What makes a person bad?

I see so much hurt and pain in this world. And it all seems to be caused by ourselves.

But when you listen to anyone who will be totally honest with you (even if they are good or bad.) they will tell you the world is fucked up and they wish it was better.

So why is it, that the very ones who are imprisoning us within this cyclic unhappiness- where the bad people create more bad people and an environment that will keep us all in the world described- will always say the world is screwed?

The elites in every country are the real ones at fault. They control the power and they will do anything to keep it and to get more power. The rest of us are just trying to scavenge the scraps. Can you really blame someone who is just struggling to get by?

Have to point out the elites control us through the media, government policies, and the economy. They simply use the media to control their viewpoints and to avoid viewpoints that contradict their means of controlling the world. Anyone who posts counterpoints is immediately heavily criticized loses their job etcetera. Not to mention countries such as Cuba get economic sanctions put against them just because they are communist.

Who ever you vote for is controlled by the elites in society. It really doesn't matter. For instance in an election in Argentina all candidates had been talking to the IMF, who really controls the countries government policies through the Washington consensus. The IMF also controls countries through debt and then they must comply to the Washington Consensus which really is in the interests of transnational corporations and not the people.

The reality is the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow at alarming rates. It use to be 36:1 now it is 106:1 in merely 50 years and growing from 64:1 to 106:1 in the last 10 years. The bottom line is this is due to capitalism and increased birth rates in developing nations. Every hour you work gives the owners (shareholders) more money through the profit you generate. Where as the profit you generate (salary) is gone into either consumption, retirement, mortgage, utilities, health care and student loans. In other words survival.

As long as those in power maintain control the people on the bottom will always fight over the scraps because it is survival.

All any person ever wants is to be happy but people are generally lazy and selfish. This means that they will do the least amount of work to attain their wants and so people inevitably screw each other in the process.

If you could get food stamps, would you? It would make your life easier and so many people already abuse the system so why not?

This is the mentality that makes the world suck.

I don't see how making food cheaper for the low income class as wrong?? That is something awesome in the world. Not all people can find jobs. It would be nice to get cheaper food if you lost your job, were paid minimum wage, or had a huge amount of people in your family to feed. It's not like they are even giving them food, they are just getting a discount on it which means they must have some money from either welfare, a shitty job or selling crack well sorta jk haha. Like if someone has to sell crack to make money isn't that sad. Without a doubt they would rather work a normal job or a creative job like rapping because they wouldn't want to go to jail.

This mentality of not helping people out is what makes the world suck not that some people are poor and others are rich. Isn't it more selfish and lazy to not help people out?

Looking at people who are extremely wealthy and then those who have nothing. Is that right? There is obviously limited amount of resources in a country, why have most of it concentrated in the hands of the few as oppose to sharing it?

I'm sorry if my post was not clear. I don't mean that I think it is bad to help people out who need it. I mean that I think it is bad that soooooooo many people abuse the help. For instance, have you ever been to a shitty motel where all the residence actually live there and they all sell drugs. Well many of those people have food stamps and I can tell you that they don't buy food with them. They sell the food stamps at a cheaper price to get actual money for them and they spend the money on drugs. They didn't work to get the food stamps, and instead the food stamps ended up being free drug money. How about people who have kids, just to qualify for welfare. I live with people on food stamps and they spend just as much money on drugs as they do food. They probably don't need food stamps. I'm just saying that it is so easy to abuse the system and if you could yourself, wouldn't, you? People are lazy and selfish and they will do the least amount of work to get what they need to be happy.

Well, people who trade food stamps for drugs probably have addictions, and people have addictions for emotional reasons, usually. The way I personally view anyone who has an addiction to anything, is that they're trying to escape facing a problem, or many problems. I don't see it as lazyness, but hopelessness...helplessness. They feel that they can't change anything about the world, or their world, so they give up.

& maybe the reason why it seems like no ones helping anyone else is because majority of people are trying to come to terms with the world we've built around ourselves.
I think we've constructed ideals and values that really hold us back in terms of simply being happy with life and with ourselves, so our attention is drawn inwards at trying to help ourselves (or run from ourselves) more often than outwards, at the rest of society. We have a world that preys on our insecurities, and that breeds unhappiness and it's all very cyclic until there are enough people who wake up and break the chain.


I really do think society will rise out of this (I'd even go as far to say that this is inevitable) and that it isn't going to be stuck in this cycle forever. Already there is push for progression, slow as it may seem, I think ultimately the human race wants to be progressive in all aspects of life. Eventually we will reach an understanding together, and we'll figure out how to change the parts of the world that drag us down. It's just that we move like Ents.

No matter what, you always have a choice.Even if the choice is very difficult. People facing addictions are no exclusion and they make the choice that is easy, which is to feed their addiction. If they are simply trying to escape their problems, well, that's a choice, and in my opinion, it is a bad choice. You and I both know that you cannot fix a problem by ignoring it. The choice to get out of poverty, to quit drugs, to get a job, are all choices.

"Addictions, fixes, short term gain > idealism, work, long-term gain"

Its easier to make choices based upon short term gain and even though its better to make choices for the long term gain, it's too much work to wait around for those gains.

"I think we've constructed ideals and values that really hold us back in terms of simply being happy with life and with ourselves..."

Society may have created those ideals but that does not mean that we cannot hold our own ideals in response to the world's. Make a choice to hold ideals that you feel are beneficial and that don't hold us back.

"They feel that they can't change anything about the world, or their world, so they give up."

"We have a world that preys on our insecurities, and that breeds unhappiness and it's all very cyclic until there are enough people who wake up and break the chain."

Don't give in or give up. Don't be lazy or feel sorry for yourself. Don't make excuses for people who have problems and give up. If there has to be enough people to wake up and break the chain then they have to make the hard decisions.

Oh yes, I definitley agree about having choices. We all have that power.

Although it by no means excuses them for feeding their addictions, I think it's also important to empathise with the reasoning behind peoples motives, instead of judging them to simply be one way and leaving it at that.

Rather, we should think about the things that affect these bad decisions and what drives people to choose the easy way out. It's important to do so, to better understand what needs to be changed in this world.

I do empathize. In the scenarios we have discussed it is extremely difficult. I'm not claiming that it is easy to make the right choice and so I understand that people inevitably make the wrong choice.

In regards to understanding what needs to be changed in the world, there too many problems in the world to go at solving them problem by problem. A change in attitude may do a lot more.

Even though the amount of problems the world faces is overwhelming, what else can we do but set out to change things one step at a time?

A small start is still a start. And any start at all is a positive step in (hopefully) the right direction.

Anyway, I agree about the chaging your attitude thing, and I think the world is already headed in this direction, else there wouldn't be any signs at all of people pushing against old and outdated ideals.

We just need to keep focusing on all of the things that need to change in the world and keep developing our ideas on how they could be addressed someday, even if we can't do much about them right now.

If your interested in changing the world for the better, go to the 'Resource Based Economy Foundation' web site. Also look up 'Permaculture'.
There is plenty on this earth for every one to live well and we live well co-operating.
Remove some one from one environment to another will help change that persons focus and thus their actions.
I personaly don't believe in good or bad people, its our emotional focus that takes the body where it will.

"(hopefully)"

The easier choice is to hope instead of act. Do you know how easy it is to get government help in America? Its all done over the phone. These people, they are scum. The more children you have the more money you get, and these people literally breed for money.

To hope that your kindness and small steps will be received in an ultimately positive way.

"Addictions, fixes, short term gain > idealism, work, long-term gain"

You seem to ignore this logic time and time again. I think before you continue to defend the innocence of people, you should prove them innocent. Tell me how I am wrong in saying that the quote above is correct.

You see a heroine addict under a bridge. he is obviously starving and asks for money. Do you give it to him? Why?

I can't help but question your innocence. How many troubled individuals do you actually know on a purely personal level. I mean, no church organizations, no shelters, just normal people. What kind of town do you live in? In what social class do you subscribe to?

quote:

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To hope that your kindness and small steps will be received in an ultimately positive way.

"Addictions, fixes, short term gain > idealism, work, long-term gain"

You seem to ignore this logic time and time again. I think before you continue to defend the innocence of people, you should prove them innocent. Tell me how I am wrong in saying that the quote above is correct.

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Well, I'm not saying that the quote is incorrect, as I do believe that majority of people struggle to get passed their own problems, if they try to at all.

The way I see it though, is that there are a few people in the world who do have those great ideals and do want to try to change the world for the better, and will go about trying to influence change. Of course, change always takes so much time, but it seems that if something is truly beneficial to the greater good of humanity, it will eventually be recognised widely and adopted, even if it always seems that the people trying to influence change are on the losing side.

When I say this, I am thinking about how humanity has progressed up until this point, for example, how we have abolished slavery and how we are now striving to attain gay rights. I think ideals with plans behind them are incredibly strong things, though they gain momentum very slowly, they are still there trying to surface.

Forgive me for being a bit slow on the uptake, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean about my defending the innocence of people?

quote:

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You see a heroine addict under a bridge. he is obviously starving and asks for money. Do you give it to him? Why?

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If I saw a starving person who looked like an addict, I may buy them food, but no, I would not give them money for fear that they would only feed their addiction, instead of giving their body what it truly needs.

I accept that I may be naive about the world awakened, I do not think that I have seen even a quarter of the horrors and injustices that go on in it, so I can see how my perception of things may be considered unrealistic to you. Indeed, perhaps they are very unrealistic.

I'm willing to listen though.

I think if people were more helpfull like you there would be more happier people around and alot of them would want to spread it around.