[Grimnir]

Do you believe we live in a world full of evil people with a minority of good and decent people
or
Do you believe we live in a world full of good and decent people with a minority of evil people?


I think the world is a sh**hole full of evil and selfish people with a few good people every now and then such as Martin Luther King or Gandhi.
Most of the time they get killed though.
Why do the evil people never get assassinated?

JFK got his head blown off
Bush, Blair, Obama and the rest all alive and well

discuss

[Ninastar]

I think that there is good and evil in all of us, and it depends on what our religion/beliefs/ethnicity is that controls our opinions on it

[MTVN]

Well I dont think we're either inherently good or inherently evil, I think we're products of our culture and our environment for the most part. It annoys me when people say humans are, by nature, greedy/selfish/etc. because that's simply not true and such an argument has no basis in fact

[InOne]

It's bascially just life

[CharlieO]

It's not black and White. A scale. But I don't think one can judge good and evil because views on actions are opinionated. Osama thought he was good. Bush thought he was good. Both are good and bad in certain peoples eyes. Who's to say that one is good over another one.

[Lee.]

I think we live in a pretty amazing world where people in general are good. Evil people are the minority.

[joeysteele]

I think in the main the majority are as good and decent as they can be, we all have the rebellious and nasty/bad side to us but many suppress the negative parts.
There is a minority of bad people in the World of which, for want of a better word, part of that minority are 'evil',inasmuch as they want to instill and enforce their thoughts, will and type of existence on all others.

Often,that minority are the ones who shout the loudest and cause the most anguish in the World as opposed to the often wrongly silent decent majority of people in the World.

[Grimnir]

the world is full of war, genocide, rape, murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, paedophiles, thugs

lets look at the western world vs iraq/afghanistan/libya and beyond

most people all blindly support these wars WHY?

how has any of these conflicts give any benefit to you personally?

all it resulted in is DEATH DEATH DEATH on all sides

people who justify it are evil

[Lee.]

Love Actually IS all around..

Youtube video

[Benjamin]

We can all be good and evil depending on our mood, situation, cirumstance and surroundings. Change any one of those and it can switch our traits to either a greater good or a greater evil.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by ukturtle

We can all be good and evil depending on our mood, situation, cirumstance and surroundings. Change any one of those and it can switch our traits to either a greater good or a greater evil.

Well Said.

[Jords]

I think the world is a beautiful place, and nature is amazing.
I dont believe humans have ruined it, because we simply need to live on the planet too, it was always gonna happen.

As for us people, I think majority are rather selfish and are out there for theirselves these days. In the past you here a lot about close settlement societies and stuff, not much of that these days. I dont think many people are 'evil', thats a very powerful word that applies to serious criminals. Many have good intentions that sway off course sometimes.

When it comes to the nature/nurture debate, I think its pretty equal. It depends on our personality as if we have mood swings or what not, and if we give in to peer pressure easily. But we also behave like we do depending on our family/upbringing, the people we pick as friends, the people we choose to dislike, and the actually environment we live in.

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Jords

I think the world is a beautiful place, and nature is amazing.
I dont believe humans have ruined it, because we simply need to live on the planet too, it was always gonna happen.

As for us people, I think majority are rather selfish and are out there for theirselves these days. In the past you here a lot about close settlement societies and stuff, not much of that these days. I dont think many people are 'evil', thats a very powerful word that applies to serious criminals. Many have good intentions that sway off course sometimes.

When it comes to the nature/nurture debate, I think its pretty equal. It depends on our personality as if we have mood swings or what not, and if we give in to peer pressure easily. But we also behave like we do depending on our family/upbringing, the people we pick as friends, the people we choose to dislike, and the actually environment we live in.

Nice one, really interesting to read Jords.

[Ammi]

I think on the whole people are good, but its the nature of the media to report on the bad and not balance it out with more 'human interest' selfless samaritan type news stories, so on the whole we only hear about the bad. I think that good people are capable of doing 'bad' things or acting out of nature in extreme certain situations for self survival, but I don't think that necessarily makes them bad people. Imo there is a lot of good in the world and good people, but if you don't want to see it, you won't

[arista]

Originally Posted by Grimnir

Do you believe we live in a world full of evil people with a minority of good and decent people
or
Do you believe we live in a world full of good and decent people with a minority of evil people?


I think the world is a sh**hole full of evil and selfish people with a few good people every now and then such as Martin Luther King or Gandhi.
Most of the time they get killed though.
Why do the evil people never get assassinated?

JFK got his head blown off
Bush, Blair, Obama and the rest all alive and well

discuss

Evil and Good both the same.

[Livia]

I am not a great fan of people generally. In my experience the majority of them will screw you over and/or let you down eventually. I think the world is inherently evil and a glance at the history books will endorse that. All the time, effort, money and genuis that has been lavished on new and ever more powerful ways of killing and torturing each other over the years, the cruelty and suffering that some people use against others without turning a hair makes me despair. We find out what makes the sun work and we build a bomb out of it - typical of the human race. Some people hate others if they worship in a different way, if they have a different skin colour, even if they come from another part of their own country. When I look around at the cruelty that still goes on, the slavery that still exists, the genocide that is committed every five or ten years somewhere in the world, I sometimes wonder if this isn't hell we're living in now, and heaven is somewhere else entirely.

Maybe I'm just having a bad day...

[CharlieO]

Originally Posted by arista

Evil and Good both the same.

This exactly.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Livia

I am not a great fan of people generally. In my experience the majority of them will screw you over and/or let you down eventually. I think the world is inherently evil and a glance at the history books will endorse that. All the time, effort, money and genuis that has been lavished on new and ever more powerful ways of killing and torturing each other over the years, the cruelty and suffering that some people use against others without turning a hair makes me despair. We find out what makes the sun work and we build a bomb out of it - typical of the human race. Some people hate others if they worship in a different way, if they have a different skin colour, even if they come from another part of their own country. When I look around at the cruelty that still goes on, the slavery that still exists, the genocide that is committed every five or ten years somewhere in the world, I sometimes wonder if this isn't hell we're living in now, and heaven is somewhere else entirely.

Maybe I'm just having a bad day...

Surely there are some positives to life on this earth?

[Livia]

Originally Posted by rhino

Surely there are some positives to life on this earth?

Like I said, I'm probably just having a bad day :-(

Naturally there are good points. Nature can be breathtakingly beautiful, even at it's most desolate. And of course there are good people around. It's just that the bad ones make so much more noise, have so much more power and get so much more attention!

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Livia

I am not a great fan of people generally. In my experience the majority of them will screw you over and/or let you down eventually. I think the world is inherently evil and a glance at the history books will endorse that. All the time, effort, money and genuis that has been lavished on new and ever more powerful ways of killing and torturing each other over the years, the cruelty and suffering that some people use against others without turning a hair makes me despair. We find out what makes the sun work and we build a bomb out of it - typical of the human race. Some people hate others if they worship in a different way, if they have a different skin colour, even if they come from another part of their own country. When I look around at the cruelty that still goes on, the slavery that still exists, the genocide that is committed every five or ten years somewhere in the world, I sometimes wonder if this isn't hell we're living in now, and heaven is somewhere else entirely.

Maybe I'm just having a bad day...

I think it's true what they say, that power and greed are the root of all evil. It's been said that people living in the slums in India are among the happiest people in the world. I wonder is it because they have nothing that they're not greedy or power hungry and therefore happier and generally nicer people

[Stu]

I believe that most people are inherently decent if flawed - even ignorant - people. In fact I find it absurd to even imagine that a greater majority of the worlds population are out to fuck with you. I like to think in that sense I'm a very positive person. Wars are going on yeah but in my own life I see constant beauty and fun in people. The big cats are having arms races in their own little worlds and to that extent I keep myself ignorant to those stories so I can remain positive.

The world is generally getting better I think despite everyone wanting to believe the opposite. I know people my age get slack for being noisy and obnoxious but look how open most of us generally tend to be compared to 20, 30 years ago. That's a good sign of things to come. Social and cultural barriers are falling. Obviously we will always see extreme oppositions and alternatives to that more clearly than ever now with the power of the internet.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Livia

Like I said, I'm probably just having a bad day :-(

Naturally there are good points. Nature can be breathtakingly beautiful, even at it's most desolate. And of course there are good people around. It's just that the bad ones make so much more noise, have so much more power and get so much more attention!

I guess its like a half full, half empty cup thing, if you don't look for the good then you won't find it, but it is there because if it wasn't then the world we know now would be perfect eutopia compared to what it could be if there was no good people. I guess the way I see it is our lives would be pretty much the same anyway, whether we were happy or miserable so it makes sence to be happy and positive and then I'll enjoy my life more. As for the evil side of man, well I can't do a lot about that

[Livia]

Originally Posted by rhino

I guess its like a half full, half empty cup thing, if you don't look for the good then you won't find it, but it is there because if it wasn't then the world we know now would be perfect eutopia compared to what it could be if there was no good people. I guess the way I see it is our lives would be pretty much the same anyway, whether we were happy or miserable so it makes sence to be happy and positive and then I'll enjoy my life more. As for the evil side of man, well I can't do a lot about that

Wise words, rhino, and true. I'm not always this miserable... some days I'm positively giddy!

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I think it's true what they say, that power and greed are the root of all evil. It's been said that people living in the slums in India are among the happiest people in the world. I wonder is it because they have nothing that they're not greedy or power hungry and therefore happier and generally nicer people

Originally Posted by Stu

I believe that most people are inherently decent if flawed - even ignorant - people. In fact I find it absurd to even imagine that a greater majority of the worlds population are out to fuck with you. I like to think in that sense I'm a very positive person. Wars are going on yeah but in my own life I see constant beauty and fun in people. The big cats are having arms races in their own little worlds and to that extent I keep myself ignorant to those stories so I can remain positive.

The world is generally getting better I think despite everyone wanting to believe the opposite. I know people my age get slack for being noisy and obnoxious but look how open most of us generally tend to be compared to 20, 30 years ago. That's a good sign of things to come. Social and cultural barriers are falling. Obviously we will always see extreme oppositions and alternatives to that more clearly than ever now with the power of the internet.

Originally Posted by Livia

Wise words, rhino, and true. I'm not always this miserable... some days I'm positively giddy!

well hopefully the world will look better tomorrow - unless the world ends tonight!!

[Conor]

Defining evil depends on where you are brought up. Extremist Muslims see the West as Evil, but in the US and A, who is the villain?.. The IRA thinks the UDA are evil whilst they are fighting for a cause and vice versa... Super Christians see gays as being evil. Gays see bigoted super Christians as being evil. I seriously believe power corrupts any man. Look at Hitler. He was a lowly artist walking the streets of Vienna with little political intention. He wasn't even an anti-semite. However within a few decades he became a major world player. The more powerful he got ,the more insanely inhumane he became. Same with Stalin and I'm sure a whole lot more dictators. I suppose in summary I'm saying that it's a whole load of external factors and beliefs that determine someone's 'evil factor' and that we are initially here with good intentions- and even then it still isn't a clear area.

Anyways, the world has progressed far beyond even how it used to be. The UK had concentration camps in Asia not even 200 years ago ffs. Europe is at peace. Yugoslavia and the USSR have fallen, Ireland has regained peace and war is not being fought in Europe. Sure across the rest of the world there are still serious security problems. tbh, does anyone really think Iran or NoKo are gonna send a couple of nukes across the Atlantic to NYC. As someone mentioned already, young people today and people in general are far more forward thinking and accepting than they once would have been. Racists, bigots and all that are on the way towards the out door. Progress and history show that good always overcomes evil in the long run, so no, I don't think we are living in an evil place, but nor is it good.

/waffle.