Man is a real brute, irreligious and amoral at the unconscious level. Do you agree?

[blazeofglory]

Man is a brute, wild and totally selfish being at the deepest level. Religions, moral sciences, ethics all do not work when a time comes. Moral order is skin-deep in point of fact. When a certain stage comes they become the morale of the weak not of the strong and powerful. As a matter of fact man’s moral and spiritual stand will thaw the way ice melt away when rays of the sun fall upon them. Love, compassions, empathy are seasonal attributes and are like dew drops or bubbles.

Man is indefensible morally and if things turn as he wishes or goes his way he is likely to behave as a man of moral principles, but when things do not go they way he wants them to go, for example drought happens leading to a fatal famine. His sense of morality tumbles down and he will start behaving in a very heinous and vindictive way to of course the extent of sticking to the state of cannibalism. Man may eat the flesh of man.

In good situations he may wear masks of religiosity, honesty, integrality and altruism. He will be a man of benevolence and charity. He may cherish goodwill and munificence.
And that is why today we have crimes, sadisms, violence, atrocities, and fundamentalisms. Of course we have texts of humanism, ethics, and we have so many charitable organizations, missions engaged in benevolent activities, and people give openhandedly. But all these are things of a good season. But when the bad season turns up they are likely to behave irrationally and aggressively

Of course there are stories of man’s different confrontations in life down the straits of history, and of course ideas, experiences and realities remained secreted away and some daring persons tried to make them public but that remained totally hidden for fear of getting penalty, and of course man behaves righteously in a good season and once the season becomes challenging and things will go topsy-turvy or upside down man becomes compelled or obliged and he listens to his biological or natural instincts, not to moral principles and we know man starts behaving savagely funnily under that circumstance. Man will grow smaller and smaller to a petty state to satisfy his paltry interests

[Gladys]

While the concept of unconscious is beyond me, I believe that some men - at least a few - are sensitive, religious and moral in the worst circumstances, and others, are brutish in even the best. Supposing the vast majority men are brutish, even one exception disproves your generalisation.

[MarkBastable]

Have you ever thought of a night out at a karaoke bar?

[skib]

Blaze, I see your point and agree with the fact that there is at least a fairly sized percentage of this planet that falls into the generalization, but as Gladys pointed out, one exception disproves your one hundred percent theory.

[Hurricane]

Some people, yes are amoral. Some are flat out evil. The majority of people I would say are neither amoral or immoral, but often just don't care.
But there's a fair amount of people who will act in the best interests of the majority or others at great personal cost, even to their own death.
EMTs and firemen work long hours with low pay at a tough job to help people. Soldiers, Sailors and Marines spend months in training to risk their lives and sometimes die defending their country and each other.
Nobody's perfect. But there are whole mess of people aside from the two examples that I named who go above and beyond every day, risking their lives and often suffering great physical and mental trauma to make the world a better place.

[Scheherazade]

Have you ever thought of a night out at a karaoke bar?Hey, there's an idea now!

:D

[Virgil]

Have you ever thought of a night out at a karaoke bar?

:lol: :lol: LMAO! That made me really laugh on a day I'm just not in a laughing mood.

All kidding aside, I actually agree with both Blaze and Gladys. I tend to see humanity as having both elements simultaneously. Not sure it disproves Blaze, except perhaps at the most general level.

[DanielBenoit]

After taking a walk through history, yeah I'm quite pessimistic.

[Lokasenna]

I'm inclined to disagree. You say that men are only righteous in the good seasons, but it seems to me (at least in my reading of history) that most of the good seasons are products of a society working together for the benefit of all.

I have long since come to the opinion that pretty much every person in the world has the same fundamental set of goals, no matter where they are from or what context they grew up in: all they want is a reasonably fulfilled, quiet life. I do not deny the existence of absolute evil, nor man's capacity for extreme self-interest, but I believe that man's construction of civilization does so much to reign it in; if you like, society plays the collective Super-ego to an individual's Id.

[kostaglatov]

i would say this, of course we are capable of terrible deeds, but one would have to be a fool to ignore that we are capable of great , noble and selfless acts as well. I am not sure that there is any such thing as natural goodness, but i would say that to those who have achieved a certain, but non specific level of enlightenment, goodness comes naturally. Clearly there is something missing in the individual who can mug an old half blind lady , and who then feels no remorse, and who is puzzled that others may view his actions as terrible, immoral, and heinous. Enlightenment must come from self awarenes, and self contemplation, which I believe evolve out of education and social envirement. Of course, Sartre, when asked about the natural goodness of man, responded something to the effect, " declare in the morning that bicycle riders are persona non grata, and then observe how many cyclists lay dead in the streets come sundown"