Empathy. Key word. Key concept that distinguishes human being from vampire. be it the elite capitalist vampire who'll suck evey last milliliter of your blood, the political vampire who'll lie you into a rhetorical prison with no thought of the consequences, the warmonger vampire who'll bomb civilians trapped in a cage or blow out a child's brains. Thoughtlessness, zero empathy, zero bridge to the other being characterizes all vampires regardless of specific methodology for destroying lives. Hence we must all seek each day to deepen our pools of that essential tie to genuine humanity. I certainly know it to be difficult essential work for myself. Thanks to gypsy33 for inspiration.
Yes, I believe that the zombie vampire apocalypse is upon us. Corporations resemble zombies because of their mindless unrelenting need to extract wealth, which is their food. Corporations are vampires because they are parasites preying on the population, and the planet, to drain us, and it, as you say, to the last milliliter.
I think no one can be rich enough when wealth is represented by pixels on a screen. Can you ever have enough pixels on a screen to be sure it would just all disappear tomorrow?
You make good points. Someone wrote a book proposing a change in corporate law across the board, that not only are they required to maximize shareholder profit (by law), they are also required to be good neighbors, responsible environmentalists, and fair employers. Embed that in the law, and change will result. Let's all hold our breaths, shall we?
We could go back to taxing corporations at 94% the way we did in the '60s, so they plowed their earnings into R&D instead of stock buy-backs, to shield them from taxation.
Yes, gypsy, you inspired my comment, thank you very large. I just edited it to reference that inspiration. I know they're out there somewhere as the old Moody Blues song tells us.
I wouldn't disagree, except to adjust your simile to "like feces after a high-fat meal". Nonetheless, the only way for us to remain sane as individuals is to recognize their shit and flush it from our lives. Empathy need not be wasted by misdirecting it toward blood-sucking parasites.
I don't agree that greed and power seeking are human nature. I think people are taught that what is important in life is money and power. Those people are the ones who don't see the importance of the natural world and they don't see or care that their greed and powermongering are destroying the entire planet and everything on it, including themselves. They have learned this from the greedy powermongers who came before them. They were not born with it. Look at the babies around you. Are they greedy and seeking power over anyone else?
Ah yes, we can excavate deeply into nature/nurture arguments. I would just offer that no one really has figured out just how disposed the primate neocortex is toward power hierarchies and their scaling by any means necessary. As a biologist, I reserve judgment. As I human, myself, if I'm naturally anything, it's skeptical of the various powder kegs that my species seems to want to play with in full recognition of potential disastrous consequences.
I have noticed that people most often say that it is "just human nature" when someone is aggressive or power seeking. I do not remember hearing the term used when people do acts of kindness.
Susan - acts of kindness become natural to you/me/others when someone has first visited acts of kindness upon us. It's not a genetically inherited trait, in my observation, it's the effect of particular environmental conditions.
For the more fortunate, this occurs young in a family, so they think it is 'natural', 'human nature', because it was their parents doing it to them.
That doesn't happen for every infant, though. There's plenty of studies showing what happens e.g. in orphanages.
You will also find that the propensity of men to hit women is increased amongst those who were physically abused as children. Just as children abused sexually tend to seek out abusers as partners when adults, for some reason that most people wish could be easily reversed.
Human nature in general is learned, although there are genetic predispositions involved too.
Some of us learned far more human kindness than we learned dominant power games. Others learned to manipulate, to coerce.
Our human nature usually results from what we happened to experience in the first 35 years of our lives.
I don't think people are either kind or cruel as part of "human nature". I think most of us underestimate our ability to learn. If anything is part of human nature, it is that ability to learn how to behave. The behaviour itself, whether positive or negative, is an aspect of our ability to learn. Who knows what is actually in our "nature"?
Susan - ultimately there is no right answer to 'how much is enough'? I know that I felt a great visceral sense of achievement when I earned enough as a sole trader to upgrade my ICT suite, to pay for a nice 2 week holiday. I felt similar when I won a £50k contract working for an SME.
At some point most people say: 'OK, this much is enough'. The fact remains, however, that those left in the game are still saying 'More, more, more'.
Who decides where the ceiling is to be set?
It's a question with huge ramifications for society, you know.
humans start learning early. Still, 2 year olds are surviving, not seeking to have power over others. Adults who think 2 year olds are power tripping need some help themselves.
Two year olds are learning how far the word 'NO!' goes. They test the limits of what they can do to get their way. Throwing tantrums in the supermarket, refusing to eat the food at table, refusing to go to bed on time etc etc.
Empathy isn't a good survival strategy in business, you know. Not unless you have a huge power advantage, where you can fire the many but almost no-one can fire you.
When the 27 year olds 'want to make a big move' you are entirely acceptable collateral damage, even if your empathy gave them a chance to improve themselves in the first place.
Empathy. Key word. Key concept that distinguishes human being from vampire. be it the elite capitalist vampire who'll suck evey last milliliter of your blood, the political vampire who'll lie you into a rhetorical prison with no thought of the consequences, the warmonger vampire who'll bomb civilians trapped in a cage or blow out a child's brains. Thoughtlessness, zero empathy, zero bridge to the other being characterizes all vampires regardless of specific methodology for destroying lives. Hence we must all seek each day to deepen our pools of that essential tie to genuine humanity. I certainly know it to be difficult essential work for myself. Thanks to gypsy33 for inspiration.
Yes, I believe that the zombie vampire apocalypse is upon us. Corporations resemble zombies because of their mindless unrelenting need to extract wealth, which is their food. Corporations are vampires because they are parasites preying on the population, and the planet, to drain us, and it, as you say, to the last milliliter.
Isn't it amazing that no-one is actively revisiting the premise that profit maximisation should be the sole goal of large transnational organisations?
When you're a tiny little company, which has a 70% chance of being wound up within 12 months, profit maximisation is a matter of survival.
When you turn over $1bn+ at 10%+ net margin, you really are in a position to be slightly more humane.
But no politicians discuss it and no billionaire ever thinks they're rich enough, do they?
I think no one can be rich enough when wealth is represented by pixels on a screen. Can you ever have enough pixels on a screen to be sure it would just all disappear tomorrow?
You make good points. Someone wrote a book proposing a change in corporate law across the board, that not only are they required to maximize shareholder profit (by law), they are also required to be good neighbors, responsible environmentalists, and fair employers. Embed that in the law, and change will result. Let's all hold our breaths, shall we?
We could go back to taxing corporations at 94% the way we did in the '60s, so they plowed their earnings into R&D instead of stock buy-backs, to shield them from taxation.
Vin!!!
Did I really convince you concerning the existence of vampires? 😁
Yes, gypsy, you inspired my comment, thank you very large. I just edited it to reference that inspiration. I know they're out there somewhere as the old Moody Blues song tells us.
❤️
Back at you
Unfortunately greed and power trump empathy when it comes to human nature. They rise to the top like cream. History proves this true.
I wouldn't disagree, except to adjust your simile to "like feces after a high-fat meal". Nonetheless, the only way for us to remain sane as individuals is to recognize their shit and flush it from our lives. Empathy need not be wasted by misdirecting it toward blood-sucking parasites.
I don't agree that greed and power seeking are human nature. I think people are taught that what is important in life is money and power. Those people are the ones who don't see the importance of the natural world and they don't see or care that their greed and powermongering are destroying the entire planet and everything on it, including themselves. They have learned this from the greedy powermongers who came before them. They were not born with it. Look at the babies around you. Are they greedy and seeking power over anyone else?
Ah yes, we can excavate deeply into nature/nurture arguments. I would just offer that no one really has figured out just how disposed the primate neocortex is toward power hierarchies and their scaling by any means necessary. As a biologist, I reserve judgment. As I human, myself, if I'm naturally anything, it's skeptical of the various powder kegs that my species seems to want to play with in full recognition of potential disastrous consequences.
I have noticed that people most often say that it is "just human nature" when someone is aggressive or power seeking. I do not remember hearing the term used when people do acts of kindness.
Susan - acts of kindness become natural to you/me/others when someone has first visited acts of kindness upon us. It's not a genetically inherited trait, in my observation, it's the effect of particular environmental conditions.
For the more fortunate, this occurs young in a family, so they think it is 'natural', 'human nature', because it was their parents doing it to them.
That doesn't happen for every infant, though. There's plenty of studies showing what happens e.g. in orphanages.
You will also find that the propensity of men to hit women is increased amongst those who were physically abused as children. Just as children abused sexually tend to seek out abusers as partners when adults, for some reason that most people wish could be easily reversed.
Human nature in general is learned, although there are genetic predispositions involved too.
Some of us learned far more human kindness than we learned dominant power games. Others learned to manipulate, to coerce.
Our human nature usually results from what we happened to experience in the first 35 years of our lives.
The dark side of human nature is a fact, not an excuse.
Marci: It seems to me you are talking about human behaviour. Human nature is a kind of unknown entity, really.
Because it's assumed that people are by nature kind, caring etc. So it feels redundant to say that.
Cruelty etc are assumed not to be part of a human nature when viewed idealistically. The expression is used as a reminder therefore.
I don't think people are either kind or cruel as part of "human nature". I think most of us underestimate our ability to learn. If anything is part of human nature, it is that ability to learn how to behave. The behaviour itself, whether positive or negative, is an aspect of our ability to learn. Who knows what is actually in our "nature"?
Susan - ultimately there is no right answer to 'how much is enough'? I know that I felt a great visceral sense of achievement when I earned enough as a sole trader to upgrade my ICT suite, to pay for a nice 2 week holiday. I felt similar when I won a £50k contract working for an SME.
At some point most people say: 'OK, this much is enough'. The fact remains, however, that those left in the game are still saying 'More, more, more'.
Who decides where the ceiling is to be set?
It's a question with huge ramifications for society, you know.
Skip the babies; look at a room full of 2-year olds. Then, yes.
humans start learning early. Still, 2 year olds are surviving, not seeking to have power over others. Adults who think 2 year olds are power tripping need some help themselves.
Two year olds are learning how far the word 'NO!' goes. They test the limits of what they can do to get their way. Throwing tantrums in the supermarket, refusing to eat the food at table, refusing to go to bed on time etc etc.
Empathy isn't a good survival strategy in business, you know. Not unless you have a huge power advantage, where you can fire the many but almost no-one can fire you.
When the 27 year olds 'want to make a big move' you are entirely acceptable collateral damage, even if your empathy gave them a chance to improve themselves in the first place.
History proves that many people try to excuse their disgusting behaviour by claiming "human nature".