Is a certain amount of cruelty just an inherent trait of man?

[ElisabethWhispers]

Just a wonderin'. Nothing like a lazy Friday afternoon.

Elisabeth

[Iaintliein]

Yes.
Regards,

[Rudyard K]

Originally Posted by ElisabethWhispers

Is a certain amount of cruelty just an inherent trait of man?

Originally Posted by Iaintliein

Yes.

But exceeded by a woman scorned.

[ElisabethWhispers]

I wasn't feeling all that great today and was reading and just contemplating a few ideas for a topic in this forum. So it was either about cruelty or discussing my new word of the week, "polyorchid".

Since I'm a firm believer in thread drift, feel free to comment on the idea of a man having more than two testicles.

Yours,
Elisabeth

[pyramider]

I prefer women with more than two boobs. Does that count as far as drifting?

[Laurentius]

Humans are amazingly adaptable. Behavior can range from altruistic to gratuitous cruelty.

Factors affecting this range from likely behavioral genetic tendencies; social and cultural conditioning, norms and expectations and -- of course -- the immediate environment.

So the fact humans have a capacity for cruelty doesn't mean it will manifest in any given case.

The earlier experiments with trying to give men extra testicles didn't really work out well. :-)

[oden]

I believe cruelty equals self hate. Some hide it in social settings and save it for people in which they think they are safe with displaying that behavior; others can't help themselves and display it all the time. It is neither a trait of man or woman and can be seen in all cultures as passive-aggressive or flagrant.

Hopefully, this hobby/fantasy is an escape from all that.

[Guest053011]

The natural world is a violent place. I believe we are not liberated from our beastly nature nor from our biology. However, as sentient beings we are not slave to instinct or our bodies. We have the ability to examine, to make choices and it is our responsibility to do so.

[annie@christophers]

Fuckem all and let GOD sort them out!! Couldnt resist lol!! EW.. Don't let'em getcha down... Annie P.s- Is that a flower??

[Marcus Aurelius]

I blame the HAR1 gene.

[WTF]

is another womans wet dream.


So in that context...of course cruelty in essential. Without it , we would all be the exact same. How boring!

[pyramider]

Back to the orignal question . . . Man is predisposed to be cruel. How else can you explain the wedgie?

[mietk]

Originally Posted by WTF

is another womans wet dream.


So in that context...of course cruelty in essential. Without it , we would all be the exact same. How boring!

Yeah, something like that. Somedays its vanilla and some days its chocolate and on the very best days its a twist.

[Sisyphus]

Depends upon the man....

[Laurentius]

Originally Posted by Lauren Summerhill

The natural world is a violent place. I believe we are not liberated from our beastly nature nor from our biology. However, as sentient beings we are not slave to instinct or our bodies. We have the ability to examine, to make choices and it is our responsibility to do so.

Not contradicting, but a tangential inquiry.

I am thinking of the number of times I have seen people behave in accord with our beastly nature; but have invented a million and one justifications (of varying degrees of value) for making succumbing to that nature acceptable.

One thing that stood out for me was a book by Dr. Stanton Samenow; "inside the criminal mind." In this book (now in a revised 2nd edition) he describes something I think is important in the mentality of the criminal.

Nobody wants to look in the mirror in the morning and say: "I'm an evil, awful person." Instead, we all want to look in the mirror and say: "I'm a good and decent person."

Criminals who succumb to our beastly nature also wake up in the morning and say: "I'm a good and decent person." How? By rationalizing their behavior as just, justified, and even at times to be correcting an injustice. They are the heroes and their victims are the bad guys.

It is true, as you say, that we have the ability to override this. Our explicitly held beliefs and values (combined with other forces such as social pressure or threat of punishment) can serve to override a natural inclination to beat the crap out of one's lousy boss.

But how often are people inventing rationalizations and justifications -- sometimes quite elaborate -- in order to justify a natural inclination? And -- how would ee know, particularly if the justification sounds plausible? Is this a subtle, rather than blatant, exercise of instinct over will?

But I definitely agree with you that we are NOT slaves to our instincts.

"Our attitude to the "internal enemy" is no different: here too we have spiritualized hostility; here too we have come to appreciate its value. The price of fruitfulness is to be rich in internal opposition; one remains young only as long as the soul does not stretch itself and desire peace." -- Nietszche