Do you like people?

So,how's the 8th grade going there?

Naney, man, I love you sometimes.

He's in 8th grade?

Clearly the humour is lost on Daleks.

He's a Nietzsche Wannabe spouting that humankind is all shit. No one who's older than 14 is like that.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:22:53 PM by Malph

We exert a small degree of control over a relatively small planet in an unfathomably small section of an unfathomably large universe that we haven't even begun to understand.

Color me unimpressed. We haven't even gotten past the moon yet. We've barely gotten out of the cradle we spent our infancy in, mostly because we're a species still in its infancy.

I'm not a misanthrope, I'm just someone who has a realistic view of the species and its place in the universe. It's not my fault that most people are too sentimential to abandon their extremely egotistical view of themselves and their fellow primates.

A serious dose of humility is in order if we ever intend to be worth our weight in carbon. That begins by admitting that we are not even close to being accomplished, morally or technologically, and that's just by our vague, nearsighted, poorly-understood vision of what is possible.

And Malph, I'd rather be a Nietzsche Wannabe than a gigantic sap that congratulates itself over the ligtbulb.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:24:57 PM by Sarkastique

Interesting thing about Nietzsche: he was actually very pro-humanity. He fucking loved people. His ideas boiled down to "nothing matters, nothing out there cares. . . So let's be fantastic."

>Have reached the Moon

>>Have FLOWN TO THE MOON

>>>THE FUCKING MOON, are you getting this

>Not technologically advanced

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:25:56 PM by Exelixi

GUYS, WE HAVEN'T HAD ANY MANNED FLIGHTS TO PLUTO YET, THAT MEANS HUMANKIND SUCKS, MAN.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:25:39 PM by 0dd1

Never said he understood what Nietzsche believed.

Edit: See?

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:25:33 PM by Malph

Humility is one thing, saying all of humanity is biologically destined to be incorrigibly evil and stupid is another.

When I think of how good people are, I try to think not of their failures but their successes. One of the biggest successes, I think, is in the way we see heroes. Take something almost everybody likes, like Star Wars. You know how Luke, at the end, refuses to kill his father, and doesn't even fight against the Emperor because his victory was complete? One thing to keep in mind is that we all want to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo or Leia Organa or Obi Wan Kenobi. We all hold these characters and characters like them to be examples of heroism and strong moral conduct.

The great thing about this is that you can ask anyone and they'll agree. It might not be Star Wars. It could be something else entirely. But everyone knows and remembers the greatest heroes and takes them as examples, even if they don't live up to them. I take that to be an encouraging thought, because everyone wants to be the good guy, to be the one that saves the day. And our failures come from when we rationalise the wrong thing into being appropriate conduct in relation to our ideals, because no-one wants to be the bad guy and no-one thinks of themselves as the bad guy.

And that's what it really comes down to. At the end of the day, give someone a choice between being the good guy and being the bad guy and they'll choose the former every time, because we're a social species that thrives on mutual empowerment. We're hardcoded for a certain level of altruism so as to benefit those around us and allow the species to flourish. And you'll find that evil actions are the work of the mad, the desperate or the disconnected, and that no-one actively seeks to be evil.

So I think people are essentially good, or try to be. And if everyone could be their best, we'd all be knights of the Round Table, or superheroes, or whatever. 'Cause those are the examples we take, the characters that epitomise what it is to be a hero in our culture.

As for how much I like people? In reasonably small doses, I like people a lot. They irk me with prolonged exposure, but that's got nothing to do with them and everything to do with the way I am.

@Alex: I wanted to be an Ewok.

Then you're silly.

I'm not very good at talking to people I don't know, but generally I do like to meet people and try to find something good about everyone, and even people who piss me off I try to get over it and not see them as a bad person.

That's probably a bad quality about me though, that I still give people I know probably aren't very good people chances.

You fail to grasp the endless hours of entertainment that you can derive from one:

1. Turn on bulb
2. Stare at bulb
3. ????
4. PROFIT!!!!

I suggest you try it immediately.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:29:36 PM by inane242

Ain't I, though?

Step three: Go blind and learn an instrument.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:30:28 PM by 0dd1

DA-LEKS HAVE NO HUM-OR!

Not destined, but there's no doubt where the cards are stacked.

That's the thing most people are too sappy to get. The first step to making real progress as a species is getting over the idea that we're somehow special.

Anyone who points this out is invariably accused of reading too much Nietzsche (someone I've never really cared for as a writer or a philosopher), when really it's just not being a kiss-ass to your own species and taking a realistic appraisal.

I suggest we start by setting as many things on fire as possible.

I like certain individuals. People are pretty terrible.

Okay, then a hipster Nietzsche Wannabe?

@inane: Start with the witches!

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:32:40 PM by 0dd1

Hey, Hipsters are cool.

I agree.

I like fire.

edited 23rd Apr '12 9:32:56 PM by Malph

BUT WHO WILL BE FIRST ABLAZE?

Well, I'm a hipster, so I don't really see it as an insult. A term of endearment, maybe.