Animals, humans, tools

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My problem is not if humans are the worst animals on the planet, But why they may be so nefarious, they may be actors of torture, lying on the grand scale (spinning, propaganda), capable of planned mass murders, intent on producing and using means to proditoriously damaging innocent others (Coppola’s “The Conversation”), treacherous toward their fellows (brothers as they say in some great traditional Churches).
It’s not, I think, because they are bad. There is one reason for this: the abundance of means, techniques, tha availability of an armageddon of tools which may be used to cut indifferently an apple or a throat. To manage this armageddon there should be a very refined system of rules, what we call moral rules). There are sometimes attempts to bridle the nefarious possibilities in the use of tools, “rules of engagement”, restrictions on their circulation (licences). But these are always a step behind the need to control the evil use. And, moreover, these rules should be understood and tied to the only orders we may really know: instincts. This is the impossible task. To know that, when you push a button or trigger, you are often destroyng a universe of life. A single creature on the far side of a shooting gun is a universe of life. Living cells, organization and coordination, DNA in each cell etc., and then feelings, memories, passions, attachments, fears and joys.
On the other side humans are confronted, in the megastore of tools and weapons, with unsolvable dilemmas about the consequences of the use of tool and weapons. There is not clarity, only confusion and approximation on the use of means. I think this is not pessimism (the glass half empty), but simply an attempt at realism.

Alright! Drunken response time!! !! !

I've always thought of organized religion as a way to attempt to intrinsically instill a kind of sycophantic morality into the lay population. We're still very animal-ish in that we just kind of make decisions automatically without understanding every facet of every choice, even though we're self-aware and are capable of some self-reflection, albeit just enough to aspire to morality, only to self-deny and make hypochrites of ourselves.

There is the rub. Lacking omnipotence we make due the best we can. Because to attempt to understand every facet of every choice would put us in a state of inaction until the moment of action had past and our [in]decision is made anyway. A forum full of Aspies and Auties should know this as well as any...even if that truth claws at some of their most tender, vulnerable parts.

Making due the best we can is not inherently hypocrisy, though some for self expediency might pretend the bar is lower than it is. Blast them at will.

Expecting that we have another choice? Not understanding that we do have a measure of conscious control even within the realm of the "automatic". Hrmm, I'd say instead merely naiveté.

Organised religion? Folk like doing the same things as other folk, that's one thing. Folk like to believe because that gets them off the hook of being responsible, that's the other.

It's what we do that makes the difference. Not why we do it, or who's watching. You can work the numbers through on the greatest good for the greatest number and the answers come out the same whether you start from the existence of god or from some more rational platform.

I wish people as a whole would be a bit more brutally honest with themselves and accept their shortcomings so they wouldn't have to conveniently bend every fact around this morality they aspire to, self-denying to the point that they're in fact trampling it with self-righteous, self-entitling complacency. If we're not liars, cheaters, etc., then we should confront the possibility that we might be, and deal with it accordingly, not just keep patting ourselves on the back like we're entitled to it so we can keep feeling good about ourselves and pretend we're not just hypochrites.

I realize self-love is a pretty prevalent need for people, (or something) but it feels to me like we mostly take the easy road to get there. And then lie about it.

If what you think of yourself is based on what you think other people think of you, everything is going to get shallow and f***ed up.

A majority of NTs are completely consumed by this.

Actual morality and ethics become irrelevant when you have someone next to you agreeing with your actions, but they are only agreeing with you because if they didn't, you might not verify their disagreement and this would in effect cause them to invalidate themselves.

Next thing you know it's genocide...

Don't worry about it to much. Humans are a small minority of the life on this planet and will eventually die out and then something new will come along. It's all just temporary you know, just temporary.

Thank You.

i have worried about the downside of humans self-destructing. now i realize there is a corresponding upside.

you have made my day.

It's interesting to see that us humans have such a feeling of 'entitlement' to the earth especially considering our relative time here. I sometimes laugh myself silly when I'm on a dig somewhere. It's a private joke between me and the rocks.

Good point, lets just hope we haven't destroyed every other form of life on the planet before we finally depart.