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Old 11-16-2017, 04:36 PM   #40 (permalink)
The Batlord
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MicShazam View Post
It seems that you are making the argument that the darker, more hopeless aspects of life are always there, right under the surface. I try to remember that in cases of, for example, the Rwandan genocide, there are not only those that commited atrocities agaisnt a minority, but also that minority. I can empahtize with that minority and hold on to that as an example of a just cause. Even if 90% of humanity turned out to be ****, I can still remind myself that those other 10% are worth investing my hopes in.
I think humans are better than that, by the way, even if WWII makes a good argument to the contrary.
TL;DR: I won't give in to cynicism no matter how many horrible things happen, because I still see a powerful strain of grace in the human spirit. Taking this on a much less serious level, I'd say that it's worth trying to maintain a sort of wide eyed enthusiasm for art and human accomplishment, no matter how dark the shadow side of the coin gets.
Otherwise, I could just as well give up and down a bottle of pills and be done with it.
In the Rwandan genocide the government handed out machetes to the Hutu populace and expected them to contribute, and they did, without resistance or complaint. That's one reason why the death toll was so quick so soon, because there was no escape for the Tutsis with the enemy being next door. The massacre wasn't carried out just by death squads, but by people just like you and me who'd been conditioned to hate, which is something that humanity as a whole is very easily conditioned to do. The human race is tribalistic by nature, and it doesn't really take much to bring it out. Basically just not having a comfortable lifestyle is enough to make people take their frustrations out on an outsider group, so long as it's easy, because they have different color skin, or a different religion, or simply a history of being seen as different. Just look at America with Trump and Hispanics, or Europe with Muslims. Just how different would it be if Europe wasn't such a comfortable, 1st world place to live in? How accepting do you think your country would be? How many would die?

How much did it take the Germans to take their frustrations out on the Jews? How much did it take to let the Jews be the scapegoats? How much did it take for the majority of Germans to turn their heads away from what they knew was happening and go about their lives as if nothing was happening because it was simply easier than doing something about it? That's the real issue. Not that some Germans killed a bunch of Jews, but that the majority of Germans didn't care enough to do anything about it. People simply don't care enough to try to stop genocide if it's too hard. Or if it's hard at all. Or simply if the people in charge say "do it" when they can make a case for it that jibes with some narrative that seems plausibe. That's honestly all that's needed to change civilization to barbarism, because ultimately the difference is imaginary.

And no country is different. Under the right conditions, nearly every single human on Earth could be so callous and indifferent. We might sing to our children and sing Christmas carols and give to charity, but nearly all of those same people could look the other way in the face of state sanctioned murder because it's simply difficult to do otherwise. There's a quote from a Holocaust survivor that I think sums up the human race pretty well, "This world is not this world." The human race and its civilization is simply a front to pretend that we are not simply animals capable of monstrosity at the drop of a hat the same as any animal.

Still happy?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien
There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.
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