerry's" is a very tasty brand of icecream which is made in Vermont. Now, ice cream is a big treat for me. I only have it a few times a year. The combination of the woman's smile and having just been spit on, prompted me to simply accept the icecream with my own smile and thanks. So, as I walked down the street along with perhaps a dozen other happy people, all eating our freebie Peace-Pops, my toes started to tap again, and I thought about how great people are. As I washed the combination of spit and icecream off my face in the bath-room of my local health-food coop, I had to laugh. See Adam, the good in people outweighs the bad. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I hope you have a nice trip home to the farm. Don't loose any toes busting up the firewood. Michael
If ya gotta split wood, leave those with the crazed and wild grain in the pile. Save those for the days when you really want to take it out on someone... Best of wishes to you, Adam, while you are out of contact with us. Hurry back, we will miss you... Thanx for sharing the experience, orthogonal. It reminds me of days long past, when I used to live near the Smokey Mountains.
I always enjoy watching pretty blondes fiddle... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I probably would have hurt that spitting kid a little, nothing permanent. Stupidity isn't painful. but it should be, and I do my little bits now and then to make the world the way it should be. Yeah, I'm sure most people want to be good, but many are afraid that being good might make them targets of bad people. Not going back home for another week, maybe a week and a half. But thanks both of you. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
