Kindness Kills

[Tequila Zaire]

Do any of you feel kindness, respect, and care are utterly pointless these days since the minute one slips up...any and all kindness, respect, and care given is forgotten and dismissed?

Has the value of all this been lost in our fruit fly like memory in which whatever happens longer than an hour ago feels like ancient history? Is their any point to keeping up the illusion of civility with people when force, anger, and violence can achieve the same ends with stronger results?

[malcolm]

no. I dont. personally, I think (and some opinions may differ)
that you can in actuality achieve more on a larger scale with kindness and compastion than you can with anger and fear.

[Tequila Zaire]

That's a nice ideal but it bears little fruit both historically and for the ambitious. Often times one does not need to appeal to the majority let alone find use for compassion if they do not deserve it. History these days no longer judges villian and hero diffrently...so is isn't it best for people to find value and merit in actions often damned?

[killerkat]

i do....

i help people as much as i can...i'm always giveing away stuff i spent Contelss hours on in the shop...


hell,i even wave at anybody i drive by(as in ,if their in their yards,etc) ,i used to always get a smile and a wave back...at least a wave....Nowadays,i i never get anyhting back..sept maybe a crazy look...

i could go on...

one of the last things i got is to make someone smile...


and it seems like it's not happing as much,people don't care anymore...people lack any respect for anything these days...

i could go on,still...but this is a subject i've been bitching about alot lately,and it really is getting to me..

[Pull~My~Hair]

i hate to admit it but the world has devolved, its kinda all men for themselves again...at least in my opinion, dont get me wrong, ill throw the bum a five but I aint lettin the fucker near my kid....

[Morning Glory]

I don't really think that violence and force can achieve any results with more success then anything else. history after all has shown us that as well. just look at a recent war, we got rid of the opposition... but it hasn't really done anything to secure peace and stability and end further opposition in the region. you can beat heads with people and they'll just keep beating back. I think sooner or later you're going to have to cave in and get along with them. and maybe at the end of the day it comes down to which makes you feel better, being rotten or being nice? reguardless of how people respond to it. I know that me being pissed off all the time never made me feel any better.

[malcolm]

That's a nice ideal but it bears little fruit both historically and for the ambitious. Often times one does not need to appeal to the majority let alone find use for compassion if they do not deserve it. History these days no longer judges villian and hero diffrently...so is isn't it best for people to find value and merit in actions often damned?

now now now...let's not ge tinto historical documentation without actually showing proof. yours does not hold merit either in that matter.
examples:

adolf hitler-ruled with anger and fear. his nazi party fell out of power completely missing their goal of the world.


lenin his party secretly recorded andmurdered hundreds of innocent russian civilians under soviet rule. anyone noticed how russia is now a democratic country?

saddamm hussein ran several unoposed elections, murdered tortured hundreds upon hundreds of innocent people as well. his sons(who he put into power) were equally as evil minded, torturing and beating failure. now? his sons are dead and he can't even keep a lawyer for more than a week.

all examples of how anger and fear for power failed in the end.
oh. and one example of how good and kindness can have power? martin luther king jr. was one of the hugest pioneers of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. his peaceful approach to protesting is still used all over the world today. not to mention the progress made in the 60s for black americans today woul not be responsible if not for people like and including him. his practice of peaceful resistance by the way? adopted from ghandi.

[One Eyed Cat]

That's a nice ideal but it bears little fruit both historically and for the ambitious. Often times one does not need to appeal to the majority let alone find use for compassion if they do not deserve it. History these days no longer judges villian and hero diffrently...so is isn't it best for people to find value and merit in actions often damned?

Postmodernism deobjectivized all concepts of "good" and "evil". What we refer to as "open-mindedness" and "free thought" are rarely anything more than an omission of judgment. In such a world, we are faced with 3 choices: Accept the nihilistic abyss, attempt to transcend it, or fight fire with fire. The most obvious regimes of "anger and fear", the USSR and Nazi Germany, self-destructed. If this society goes down that road, the results will be the same. Civility need not be extended to those unwilling to take a stand. Civility cannot be divorced from the values underlying a given society or culture.

OEC

[Tequila Zaire]

now now now...let's not ge tinto historical documentation without actually showing proof. yours does not hold merit either in that matter.
examples:

Then they both cancel each other out by both being correct. But I'll play along.

all examples of how anger and fear for power failed in the end.

Not really. In terms of having such regimes last for eternity yes...but they lasted for a quite a bit and all involved got to see the good years of their lives with them as the center of their worlds...not a bad deal. After all it's the last years that suck anyhow. Lenin is still admired...Hitlers dream came true as the Third Reich will indeed last 1000 years if writers, game makers, and The History channel have anything to say about it, Hussein not only became a pop culture icon but at both times a villian and a joke...immortal on many levels...even his capture was funny. So while the men may not have had grand golden years...in their prime they were their world. That does not scream of failure...even with the bodycount.

oh. and one example of how good and kindness can have power? martin luther king jr. was one of the hugest pioneers of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. his peaceful approach to protesting is still used all over the world today. not to mention the progress made in the 60s for black americans today woul not be responsible if not for people like and including him. his practice of peaceful resistance by the way? adopted from ghandi.

Both shot dead...and their causes have not been perverted and destoryed by their own followers. So really it goes both ways. While they are indeed remembered for their actions and deeds...they too didn't last in the long run.

Basicly all those you mentioned ended up the same...each praised and damned by different camps but historically no different. Centuries from now they will all fade together like heroes and villians always do.

[Tequila Zaire]

Postmodernism deobjectivized all concepts of "good" and "evil". What we refer to as "open-mindedness" and "free thought" are rarely anything more than an omission of judgment. In such a world, we are faced with 3 choices: Accept the nihilistic abyss, attempt to transcend it, or fight fire with fire. The most obvious regimes of "anger and fear", the USSR and Nazi Germany, self-destructed. If this society goes down that road, the results will be the same. Civility need not be extended to those unwilling to take a stand. Civility cannot be divorced from the values underlying a given society or culture.

Indeed they did but if you're gonna live once may as well enjoy it to its most extreme...be it if you're a lover of death and destruction or peace and prosperity.

[malcolm]

what about martin luther? last time i checked lutherans are still around too. is his cause not still ongoing after all these years?

[Tequila Zaire]

and maybe at the end of the day it comes down to which makes you feel better, being rotten or being nice? reguardless of how people respond to it. I know that me being pissed off all the time never made me feel any better.

That's exactly what spawned the questions in the first place. Kinda in the middle of trying to figure out what I enjoyed more...both sides of the coin have their benefits and drawbacks...but it does boil down to what feels best.

Cause as much as I want to be as "good" a person as possible...you come across quite a few who's heads really would look good on ones wall.

[Tequila Zaire]

what about martin luther? last time i checked lutherans are still around too. is his cause not still ongoing after all these years?

Many causes are...that's not really the point if they last or don't last. He's both villified and praised. Guess the real benefit is that he's remembered for it...he followed what he felt needed doing in the way he felt it needed doing.

Thing is many worse and better than he have been lost with no mention ...some true beasts...some saints. So really...does it matter what side of the coin your on in the long run?

[One Eyed Cat]

Indeed they did but if you're gonna live once may as well enjoy it to its most extreme...be it if you're a lover of death and destruction or peace and prosperity.

I understand your point. One chooses a side either actively or by default. I guess my question would be: how are you relating this to your personal life? (that seems to be the gist of your first question) Most of us will not become Hitlers or Gandhis. Personally, I don't believe it is possible for a person to be completely "good" or "evil". If your end is simply to become a magnanimous man, I'd recommend evil. To live to the fullest? I think you'd have to recognize both good and evil in yourself.

OEC

[cheshire centauri]

people are like goldfish...

[MichelleX]

heh.
I thoroughly believe in karma and the honour in "rising above".
I hate people.... so I simply refuse to be anything like them!

[Amelia G]

Do any of you feel kindness, respect, and care are utterly pointless these days since the minute one slips up...any and all kindness, respect, and care given is forgotten and dismissed?

Has the value of all this been lost in our fruit fly like memory in which whatever happens longer than an hour ago feels like ancient history? Is their any point to keeping up the illusion of civility with people when force, anger, and violence can achieve the same ends with stronger results?

I feel like that on a bad day. It is really depressing to me that the few people I would count as enemies are all people I treated very kindly, with no exceptions.

I think the reasons to continue doing good, despite some people being scummy fruit flies are:

(1) I still have to know me and I want to look myself in the eye in a mirror. I think being decent really does feel better and my opinion of me is more important than a fruit fly's.

(2) One tends to focus on the one person who betrays one's kindness, rather than the dozens who rewarded or repaid it. It is sort of human nature to focus on a problem because that is how problems get solved. But I know that there are far more people who appreciate the good I do than the few unpleasant souls for whom nothing can ever be enough or for whom kindness is seen as weakness.

[One Eyed Cat]

I feel like that on a bad day. It is really depressing to me that the few people I would count as enemies are all people I treated very kindly, with no exceptions.

I think the reasons to continue doing good, despite some people being scummy fruit flies are:

(1) I still have to know me and I want to look myself in the eye in a mirror. I think being decent really does feel better and my opinion of me is more important than a fruit fly's.

(2) One tends to focus on the one person who betrays one's kindness, rather than the dozens who rewarded or repaid it. It is sort of human nature to focus on a problem because that is how problems get solved. But I know that there are far more people who appreciate the good I do than the few unpleasant souls for whom nothing can ever be enough or for whom kindness is seen as weakness.

The fur people are always grateful. They know kindness is strength and are slow to make enemies.

OEC

[Mr Karl]

This is a very interesting question, at first I think I am in general kind to people but now that I've had a bit to think I think that it's more of being charatible, kindness from me is way too precious,

But this is actually food for thought