I can hardly ever watch the news, or read commentaries online, or read newspapers and magazines and not find myself slipping into thinking that this world is a really effed up place.
Mrs. Denmarkguy is a teacher, counselor and minister... and the core of what she teaches her clients and associates is pretty simple "Don't be shitty!"
You'd think that wouldn't be so hard to do... but apparently it presents a huge challenge for a remarkably alarmingly large number of people.
And that doesn't even consider the twisted segment of the population who actually enjoy being shitty, and do so for — for lack of a better term — "sport." Or — also quite likely — who do it because there is profit in being shitty.
I do my best to be a decent human being, and to do right, even when that sometimes turns out to be counter to what most other people are doing...
Earlier this morning, I found myself thinking about an old psychology experiment from back in my college daze... "would you take a $100 bill off the ground next to your neighbor's car and keep it, if it were GUARANTEED that you would not be seen or caught?"
Surprisingly many people would.
Apologists for shitty behavior often point to the notion that only a gossamer thin veil called "civilization" separates humans from engaging in a free-for-all brawl over everything.
This is often cited in connection with religion where lots of people openly admit that were it not for "the fear of God," they'd probably steal, rape, kill and worse.
WTF, mate?
I'm not sure I buy into this whole notion that it's "in our nature."
When I sit inside that question deeply, I always come to the same conclusion: I do my best to NOT be shitty, and NOT do mean or dishonest things because I would not want others doing such things to ME!
And yes, that's purely self-serving!
I watch riots on TV, and aside from people expressing righteous anger, what most strikes me as a truly awful reflection on the state of humanity are those who are barely connected to the riots who just see a broken store window as an invitation to score a flat screen TV and an iPad.
A friend of mine — who's a bit of an "armchair psychologist" — likes to point out that I "obviously" wasn't raised by parents who taught me that I could "be and have anything I wanted."
The implication here, is that behaving in a shitty way is simply an outward expression of having been taught entitlement to things/ideals nobody's actually entitled to.
So "Being Shitty" = "Disconnect from Reality."
I'm not sure I buy into that explanation, either.
Maybe Mrs. Denmarkguy is right: I just have "a certain naivete" about human nature.
Thanks for reading, and have a PEACEFUL weekend!
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Created at 20200530 11:19 PDT
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