Blood Money

[Terrene]

I am dismayed by the number of people here who would commit murder if they didn't have to face any consequences.

Terr, if you think random people dropping that you don't know is bad, consider how many people there are out there who would certainly commit murder if they didn't have to face any consequences. As in, killing people right in front of them with their own hands. You'd go from dismayed to a dead faint.

Please, I am not that naive. I'm merely dismayed that people I actually know would even ADMIT to willingness to do such a thing. Whether I would or not, I wouldn't admit it. (and I refuse to answer the poll because it's stupid. how often does this situation happen? like never. there is no magic money-dispensing, people-murdering box).

[StruckingFuggle]

Why does their admitting it matter?

( ... Honestly, it seems, is not always a virtue; but then again I think we're all smart enough to realize that ... )

The only thing that should matter is if they WOULD or WOULD NOT actually do it. In secret or openly, it seems to make no difference of significance.

[Deacon]

I'm merely dismayed that people I actually know would even ADMIT to willingness to do such a thing. Whether I would or not, I wouldn't admit it.

Right, because hypocrisy and deluding yourself and others is a much better, healthier choice.

[adciv]

The latter doesn't diminish the former, merely puts in perspective how truly wretched we, humanity, are.

How so? It's not as if no other animal or even mammal does not kill it's own species.

[Seir]

(and I refuse to answer the poll because it's stupid. how often does this situation happen? like never. there is no magic money-dispensing, people-murdering box).

::Shrugs:: Who said anything about magic? Given enough sick individuals with enough money the scenario can happen in real life.

[adciv]

Wasn't that the plot behind SWAT?

[StruckingFuggle]

The latter doesn't diminish the former, merely puts in perspective how truly wretched we, humanity, are.

How so? It's not as if no other animal or even mammal does not kill it's own species.

No, you're right... Which is the problem.

We're are animals, yes. But we are, so far, unique, in that we are the only animal yet capable of knowing and doing better. Of being sapient, of making choices.

...But that is the true wretched nature of humanity, the aspect most worthy of contempt - for all that we can be, we are in abrogation of this noble power. Free will may exist, but if it does, it doesn't mean a damn, because we make the choice to not make choices. We still behave as animals, slaves to 'karma'. We do not act of conscious choice, we react as dictated by the forces upon us, the 'actions' of others, another link in a long and ongoing web of chain reactions.

We can know better. We can choose to do better. We are ignorant. We do not do better.

[Deacon]

The problem lies in your rather arrogant assumption that you hold the one and only definition of what is "better" and can hold others to that standard from afar.

[sneaky ninja]

Yeah, that, and it was kind of a huge, sweeping generalization. There are people out there who do try to do the right thing. I'm really sorry that you apparently don't know any of them.

[StruckingFuggle]

Oh, I know outliers. In a way, they make it worse, they turn the anger and disappointment into an almost incandescent fury, at times ... the mere existence of such people shows that better is POSSIBLE, and that the shortcomings of the average are dereliction, abrogation. They show that this might be natural, it might be normal, but it's not inevitable. It's a choice ... and thus everyone who doesn't make the choice is choosing, through ignorance, stupidity, or animal small-mindedness, to be like a smart animal, rather than a sapient one.

If the human condition can be transcended, if man truly can rise above beast, then it becomes failure, damnable failure, when man acts AS beast, instead of inescapable inevitability.

It should be cause for hope, yes ... but these people remain, ever, abnormal. Flukes. And thus it becomes despair - man CAN, but does NOT.

[Deacon]

The problem lies in your rather arrogant assumption that you hold the one and only definition of what is "better" and can hold others to that standard from afar.

[StruckingFuggle]

"Afar"? I don't think that word means what you think it means...

Also, that's a funny set of words, coming from someone who believes strongly in something being right or wrong, better or worse, a correct or incorrect way to do things, without any solid support beyond your own arrogant belief in being correct in a singular way, capitalist.

[Deacon]

I'm not the one declaring myself to be in a state of perpetual hypocrisy.

[StruckingFuggle]

I'm not the one declaring myself to be in a state of perpetual hypocrisy.

How is it hypocrisy when I know that while I'm a bit better than your average post-ape I'm still more post-ape than human, and know that I too am prone to all of the things I rail against, and seethe with such burning resentment at doing such a bad job of living up to my own ideals and standards?

You make one incredibly false assumption. "Afar" my ass. With no real evidence, you just assume that I hold myself to a lower standard. Of course that's a reverse of the truth, I hold myself to a higher standard then I hold others (which doesn't mean I'm any good at living up to it...), but then again I don't believe that you know anything about me that's actually true.

But no. I am not immune, I am not exempt. I am among the wretched, I am among the contemptible. I am human. I'm on the right side of the bell curve, but still within a couple standard deviations of the rather meager mean.

[adciv]

I'm on the right side of the bell curve, but still within a couple standard deviations of the rather meager mean.

I don't know, I always thought you were on the left.

That said, define 'better'. As in, what actions one takes when one is 'better'.