Misanthropy

Post Reply New Topic

that's what I was gonna say. it makes sense.

I am not a misanthrope, nor do I dislike any person. It's more like I am not interested enough to spend energy disliking certain humans or humanity in general.

"I love mankind; it's people I can't stand." -- Charles Schulz (1922-2000), as "Lucy"

I have been through a couple of pretty misanthropic stages, but I wouldn't say that my views on society of are the misanthropic nature as of typing. I'm around people all the time, and though they are irritating a lot of the time, I don't dislike humankind as a whole.

On the scale of misanthropy I'm juxtaposed nicely with the likes of Carl Panzram.

It's very hard not to to be repulsed by many actions of our species, especially of those in higher positions who are obsessed with power/material accumulation/social status or those who worship them and do their bidding. I hate the social/herd mentality of our species. It is useful but it's gone overboard. Kind of like the high-ranking apes forcing the lower-raking ones do to stuff that both enslaves them and makes it more difficult for others to be truly free. I really like this old quote talking about the monarchy, but I suppose it can be used for any national authoriry/power:

"Poor, wretched, and stupid peoples, nations determined on your own misfortune and blind to your own good! You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives. All this havoc, this misfortune, this ruin, descends upon you not from alien foes, but from the one enemy whom you yourselves render as powerful as he is, for whom you go bravely to war, for whose greatness you do not refuse to offer your own bodies unto death. He who thus domineers over you has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body, no more than is possessed by the least man among the infinite numbers dwelling in your cities; he has indeed nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you?

How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you? What could he do to you if you yourselves did not connive with the thief who plunders you, if you were not accomplices of the murderer who kills you, if you were not traitors to yourselves? You sow your crops in order that he may ravage them, you install and furnish your homes to give him goods to pillage; you rear your daughters that he may gratify his lust; you bring up your children in order that he may confer upon them the greatest privilege he knows—to be led into his battles, to be delivered to butchery, to be made the servants of his greed and the instruments of his vengeance; you yield your bodies unto hard labor in order that he may indulge in his delights and wallow in his filthy pleasures; you weaken yourselves in order to make him the stronger and the mightier to hold you in check. From all these indignities, such as the very beasts of the field would not endure, you can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces…"

I don't hate people per se, I just tend to not interact with them at all, in fact, I'm wanting to become a psychologist so I can help people, weird huh?

People express misanthropic sentiment when they aren't getting what they need from human interactions. They become bitter and start venting their frustration and dissatisfaction. It could be a transient state.

I hated Mainstream Society and its people for a couple years in 2007. I'm not so much like that anymore. I like people and society as much as I did when I joined WP in 2004. That's a lot compared to when I liked the 70s in 2007.

I like certain people, but I dislike humanity in general. I find so little good in humanity. Personally, I think the world would be better off without it. Humans are not like other animals. They like to destroy, and kill just because, not for survival, for example. That's just one of their many negative traits. They do a lot of harm. What make me angriest is not that they harm each other like in wars(they may just succeed in finishing each other off one of these days), it's that they harm other species. They think they're better than everyone. I think it's the opposite. I guess I could say that humans are evil.

In general? No. Are there people I dislike? Yes. But, I don't think anyone truly likes anyone. Even people that declare they do. There was a teacher at my school last year who declared that he liked everyone, but when I talked to him about it, I realized that there are people that he doesn't like. There was another staff member that he clearly didn't like at all, however, he declared that he liked her just fine.

I like about 75% of people, think about 15% are "just OK" and dislike 10% of people.