Man's Inhumanity to Man: The Top 10

[Tysyacha]

What, in your view, is one of the Top 10 reasons why man sometimes acts inhumanely towards his fellow man? I'll present my one, not necessarily #1:

 

THE ABUSE OF UNEQUAL POWER

 

Who's more likely to be a torturer, a sadist, a captor, a predator, or even just an all-around jerk? In my opinion, it is often the person who has power over another person, especially on a day-to-day level. Not that all of those who have power abuse it, but it's easier to beat up someone if you're the king who can put himself/herself above the law instead of a peasant, who is bound under the law. If you're a peasant and a murderer, you will very likely be executed or sent to prison for life, but if you're the king...you're the king!

[jonathan7]

Mans inhumanity to man... Read Phillip Zimbardo's the Lucifer Effect; a real eyeopener, and one that George Bush should be forced to read, although I doubt he would understand some of the larger words in it....

[SilentScope001]

Reason Why Man is NOT INHUMANE to Man:

 

Inhuamnity=not following human conduct. Inhumanity is defined by what is humane, and humane is whatever humans do.

 

If man is inclined to do something, then that is humane. If man is not inclined to do something, then that is inhumane.

 

Man attacking Man. That's humane. Man goes and attack Man all the time. Attacking other stuff is something mankind is usually inclined to do, therefore, it is humane.

 

Man uniting together under one rule, and being peaceful and happy towards each other. That's inhumane. We would become like ants in a hivemind. And you will have me react violently to any attempt to destroy human freedom.

 

EDIT: Yes, yes, I know, humane is really: "showing compassion". But, well, let be honest. Showing compassion? You want me to like [iNSERT OFFICAL ENEMY HERE]? They are morons. Now, if [iNSERT OFFICAL ENEMY HERE] are smart, then yeah, I'd like them, and I'll be humane. But since [iNSERT OFFICAL ENEMY HERE] are dumb and unwilling to believe in my Totally Correct Ideology , they are not worthy of my compassion, therefore I must be inhumane towards them...as they are inhumane towards me.

[Tysyacha]

Humanity is what humans do; your point is very well taken.

 

However, I was considering "humanity" to mean "promoting human life and well-being."

 

Note to self: Define abstract terms before posting any threads which contain them.

[Darth InSidious]

Inhumanity? One thing we (should have) learned from the rise of Nazism is that we are all equally capable of evil.

[Web Rider]

However, I was considering "humanity" to mean "promoting human life and well-being."

 

And what, like 1% of humanity truly makes a point to do that?(which is still 60+ million people).

[Rev7]

INTOLERANCE

 

In my opinion, not many people, if any at all, are not very tolerant. I know that it is immpossible to be tolerant all the time but we all have to try. When I say "INTOLERANCE" I mean on all levels, from hate crimes, to who is better....

[Achilles]

Inhumanity? One thing we (should have) learned from the rise of Nazism is that we are all equally capable of evil.

Quoted for truth.

[mimartin]

Inhumanity? One thing we (should have) learned from the rise of Nazism is that we are all equally capable of evil.

Agreed

 

 

Fear

 

Otherwise, good people commit evil by condoning evil acts with silence.

 

People remain silent and fail to speak out against evil out of fear that they too will become a victim. Fear can also come from concern of being excluded from a certain group. When we don’t speak up to allow the evil to be seen in the light, then we are allowing the evil to grow and we become guilty too.

[SilentScope001]

Since we are moving onto Top 10:

 

Anti-Fear

 

Otherwise, good people commit evil by overreacting to evil acts.

 

Suppose a good person sees someone doing evil actions. So and he feels angry at that person doing evil actions. So he must therefore do something to stop the evil action.

 

Next thing you know, good person commits genocide.

 

I am referring, of course, to Rwanda, and the counter-genocide by the Tustis. The Tustis were angry at the Hutus, so the Tustis attacked the Hutus and gained control of Rwanda. Then, they chased into the Hutu Refugee Camps and attacked them as well.

 

Doesn't matter if they are good, the fact is, it's "inhumanity", as in "not showing compassion". The good person lumps someone as "evil", and therefore shows no compassion to "evil", therefore willing to do whatever he wants to that person. Then, if he lumps a group of people as "evil", what is it to stop him from doing "good" actions to stop "evil"? I mean, you HAVE to do something, so let go and rush in and kill off that village! After all, that village may do evil, we have to do it, we cannot be afraid! Attack!

 

One must show compassion to 'evil', not go and overreact to it and become what you fear the most. Well, change that "must" to a, erm, "is suggested to". I don't want to have too much "Anti-Fear" myself. Gotta be humane you know.

[Tysyacha]

SilentScope,

 

Your last post reminds me of the teachings of Atris in The Sith Lords. Atris was once deemed a 'Jedi jihadist' by someone, and I think s/he's right. Atris wanted to judge the Jedi so that they would not fall to the Dark Side, unaware of how dark she herself was becoming. Atris wished to wipe out the Sith, as in kill, not redeem or show compassion for them. In overreacting to the actions of the Sith, she became just as fanatical and hate-driven as they. Guarding against this, of course, is hard.

[MJ-W4]

Fear

I agree that fear can be one of people's strongest motifs for their course of actions. It does take a lot to overcome and deal with one's fears which I find is excellently reflected in the LS/DS struggle of the Jedi.

 

Humans will quite possibly never stop being human and, being human, everyone's afraid of something at least once in their lives, the question is: How do we deal with our fears and worries, and how far are we willing to let them influence or even cross our lives? Is it better to face our fears or to take them out on others? We're only human, after all, but so are all the others.

 

QFE

[i_shot_the_jedi]

What, in your view, is one of the Top 10 reasons why man sometimes acts inhumanely towards his fellow man? I'll present my one, not necessarily #1:

 

RELIGION

 

I'll leave my statement at that.

[Pho3nix]

Fear and religion.

[adamqd]

Religion, assumed Superiority, Oil and Guilt

[Darth InSidious]

Ockham's Razor?

[SilentScope001]

Great, hm. In an attempt to inject much need humor/sanity...

 

#7: Religion, or the Lack of Religion. After all, if you believe or not believe, you have to obivoulsy tell the whole world, otherwise they MIGHT BE WRONG, OH NOES! (Combine that with Anti-Fear, and you got yourself a nice little inhumane attack)

[Pavlos]

Lack of education, methinks.

 

Without education, we are living in metaphorical hovels. Things that we know, we know. Things that are unknown are grouped together in the large "things to be afraid of" category. Education frees us from the shackles of the instinct that strange shapes and things that go bump in the night are things to be feared. Cultures that are markedly different from our own appear strange, that strangeness is easily manipulated into the "us" and "them" mentality that is making a wonderful comeback tour of the world (just read the wonderful articles at the 'high quality' newspaper the Daily Mail). Our default position is intolerance - simple fact of evolution is that your genes are more important than the genes of Joe Bloggs - and education is the tool we can use to fight it. Defeat misunderstanding at every turn and make all things familiar and all unknowns fascinating - that's how you end man's inhumanity.

 

Education isn't a panacea, but it's as sure as Hell the closest thing we have.

[Darth InSidious]

Lack of education, methinks.

 

Without education, we are living in metaphorical hovels.

Quoted for Truth.

Things that we know, we know. Things that are unknown are grouped together in the large "things to be afraid of" category.

[Emphasis mine].

 

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

Education frees us from the shackles of the instinct that strange shapes and things that go bump in the night are things to be feared.

I feel you're over-metaphor-ing, here, but please, continue.

Cultures that are markedly different from our own appear strange, that strangeness is easily manipulated into the "us" and "them" mentality that is making a wonderful comeback tour of the world (just read the wonderful articles at the 'high quality' newspaper the Daily Mail).

Or the philosophically imbecilic rantings of 'Dr.' Dawkins...

Our default position is intolerance - simple fact of evolution is that your genes are more important than the genes of Joe Bloggs - and education is the tool we can use to fight it. Defeat misunderstanding at every turn and make all things familiar and all unknowns fascinating - that's how you end man's inhumanity.

 

Education isn't a panacea, but it's as sure as Hell the closest thing we have.

Absolutely.

 

I know I've used this before, but "where there is ignorance, let us sow knowledge".

[Sabretooth]

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

 

Man is an animal that refuses to be labelled one. Man has the need to survive and to prosper, but often denies the latter in the name of humanity. This is true for some good souls, but most put up a façade of it.

 

They pretend to, or try to show that they are indeed "human" and are beyond animal urges of greed, lust, avarice, or well, the seven sins in general. But man isn't capable of it in capacity, and is hence lacking in that. Man still retains his animal need of wanting everything, beating competition and pretty much "surviving and prospering".

 

So, to sum it up, Man is inhuman to others because in most cases, he is incapable of being "human", since his intellectually far more inferior than he believes.

[Pavlos]

[Emphasis mine]

 

Shush, I don't proof-read these things .

 

Or the philosophically imbecilic rantings of 'Dr.' Dawkins...

 

To be fair, Dawkins is a brilliant scientist. Even if you don't agree with what he's saying about religion, or simply disagree with the methods of conveyance (he's given Evolutionary Biologists a bad name, let's put it that way) you have to admit that. But I don't want to drag the thread off-topic.

[Darth InSidious]

Shush, I don't proof-read these things .

 

 

 

To be fair, Dawkins is a brilliant scientist. Even if you don't agree with what he's saying about religion, or simply disagree with the methods of conveyance (he's given Evolutionary Biologists a bad name, let's put it that way) you have to admit that. But I don't want to drag the thread off-topic.

If he stuck to evolutionary biology, I would. If he admitted that the meme was a metaphysical creation, I might. As it is, I question his academic integrity.

[John Galt]

Power over others. Not just obvious abuse of it. The theft of freedom, in other words.

 

Education can be used to keep people in chains as much as it can be used to give them freedom. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere(Voltaire).

[jonathan7]

Lack of education, methinks.

 

Without education, we are living in metaphorical hovels.

 

Partly; although many members of the German intellegencia of the 1930's and 1940's did help with the holocaust and other eugenic programmes. So perhaps education does play apart but there is something else there? If you look at many of the Nazi's those they were so evil towards were those who had been dehumanised; 'education' can be used as a means to manipulate people into evil acts.

 

Some of you are wrongly attributing religion for mans inhumanity to man; I would have to argue you are incorrect. Even if religion was not present; man would still be 'inhuman' to one another. I would estimate 99% of men will persecute another if they consider them to be 'wrong'. Most people are 'absoultely certain' of what they believe, the problem with this, as soon as an human is absolutely certain I will show you a tyrant. I believe there is absoulte truth, but that no human can ever be in full possession of it.

 

From 'Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?' said; “Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.”

 

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” (I cannot remember which of his works I recorded that into my selected quotes from).

 

Religion is just one of many tools generally used by those who have power or crave power to manipulate the massess. Religion in many respects is just another form of administrative company; I would have to argue that pretty much all large buisnesses are evil; consider the McDonald's, the Nike's and Astro Zenaca (sp); and consider their treatment of people. They maximize profits regardless of the human cost...

 

"Administrative evil is systemic, in the sense that it exists beyond any one person once its policies are in place and its procedures take control. Nevertheless, I would argue, organizations must have leaders, and those leaders must be held accountable for creating or maintaining such evil. I believe that a system consists of those agents and agencies whose power and values create or modify the rules of and expectations for 'approved behaviors' within its sphere of influence. In one sense, the system is more than the sum of its parts and of its leaders, who also fall under its powerful influences. In another sense, however, the individuals who play key roles in creating a system that engages in illegal, immoral, and unethical conduct should be held accountable despite the situational pressures on them." (From Chapter 15, page 438) – The Lucifer Effect

 

Also from Zimbardo's book comes this quote from Haile Selassie, former Emperor of Ethiopia, arguing for intervention against Italy's invasion of his country.

 

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."