Is it human to be perfectly inhumane?

[winterinmoscow]

I just got hold of a book on the Rwandan genocide and this is a question it poses.

The answer? I have no idea at this point but one thing it says over and over again is the idea that genocide isn't unique to one part of the world.

I'm not sure if that answers the question but thought I'd add it in.

I'm a bit lost. Any ideas, anyone?

ETA: I'm not even sure if this is the best way to pose this questions but that's how it is on the book and I've not changed it.

 

[Stigmata]

It's at one of the extremes of human nature, so the answer is yes. Human nature doesn't change really, we've just invented reasons to suppress certain aspects of it over the years.

 

[Kenny Vermouth]

It's at one of the extremes of human nature, so the answer is yes. Human nature doesn't change really, we've just invented reasons to suppress certain aspects of it over the years.

That is a very sensible, succinct and perceptive response.

 

[bluestreak]

human beings are basically gods. we have free will, tempered by environment, nature and nurture and all that. we can demonstrate in each individual the absolute extremes of behaviour. we can justify evil by claiming, perhaps honestly in our own heads, that it is good, and we can do good things for evil reasons.

there is no such thing as human nature, unless we can say human nature is the nature that means the same person who would help a stranger in distress one day will hack a neighbour to death the next.

good and evil are just points of view, expressions we apply to actions of thoughts that we agree or disgree with. human nature doesn't have either, unless it has both. it just is. who here can honestly say that if they hadn't grown up in a different environment they wouldnt have taken part in such things? i don't think i have it in my nature to be a murderer, but maybe that's because i live in a safe environment. perhaps a few choice events mean that in the next generation in this country we'll be bludgeoning each other to death for no good reason, who knows. perhaps we'll live in a beautiful anarcho-syndicalist society where the vast majority of human beings live happy resourceful lives proud to give and receive what we can to and from our fellow men. both are human nature.

IMO people who claim there is one over-riding human nature which is e.g. greedy, violent, bigoted, or generous, loving, charitable and merciful are both deluded.

 

[Uma]

IMO people who claim there is one over-riding human nature which is e.g. greedy, violent, bigoted, or generous, loving, charitable and merciful are both deluded.

I think this is very accurate - all the different ways in which people respond to events shows how we have complex reactions to events. In many ways, it is all about protection, protecting oneself or one's people - this causes us to act very differently.

 

[Stigmata]

there is no such thing as human nature, unless we can say human nature is the nature that means the same person who would help a stranger in distress one day will hack a neighbour to death the next.

I would call that human nature, yes. Barring mental illness (and not even that necessarily), even the most vile human beings are capable of great acts of nobility and kindness under certain circumstances, and vice versa.

 

[boohoo]

It is also about reinforced ideas - if you continually say something is bad, people will eventually believe them. And in the right situation will act upon that belief.

 

[frogwoman]

I think there's good and bad in everyone, but it takes an exceptional person to be absolutely good or absolutely evil .

i don't think evil isn't part of human nature or anything, and there have certainly been ppl throughout history who have been completely bad, with nothing good about them at all, so it's definitely part of the human condition, but most people don't fall into that category .

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

This thread reminds me of reading Dickens.

The people who chopped up Tutsis in Rwanda with machetes were human.

Mother Theresa was a human.

Human is as human does.

 

[fela fan]

Being human involves being two kinds of animal: human and animal. We have human needs and we have animal instincts.

Being human gives us an individuality, being the animal bit gives us our group mentality and instincts.

Our actions in life are always a choice between the human in us and the animal. There are things we do when in groups that we'd never do when alone.

The atrocious acts committed by humans are due to these humans acting according to their animal side of nature.

So to answer the question, humans can be perfectly inhumane when in their animal nature guise.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Being human involves being two kinds of animal: human and animal. We have human needs and we have animal instincts.

Being human gives us an individuality, being the animal bit gives us our group mentality and instincts. .

I believe that's a false dichotomy fostered by dualistic religions like christianity, islam, etc.

 

[kyser_soze]

We're merely advanced animals with sophisticated neural plumbing and an adaptive body - the stuff that makes us 'human' is nothing more than advanced and sophisticated forms of animal behaviour.

One thing I thought of when watching Planet Earth is that humans seem to demonstrate ALL the kinds of behaviour that in many other species is the ONLY behaviour they express - a kind of conglomerate of all animal behaviours if you will.

 

[acidifiedaussie]

is anything a thing ?...? think about it!...!

 

[subversplat]

is anything a thing ?...? think about it!...!

What do you mean by "thing"?





p)

 

[xxspeedball]

every single thing we do is human.

or else.. what is?!

 

[lihp]

yes! next

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)

 

[118118]

yes! next

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)

Thats a bad argument. For a psychology experiment I had to sit in a brain scanner for two hours reciting words beginning with. Was this human nature?

Besides which, critical scientists judge the physics envy of psychology as de-humanizing. I can think of few things less natural than a psychology experiment - I think you would be much better off looking around you for examples of a "human nature".

 

[samk]

Human beings are basically talking chimps with guns. When they are under attack or in danger of starving, they attack another group. Or, rather, when they think they are under attack or in danger of starving, which usually has more to do with propaganda by their leaders than their real situation.