Quote: (06-12-2013 05:02 AM)Athlone McGinnis Wrote:
In becoming so sensitive to the plight of other creatures, humans (particularly western europeans and their descendants) have become desensitized to the suffering of our fellow man. I don't think that this is a good thing for those who hope that, one day, men can be better to one another.
Athlone you'd probably enjoy some of the writings of Ram Dass and Erich Fromm.
I think there are several factors that play into the average human's utter lack of compassion towards other humans.
First, there's the evolutionary/biological aspect. We're naturally competitive towards each other. The modern man is concerned primarily with ownership. This doesn't necessarily mean cars or houses, but people too. Men feel personal value in their ownership of wives, children, pets, etc. However, as competitive as men can be biologically, there is a relatively new factor that has entered human existence: private property. The idea of private property is a novelty. Historically and culturally, it is the exception rather than the rule. It is not something you see in aboriginal, or "primitive" societies. Think about the native Americans' concept of land ownership. They simply wouldn't understand. The word "private" comes from the latin word, privare, which means "to deprive", as in, to deprive another of something. Capitalism, by definition, exists based on private ownership driving the production of goods. Our economic system dictates our social system. By having property we are depriving others. Our lack of compassion exists on a very deep and fundamental level, much deeper than any rational decision-making of caring for animals over humans or vice versa.
Capitalist societies are competitive. The very nature of capitalist commerce is to offer the highest quality at a price that attracts the broadest customer base. Companies compete for this. Consumers compete with each other to own the most, biggest, best, and shiniest private property. Workers compete with each other to reach the top. A capitalist society reinforces the competitive mindset by highlighting the individual and making a demi-god out of him. Everything is about the Individual, even if there are millions of people emulating and copying him. There is no "true" individuality, but this is irrelevant; the effect is the same. By reinforcing individuality as a virtue, you guarantee the utmost importance placed on the self.
To reinforce individuality, you focus on the ways in which people are different. The product of this is a feeling of alienation amongst the population. Religion traditionally brought people together as a clan or group, which you can pass off as a means of mass mind control, but the result was a feeling of community. This is dying out. So you have a mass of humans out there competing with each other and feeling alienated from each other. We accept this at face value as "the way things are" or "the way things are meant to be". Most people don't see a way outside of these structures because they are so deeply entrenched in them. But there is another way.
In Eastern Religion, and in fact, any true religious experience, it is common to look at another human and see the ways in which you are similar or even the same. Some people having a religious experience might even look at another person in the eye and feel that they are the same person in two different bodies. You start talking about this shit and people assume you're insane because these concepts are so foreign and illogical to the capitalist socio-economic system. When you hear new agey fuckers talking about "elevating your chakra energy", it's shit like this. To move beyond the mode of existence where you're competing, racing, or struggling, and embracing a mode of existence based in compassion and goodwill. It's extremely rare and even people who experience these moments of compassion find themselves entrenched in the competitive mindset once again.
I think humans are naturally compassionate towards all living things OTHER than other humans. Give a child a bunny and he'll cherish it. He probably won't be ripping the head off and eating it. But put a child in the same room as another child holding a toy, and how likely is he to try and steal the toy? I'd say pretty likely. Compassion towards other humans is not something we're born with innately, unless you're a saint or the next Mother Theresa. We have thousands of years of religious script instructing us how to be compassionate for that reason, but we can all see how well we've done with that.
It's understandably disturbing to see the mass of humans compassionate towards pets and domesticated animals, while completely blind to the plight of their own species, but there's a reason behind it. It's the same reason we're all on this board anyway: to compete with other men for the pussy supply. We have a heart towards living creatures that can't defend themselves, but put your average human against another average human and the mechanisms will start to fire: Compete. Differentiate. Alienate. Dominate. Possibly Eliminate.
