WS: Most people are selfish, ignorant and suffer from tunnel vision. They have no desire to educate themselves on matters that do not have a direct impact on their life, even if their actions negatively affect others. Our actions are inherently self serving even those that relate to our offspring such as protecting and providing for our children. Its purpose is to ensure the survival of our species, and to increase our genetic pool within the population. From a logical point of view, it makes total sense yet it seems oddly disturbing.
Friend 1: It is nothing to do with good, evil or anything... humans are merely an evolved life form, with our roots in the primal survival matrix that was the early biosphere of our world. We squirmed and killed and ate our way up from RNA-infused amino acids to become bankers, doctors, engineers, assassins, and computer geeks... yet, those survival instincts from long ago remain. Some instincts yield results and the propagation of the species, while others do not. As short lived, easily damaged creatures, we seek to maintain and perpetuate ourselves, above and beyond any other considerations, including long term effects on the following generations. In the end, we are merely an oversized, over-successful virus with delusions of control, civilization, culture, and even godhood... why would it ever be expected that people would ever behave differently? Just saying....
Friend 2: Well, most folks like to think that there is some kind of inherent "good" or "nobility" in humanity. Of course, these are the same folks who don't like to watch or read international news because the brutal truth hurts their sensibilities.
Friend 1: Hence my evolution lesson... just because a certain percentage of people think one way (that people are fundamentally good) does not make them automatically right, nor are they wrong either. However, growth and perpetuation of the species can be seen as an absolute "positive" (as the opposite, would tend to be pretty bad for the continuation of the breed), and since fostering that continuation on a species level, after a certain point in the evolutionary pursuit, requires more effort as a group than just individual/family unit survival skills, it could therefore be argued that "goodness" is indeed the goal of humans in order to ensure the species survives... Just because people fail to live up to the concept does not mean that the objective isn't there - it just means that being good isn't always the highest priority for some.
Friend 2: The reality is that for every "good" person in a crowd, there are 99 people who just don't give a shit.
WS: I concur, which is why there are days when jumping in front of a speeding bus seems like the most logical thing to do.
Friend 1: It is nothing to do with good, evil or anything... humans are merely an evolved life form, with our roots in the primal survival matrix that was the early biosphere of our world. We squirmed and killed and ate our way up from RNA-infused amino acids to become bankers, doctors, engineers, assassins, and computer geeks... yet, those survival instincts from long ago remain. Some instincts yield results and the propagation of the species, while others do not. As short lived, easily damaged creatures, we seek to maintain and perpetuate ourselves, above and beyond any other considerations, including long term effects on the following generations. In the end, we are merely an oversized, over-successful virus with delusions of control, civilization, culture, and even godhood... why would it ever be expected that people would ever behave differently? Just saying....
Friend 2: Well, most folks like to think that there is some kind of inherent "good" or "nobility" in humanity. Of course, these are the same folks who don't like to watch or read international news because the brutal truth hurts their sensibilities.
Friend 1: Hence my evolution lesson... just because a certain percentage of people think one way (that people are fundamentally good) does not make them automatically right, nor are they wrong either. However, growth and perpetuation of the species can be seen as an absolute "positive" (as the opposite, would tend to be pretty bad for the continuation of the breed), and since fostering that continuation on a species level, after a certain point in the evolutionary pursuit, requires more effort as a group than just individual/family unit survival skills, it could therefore be argued that "goodness" is indeed the goal of humans in order to ensure the species survives... Just because people fail to live up to the concept does not mean that the objective isn't there - it just means that being good isn't always the highest priority for some.
Friend 2: The reality is that for every "good" person in a crowd, there are 99 people who just don't give a shit.
WS: I concur, which is why there are days when jumping in front of a speeding bus seems like the most logical thing to do.
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