Do you believe people are generally good?

[Sellon88]

As I see it all people are born as a bad person However they are only bad people because they know nothing.

Information is one of the vital component of morality, and judgement, I would defiantly buy a cheap gold watch if a had not know it was stolen. most of the things I've seen as bad contains dismissive reactions with varying anger (Bullying, Stigmas, Bigotry, Stealing, Murder, Genocide, etc) ALL come from not knowing all the facts. Of course there are people who know the fact but do it anyways but that's the definition of evil. So no I don't think people are good at heart but they can be with truth and context.

 

[Mad cat]

Malcolm Muggeridge- 'The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.'

The tapestry of history is indelibly stained by our capacity for horror, its details picked out with shining examples of our highest ideals. I think we can agree that most people know right from wrong, most of the time. But that in and of itself means nothing. Because a person knowing a thing to be right or wrong does not mean that they care. You may also say that when we want to, we can justify anything to ourselves.

So, no. I do not. Apart from all other considerations, I know myself too well to accept the idea that I am essentially good.

 

[II2]

No.

That said, 'good' and 'bad' are largely constructs of the acceptance or deviation from larger social, cultural and biological maxims from which we derive those definitions. There are no heroes or monsters, only self aware animals bewildered by the implications of sentience.

Speaking practically, if you want to look at it in terms of people who act with caring, aware, decency towards each other on one side, versus antisocial behavior manifested in low empathy, unconcern and predatory interpersonal behavior, you get the same standard bell curve of deviation where the majority of individuals are basically neutral and drift slightly to the + or - polarities of what we consider good and bad. The more extreme expressions of 'good' or 'bad' come from fewer and fewer people in correlation: How many Mahatma Gandhi(s) Carl Panzram(s) do you run into regularly? Regardless of the postive or negative influence they effect on individual and societal health, they're both rare exceptional deviations from what's normal. They both occupy the far flung 99.9+ percentile of opposite ends, regarding peacefully prosocial vs violently antisocial behavior, respectively. John Q Citizen is in the dead center.

This post was presented by a lot of vodka and disassociatives, so take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I believe it to be fundamentally true.

Also, incidentally, while I realize (or at least hope) most people know who and what Gahndi is / was, Carl Panzram is less well known, but since this is a gaming forum I'll succinctly describe him as the nearest example to a historically accurate instance of a GTA5 Trevor Philips personality of note.

 

[Fox12]

Hmm, but here's the problem. Nobody ever thinks they're doing bad. We're all the heroes of our own story.

The problem is that people are easily manipulated, and prone to irrational fear. This is when our animistic side manifests. It happened during the French Revolution, when desperate, vengeful people fought for liberty, only to give a handful of people total power. They then killed thousands while searching for counter revolutionaries. It happened during the Rape of Nanking. This happened again in communist China, when people sought counter revolutionaries and perceived enemies of Mao Zedong. It happened during the witch hunts in Europe. It happened in America during WW2, and during the period of McCarthyism.

People aren't inherently bad, but we're gullible, and afraid, and we're followers, which means that evil men can get in power and convince us to support them, usually by creating a foreign threat based on intolerance. To some degree it's still true today, in the way we view the Middle East. I don't think people are generally good or bad, I think they're generally sheep. Just look at the Milgrim Experiment.

That said, and this is very important, to claim that people are fundamentally bad is intellectually dishonest. While that violent, ignorant, side of us is always there, the above examples were rare anomalies. We live in the most peaceful time in world history. World violence has been steadily decreasing for generations. War atrocities have been decreasing. Crime rates have been decreasing, completely independent of the state of our economy. Medicine is better than its ever been. Increased crop yields and a stabilizing world population means that hunger will become more manageable in the future, perhaps before we die. The internet and world trade, combined with the last several hundred years of world travel, has created a world culture. One of the biggest music videos in the world last year was from South Korea. I just watched an anime from Japan after reading a book from England. The concept of "the other," the concept that led to the above atrocities, is diminishing as we begin to understand one another. Our species has advanced more in the last 300 years than in all of human history before that. So are humans capable of horrors? Of course, I've seen the victims of such crimes myself. But, scientifically speaking, people are becoming more rational, and the world is becoming a safer place in which to sleep.

 

[spartan231490]

I do not consider most people to be good or bad. Most people follow the rules, not out of morality, but to avoid the consequences of social justice. When given a truly moral decision, most people do not choose the "good" choice, or the "bad" choice, they choose what is most convenient for themselves. See, most people are neither good nor evil, they are selfish. Not to the point of maliciousness, but selfish none the less.

 

[FPLOON]

Already read it... Better than the movie...

OT: Yes... However, what someone can see as "good" can also be seen as "bad" by someone else...

So, the answer is both "yes" and "no"... (Although, I like to believe more of the formal...)

Edit: We're all born neutral before our morals kick in...

 

[zumbledum]

i dont think good and evil exist i think there human created constructs that just make us feel better about how some people act.

I would say that Humans are and have always been 100% selfish, i would go as far as to say there has been no act ever performed by any human anywhere at any time that hasnt been 100% selfish in motivation. if that causes them to behave in a socially positive maneer we call them good if it causes harm we call them evil , but Hitler , Ghandi you and I are all just doing what we think is best for us.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I'm a moral relativist (I guess some would call nihilistic, but that isn't specific enough). I don't believe in transcendent morality. So in terms of a universal good, I believe that humans are just as good as everything else. Not very.

In terms of culturally defined good, I believe humans more than any other animal can justify acting in ways that are unnatural to them in order to fit in and function in a social environment, and so it is unsurprising that humans appear to mostly fit into cultural norms of goodness. This does not mean that humans are actually predisposed to such actions, nor that those are the right actions.

 

[loc978]

I make a very specific distinction with my over-generalizing of human intention. A person is generally good, unless they're a sociopath. People, as in groups of them, are usually xenophobic in some way, and therefore contribute to the general malaise of evil in the world.

 

[Thaluikhain]

People generally want to think that they are good. Sometimes this means trying to be good, sometimes this means disputing any evidence that they have done something bad. I mean, we all accept we're not perfect, but if I point out an individual act of bigotry by someone, they'll deny it and get pissed off.

In regards to individuals...how good do you have to be to be "generally" good? It's very easy to condemn people who commit terrible crimes as monsters, totally different from us, but there are many people who've lived ordinary, even virtuous lives...except for the odd terrible crime. They might well be regarded as pillars of the community by the friends and family because of it, and those people might totally not understand the idea of them being guilty, you see this sort of thing all the time.

 

[Randell Bing]

There are two ways to go about this. One way is to chop it up as there is no good or evil. That is to say every human is the median connecting both sides. White represent good and black represented evil, we as people are the gray part. Honestly chopping up and putting that way is completely fine. At the same time I feel that it is a little deeper than that. As such good and evil go deeper than the average person I guess. For instance I will use myself as an example I am a good person that does bad things sometimes. That's just a general statement of things no details involved. From that statement on the surface you see "good person," and automatically assume I am good. What if the statement was different? I am a good person that often does bad things. If I'm good but do bad all the time it paints the picture that I am bad. Every person has the potential to do good or bad. What makes people good or bad are the decisions that are made to do bad consistently. I know exactly what people are thinking lol. "What makes it bad?" The same thing that makes anything valuable or anything uhhhh anything in this world. I See that rock I look at it as a rock nothing more nothing less. You see the rock and you see a habitat for microorganisms. I'm sure you're thinking now I'm making no sense still, basically I'm still saying there is no basis for it still. Let's say the majority of people are shown the same rock. The majority thinks what I thought it's just a rock. Majority rules in society that's usually the way it goes. Remember this is good and bad which means in a round about way morally accepted. There are basic morals like; don't stab people, don't steal, don't lie etc. and then there are personal morals like don't curse, don't laugh at others misfortunes, etc. Speaking for the majority of the human race we all probably have human morals instilled into us for the most part. Yes I'm aware some countries and families and groups/individuals grow up in harsh times. They deal with different situations and they adapt to survive and what not. But guess what most of the world isn't like that and in some cases like where I'm from bad is popular because they choose to do bad. The majority of bad done is a willing choice not a unchosen lifestyle. With that said don't confuse good and evil that's another rant. Are people generally good my vote is yes because I believe people generally are good people that just do bad things sometimes.

 

[SamTheNewb]

No.

That said, 'good' and 'bad' are largely constructs of the acceptance or deviation from larger social, cultural and biological maxims from which we derive those definitions. There are no heroes or monsters, only self aware animals bewildered by the implications of sentience.

Good is defined by what is acceptable by society. Most people behave acceptably. Therefore most people are good. This is at least true with the people you most closely associate with.

If you see everybody as evil, then you simply have a higher than normal standard for good.
If you see most people as good but see evil wherever everybody else does, then your standard follows social norms.
If you don't see evil where others do, then you have a lower than normal standard.
Oh, and that is, if you assume that there isn't 1000s of different standards for the uncountable number of behaviors that can be expressed by a human.

Statistically speaking, most people are good-natured, that's why people can co-exist. Most of the bad stuff you hear about is because bad deeds are more interesting than good deeds.

I think bad deeds are more interesting because people are vindictive and want the gratification of seeing bad people get punished.

I don't believe in transcendent morality. So in terms of a universal good, I believe...

I believe you just contradicted yourself... but that is only based on my understanding of what the two terms mean. I believe transcendent is a synonym for universal in this usage, and morality is a measure of good. So you can't rate universal goodness without a transcendent morality.

 

[rutger5000]

In general people want to believe to be good, but are extremely hesitant to reflect wetter or not they actually are. I do not meet the requirements I myself set for moral behaviour so I wouldn't call myself a good person, and I'd be very hesitant to call those around me as such Still I do trust the people around me and complete strangers as well.
In any case humans tend to behave as the norms of their society dictate.

 

[kommando367]

Depends on where you are.

Generally speaking, better living conditions and nicer weather tend to make nicer people.

Lots of nice people up in the cold north. Lots of assholes closer to the equator. I don't think your hypothesis about the nice weather holds up.

I think better weather make people more cheerful though.

I don't know, I live in the southern united states. The weather here is usually mild and most of the people here are nice, so I kinda thought mild weather = generally nice people. Maybe it also has something to do with the amount of trees and nature around, or other factors I haven't considered yet.

Personally, I prefer 40 °F with overcast and low winds.

 

[McElroy]

Most people have a conscience. Sure, culture affects our sense of justice and other things, but there's a conscience running there in the background. If one goes against their ethics, they're being bad, and if one goes to push something that doesn't benefit themselves, they're being good. An easy way of looking at it, yeah.

Both of those are rare, and so this is where society comes in: the things I do for me (essentially being selfish) are practically always neutral and often decent things to do in this society I live in. So yeah, I can be selfish and good thanks to our society.

OT: Technically no, but practically yes.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

People generally THINK they're good. The guy doing volunteer work in the soup kitchen thinks he's a good person. The religious zealot beheading you with a scimitar thinks he's a good person. The serial killer murdering you slowly thinks he's a good person (in some way).
Everyone's definition and standard of "good" is different.

Although I think I may have gone wide of the point. Do I think people in general will help others just for the sake of it? No. If you discarded all laws in your country, hell would break loose.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Somewhat althought in reality I would say people are more generally "neutral". I mean I view "good" to be doing good deeds like helping others (e.g. homeless) and being nice to each other and etc while being geniune about it.