Sharing, why do people fear it?

Since time memorial groups of people and individuals have always consolidated power, wealth, resources, knowledge, (at expense of many) and restricted access to a very few (a few that will abide by their rules).

 

Because they're afraid of losing something, usually a position of power.

 

It's a survival mechanism, to ensure your own survival you hoard goods.

Sociologically speaking, it should be something that never happens because in a social species, those being antisocial are ostracised. And indeed, in small primitive societies anyone who doesn't share is greatly looked down upon, because everyone depends on one another to survive. With the coming of agriculture and civilization, this interdependance became less common, especially with all the food surpluses. So whoever has the surplus has the power. Interdependance breaks down and you get heirarchies.

 

yeh, in less well off or commercial societies, sharing is more common. unfortunately, in our culture, even friends sometimes dont share. luckily my friends do, and im sure we all have someone who we share with. it would be good if it happened more often but there will always be someone who takes and doesnt give

 

Yes, like the nerd at school, who does not want to share his knowledge freely because he fears losing his status of intellectual superiority and influence over others.

 

I think we still depend on each other greatly to do their part, like city people depend on the farmers to produce food for them and the farmers depend on city people to buy it from them (money gets in the way of all these natural exchanges.) Instead of direct interdependency or attachment, today we depend on each other indirectly (positive and negative).

 

Indeed our culture and environment discourages sharing and encourages selfishness and also our economic system. Our current economic system rewards selfish and wasteful competition (without them it cannot survive) instead of sharing and cooperation.

Thinking about it, sharing is basically illegal in our Western world. Sharing and copying music, movies, books, software, and art is considered piracy and stealing. Other nations, have no such concepts in their societies, so western nations try to introduce them to them by lobbying for intellectual property rights and copy rights. Sharing other things like house items, clothes and whatever else is considered something bad and being cheap to encourage consumerism. People are naturally products of their environments, if society encouraged and rewarded sharing instead of selfishness then people will naturally follow. But our society prefers or the ruling elites that run it prefer waste, getting and getting instead of giving and sharing.

 

Can you imagine, how much greater the world would be like if genuine and sincere sharing, cooperation, and giving existed instead of selfishness, wasteful competition and hoarding? Also economic, material, and financial security instead of insecurity?

Heaven on earth and the galaxies.

 

Yeah. But eventually you come to realize that empowering others is what really empowers you. Otherwise you're forever stuck trying to keep ahead.

 

You've hit the nail on the head there. It's the whole ethos of capitalism to be selfish - children are taught young the 'need to be competitive'. It's all about personal aquisition and being ahead of everyone else - and it all engenders in people a false value system and even a false consciousness.
Some idiot, driving around in their huge 4wd, thinks 'I've got the right to this - I worked for it'. They have no conception of the hard toil for a few rupees a day of an Indian labourer for example. They are callous and have been made so by the system. Many people have no other values than 'I, ME, MINE'.

 

In any society, there will be a time when there isn't enough for all.. when this time arrives, selfishness is born. Through selfishness people can achieve power, through this power, ideas can develope quicker because of the access to resources they have given themselves, society grows because of the selfishness and finds ways to create enough for all. These times are arriving soon, when they arrive.. there will be no need for selfishness.

Just be patient. I see good things for the future of mankind.

Selfishness isn't all negative, try to see the big picture on it all, I agree that people are far too selfish in general, but they know no better when the positions of power overwhelm them with fear. It's a part of the natural progression for the human race.

 

That kind of situation hasn't existed in either Europe or the US since at least the 1950's, yet are people less selfish? The fact is that a tiny percentage of the population own over 90% of the wealth. And they're not giving it away. In Britain, the increased fervour for consumerism and the cult of selfishness has been steadily tearing society apart since the 80's. It's not that there isn't enough to go round, but it isn't distributed evenly, and hence things become incresasingly polarized between the have's and have not's.

I agree people are selfish and get power - which they then generally use for selfish ends. It's hard to see how that's making for social progress. More a continuation of the staus-quo I'd say.

It's up to people to wake up then, and see through their oppression at every level. However, the whole thing is stacked against that happening on any significant scale. The natural evolution of the human race may also be under threat in the imminent future due to the on-going rape of the environment and the earth's rescources in the name of so called progress and profit.

 

It would be hard to explain it better than that.

 

Once it was born, the only route for it was to grow, they know it is possible for things to run out and do whatever is in there power to prevent it from happening to themselves. I never said it would go away yet, it's going to get a lot worse before improvement.

Not everyone with power is selfish. Don't generalise too much, some are well resourced in science and can develope technology and methods for spreading their wealth. It'll be atleast a 100 years or so before we have anything close to a level of semi-enlightenment from learning from mistakes but it is in the right direction if you look at the % of people who have managed to see how to properly make the most of life. These people share wisdome and slowly the % keeps growing until a critical mass makes the jump (or so the story goes.)

Research the number of possible solutions which a very large number of them have great potential. A bloke has make lifelong batteries out of pieces of rock he found lieing about for one case, it'll take a while for these technologies to develope properly and hit commercial scale, just give it some time, humanity is too determined in it's fight for survival.