Is the human species greedy, negative, ignorant, violent and destroying the planet?

[Deleted member 47099]

I was raised with the view that the human species is greedy, negative, ignorant, violent and destroying the planet.

Basically, humans do a LOT more negative stuff than positive stuff.

Countless wars, atrocities, genocide, over the centuries/ millenia.

We've driven countless species to extinction and are continuing to do so, merrily.

Plastic is choking the oceans, climate change, pollution - tiny efforts to reduce it, but the impact of 7.5 billion people producing rubbish and wasting resources is just enormous.

Whole forums like this one dedicated to childhood trauma, CSA, rape etc.. And that's just the tip of the ice-berg... So many suffering in silence.

So much poverty, hunger, preventable deaths worldwide.

Sure, humans do *some* nice stuff, some smart stuff, some inspiring stuff.

But 90% is mindless, inconsiderate, greedy, ignorant crap.

How do I feel less disgust at belonging to this species that is gobbling up the planet, raping mother nature, and killing so many other species.

Not everything about us humans is destructive, but most of it is.

We're like a cancer on the planet.

How do I feel less disgust about human beings?

 

[Teasel]

I suppose it makes me think if this psychologist bloke, usefully I can't remember his name. But he kinda promotes the idea that positive thinking is blind if it precludes realistic appraisals of things which ain't positive.

I seem to remember him saying things like - if you're feeling terrible about the state of things, then maybe you have good reason. And maybe acknowledging this makes you more likely to find some way to act that helps things. Rather than holding some rose colour spectacled view which just doesn't sit right, doesn't help you actually, and only helps you stay blind to things which are terrible.

I think he did something, a book or TV show or something on the power of negative thinking.
Dunno how helpful this is tho eh.

 

[TTC18]

Look at the good stuff?
Yeah there are forums like this - but bazillions of mommy forums talking about normal happy things. Cat forums. Dog forums. Chicken forums. Yeah, humans have caused a lot of species to go extinct, but species have been going extinct all by themselves for millions of years without our help.
The dregs of human society are just that - the dregs. Most of humanity isn't like that. :)

 

[Lionheart]

Well we can't say that all humans are bad / flawed / destructive because that would be an over-generalization. We also can't say that it is most humans because we don't know most humans. We only know those people we have met. We can however, reasonably say that it seems like a lot of humans are destructive in nature.

Still, we must consider our sources of information as well. If that is the news media, well, they are after ratings and are sensationalists with an agenda. They report a lot of the "bad" things that people do and little if any of the "good" things that people do.

So I have to ask you what is your source of information? And Is it skewed towards the negative side of things, or does it take into account all the great things people are capable of and are doing in the world?

I am not saying that your statement about humans being destructive is wrong, but is it realistic? I don't know the answer to that question myself as I have not pondered it in depth. Just wanted to give you some food for thought and kind of think out loud a bit myself while I was at it.

I hope that this was somehow helpful to you.

Lionheart777

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Look at the good stuff?
Yeah there are forums like this - but bazillions of mommy forums talking about normal happy things. Cat forums. Dog forums. Chicken forums. Yeah, humans have caused a lot of species to go extinct, but species have been going extinct all by themselves for millions of years without our help.
The dregs of human society are just that - the dregs. Most of humanity isn't like that. :)

Nup. Doesn't work :)
All the other forums are just humans being selfish, self-absorbed, trivial gits.
And it matters to me that we're causing huge numbers of species to go extinct.
And yeah, the dregs of humanity are even worse than the rest. But the rest is still crap.
(Sorry)

 

[TTC18]

No need to be sorry. :)
How about this: Use me as an example. Sure, my parents stunk at raising me - but every teacher I had took care of me as much as they were able, for no other reason than that they were nice people. Every friend I ever had - their parents took me in and parented me. For no other reason than that they were nice people. I think the good outweighs the bad. I really do. Of course that's a selfish self-absorbed perspective, lol. ;)

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Sorry to sound negative about this...

I've met a LOT of people in my life... I've always been curious about life and people so I've gone out of my way to meet a lot of people. From all walks of life. Literally everyone from homeless people to millionaires and everyone in between.

I've met some pretty lovely people. But even they are flawed. And contributing to the planet being trashed and turned into a garbage dump.

And all the really amazing people have just been doing their level best to counteract the horrific stuff that the dregs of humanity are doing, like you've said @tryingtocope18

They've been people who are looking after and taking in awfully abused and neglected kids. They are trying to do a tiny bit of good in a situation that is horrific.

That stuff is a drop in the ocean tho.

Why is there so much horrific stuff happening in the first place, that all the amazing people can do is try and counteract it a tiny bit?

 

[TTC18]

Well, in my case, the amazing people saved my life - and kept me going to the point where I could take over and try to save myself. Over the course of my life, I've given support to countless people who needed it, including kids. You could look at it like a drop in the ocean - like a waste of time... or you could look at each drop as a catalyst. setting off a chain reaction that could lead to the scientist who figured out how to breed a bacteria that eats waste plastic and excretes something we need instead. Or a doctor who cures cancer - or a new treatment for mental health disorders that eliminates everything from OCD to PTSD. As humans, we've done some awful things. But we've done beautiful things too. There's so much beauty in the world -and in the universe. :)

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Yeah, I "get" what you're saying. I can see the words and I understand that you mean them.

In my heart I just feel "nothing" when reading that.

I'm not trying to be difficult about it on purpose :bag:

I think this is probably an inner kid thing.

And it would be easy to just gloss over it and "be positive" (which I do most of the time and I've been on the other end of this discussion countless times, trying to cheer up depressed people and trying to get them to see the positive in the world...)

But I think on a deep level, on an inner kid level, my heart is just like "nope".

Inner Kid is convinced humans suck. All of them. Every last one of them.

They are all destructive and selfish and superficial and deluded and greedy and dumb.

And I feel like nothing's going to change inner kid's mind about that. :cautious:

 

[Teasel]

How do I feel less disgust about human beings?

And I feel like nothing's going to change inner kid's mind about that. :cautious:

Given these quotes are you sure you want to know a way to feel more positive about this?

 

[Deleted member 47099]

Given these quotes are you sure you want to know a way to feel more positive about this?

Good question :laugh:

I think I or inner kid are like 99% convinced of this... but there's 1% of my brain that thinks "this is not an entirely healthy or helpful approach".

I guess it's like someone with anorexia getting help to overcome anorexia? They are 99.9% convinced of what they are doing, but there's this 0.1% thing of "something's not right here"...?

So yeah. Good question.

Kinda of yes. Kind of no.

?

 

[Abstract]

Cant help you with this one Im afraid. I didnt really see it as a cognitive distortion. Its not that I don't see that there is potential good and of course some people who are more good than bad. Its just that I get a big view perspective on it all and I can't but see human race as anything else other than exploitative, self involved and destructive. I guess we are also inventive innovative, resilient etc. Just not sure that is most fundamentally used for good. Rather for self interest.

Maybe acceptance of imperfection and doing what you can would be an option?