Human nature: decent, indifferent or rotten to the core?

LOL, I've seen it before too. I saw a guy deliberately shove someone, and hard, out of the way. Didn't even ask them to move. Just shoved.

 

you should get a medical check up,just in case of any worse damage done.it was a horrible thing to happen to you, but even worse was that nobody cared.and because you are a decent person yourself,thats why you could'nt fathom it.get that hip checked.

 

Yeah, if it doesn't start feeling better in a day or two I will.

 

LOL, I'm going to be quite a sight walking now. I messed up my left knee last week when I did a crash and burn on the side of a mountain while skiing. Sheesh.

 

you would'nt even have been recovered from that yet,before this happened to ya.but you'll get through through it all.with a name like JoanofSnarc how could ya not. ha! ha!

 

True, lol. Gotta get some sleep now. Hoping that will help some. Thanks for talking with me everyone. I feel better for it.

 

i think most people are decent. but they are kind of forced to be indifferent sometimes, especially in the city. if they concern themselves with every misfortune they come across, the won't have time to do anything else.

the story here sounds bad, but we don't really have all the pertinent information. how long were you stuck down there? the whole incident could have taken place over 5 seconds, which is just not enough time to even react to it. maybe nobody realized that you were stuck, or hurt. a lot of the people there might have not even realized anything had happened at first.

 

I am sorry this happened to you. I would hope that I would have helped you. I think most of the people I know would have helped as well.

 

To protect and extend what is dear to us. The thing that makes mans inhumanity toward man possible is that he tells himself they are not me nor mine.

 

Rotten to the core, but with the polishing of civilization, we can still live together. Barely, but still.

 

I think it depends on what we are taught. If someone is taught peace and love they will love and be peaceful, if they are shown or taught greed, indifference or selfishness that's how they will be.

 

For far too long, there has been a decline in the ethos of society trend, the 'I' becoming more important than the 'we' - though one has to believe in that "'We', shall Overcome"

 

most are indifferent/apathetic or just coasting through life without awareness or thinking

then you have the sociopaths etc and finally really decent people who care and try to help others

 

To put it simply, I think the average person is decent. Evil or indifferent is the exception.

First of all, I don't think this question can be answered base on personal experiences because everyone has a story to tell about a truly indifferent person and some even have a story to tell about a person that is truly evil. But, just because there are one or two stories, that doesn't mean that is the average and this is what we're talking about, the average person. Also, according to research that I have gathered, brains process more heavily negative events than positive ones because it's for our survival. So, of course an event that is negative is going to impact us more deeply than an event that is positive. It's self-explanatory why that can become a problem when answering this question.

Second of all, I wish I can read all the books on human morality, but sadly I haven't, so my answer is very uneducated.

Getting to the actual answer, I think morality is a product of society and the way society describes morality is situations where people help and don't help other people. Yea, we can sit around like forums like this and talk about the greats, and their thoughts on morality, but in our society (I'm assuming you're from the same society as me) it's more simplified than that. Basically, what makes morality is whether or not you help a particular person in a particular situation. Society also tells us which people to help in which situations. For example, if there was a terrorist attack, we are suppose to get together and help as a nation mend the ruins of what was created by the terrorist attack. That makes you a good person because society says so. But, helping someone on the street, in your situation for example, that's doesn't make you a good person. If anything, it makes you a person that is asking for it because what if this person that is in this situation is just faking it to rob you or something? Or what if you're being punked? Also, society tells us that those people got themselves in those situations, so they can get themselves out. There is this thing that I've seen on TV over the years, where a professional like a cop or firefighter says to an unprofessional person, "Don't be the hero". And because media forms, such as TV is a great form of sending messages from society to us, I bet people are now scared to be a good samaritan, because they don't want to make the situation worse or be seen as someone trying to be the hero, because society says that it's a bad thing to be a hero and that we can make things worse by helping. I have also watched a few crime shows where being the good samaritan ends up with the person getting arrested, which again I can see people getting scared of getting trouble because society says you will get in trouble.

To keep the flow of examples, never help a mentally ill person, but always give your sit to a handicapped person, while not helping them neither. Another example is society telling us that good looking and well dressed people need assistance, not that they need it, but if they need it, it will make you a good person and possibly will get you a reward, but don't help ugly people, no... especially the ones that don't have proper hygiene and don't dress well, because those people are always homeless and drug addicts that again will rob you. I can keep going, but the point is that I think it's all about society. Society tells us that morality is measured by helping and not helping others, depending on the person and the situation. In saying that, because most people are programmed well to follow society, on average we're decent. We do what society tells us is good and we don't do what they tell us is bad, which makes us good.

I do think those who chose not to follow society, for example, killers, do so because their brain developed differently. For those who do other crimes that show they don't follow society, such as robbing someone, I think that's caused by situations that pushed them to that point, which I think we all can be pushed to that point. Anyways, society tells us those people are evil and indifferent, so they're evil and indifferent.

 

By the way, that happened to me as well. My leg got struck between the platform and the train, no one helped neither. I was crying too because it was really painful. I ended up injuring my ankle and knee, so I had to go on crutches. On top of that, I'm a female, so damn... I much be ugly as sin if I couldn't get any help, lol. I've seen women who have gotten help if they just stumbled. So, that was a blow to my self-esteem, lol. But, it's cool. That's society at it's best. I can't blame people for following society. It's good people are programmed correctly or what society tells us is correct. Also, it was my own fault. I was walking a lot and sweating, so maybe I smelled. I was wearing my hoodie. So, stuff like that, it's understandable why no one helped me.

 

Most are indifferent and too selfish to care much. Good and evil are the exceptions

 

After meditating all night beneath a bodhi tree, Siddartha Gautama spied Venus, the morning star, and declared, "Wonder of wonders! All beings are whole and complete, imbued with wisdom and compassion! However, due to their delusive thinking, they have forgotten this."
All beings possess innate Buddha nature. Some beings invest herculean time and effort in concealing this fact.