What is making us so MEAN?

There've been numerous posts on ATS lately about the poor and the terrible things that should be done with them. There are also a large number of posts about the cops and increasing violence committed by them. Crime is rising. We're at war. We're more uncaring about others in our communities.

So I have to wonder what's making us so mean. Even if Republican policies were at it's root, that begs the question regarding what drives Republican policies.

Could we be seeing issues related to population pressures? Someone told me once that preference for male children is a subconscious evolutionary tactic to reduce populations. This attitude is most prevalent in countries like India and China, who also have the world's largest populations.

Populations in Mexico and the Southern Hemisphere are rising, and violence in those areas is growing. Drug cartels are becoming so out of control that Mexico recently switched suppression of their activity from the police to the military. In addition, efforts to reduce illegal immigration into the US is being met with increasing hostility.

I've often thought that war and violence are driven as much by subconscious populations pressures as they are geopolitical events.

These are just a few examples of recent changes in our world that could be related to burgeoning populations and reduced resources.

What effects do you see increasing populations having on world events?

Things have got to get worse before they get better.
Somethings got to happen soon that will open people's eyes otherwise I have no idea where we are all going.

This has been going on for ages. It's just a different time now. Look at all the other wars. How about slavery? That was pretty mean. There's been killings and murders since mankind existed and I see no end to it unless humankind disappears.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, crime rates have actually been decreasing.



Further details through 2005 are provided here, as well. I don't think it's an increase in crime, but rather an increase in the glorification of violence and crime through the media, as it tends to go "the more fear-mongering in a newscast, the more views we're bound to get."

Originally posted by AWingAndASigh

There are also a large number of posts about the cops and increasing violence committed by them. Crime is rising.

Everyone seems to have the capability to catch bad cops at work now and posting the video on the internet or local news. There have always been bad cops, you just didn't see it before like you can now. Crime has risen over the years, so has the population. Looks like it goes hand in hand.

So I have to wonder what's making us so mean. Even if Republican policies were at it's root, that begs the question regarding what drives Republican policies.

I'd blame it on the demoncrats. Okay, that's too simple, we all know they are just plain mean. It's really not a political thing.

Could we be seeing issues related to population pressures? Someone told me once that preference for male children is a subconscious evolutionary tactic to reduce populations. This attitude is most prevalent in countries like India and China, who also have the world's largest populations.

Actully, the culture of these two countries is based on the children taking care of the elders. Boys carry on the family name, usually inherit the family farm and home. Women get married and leave to live with the husband and new family.

What effects do you see increasing populations having on world events?

It put more stress on over populated cities and the infrastructure of these cities. It creates much more demand for basic items and a high demand on material used for consumer goods. This is a classic supply and demand situation which prices will rise when there is a shortage of a product causing the entire economy to raise prices. The poverty level or near poverty level of high population countries will continue to have civil strife due to a chronic shortage of jobs for them and the constant need for more aid to feed themselves.

I have been saying for a long time that there are too many people on the earth. There is a famous experiment where rats were allowed to increase their population endlessly in a cage/maze. The results were that rats attacked each other, ate each other and became very aggressive - due to the overpopulation. People need space, but they also need food, water, etc. and all of these resources are dwindling. Using corn and grains for ethanol has further endangered our food supplies, not to mention GM foods, which have been known to cause cancer and even kill people and animals.
If we had less people, we wouldn't be outstripping our natural resources, such as our dwindling supply of water. Everyone would have more and there would probably be less war, no need for war over resources, as there is now.

Many archaeologists and historians pretty much agree that there was no organized war until tribes began running out of food (due to the increasing numbers of people). We simply haven't found any evidence of war before this time. MOre people, who needed more food and therefore more land to raise it on and the result was that eventually there wasnt enough land to feed everyone in each tribe, so they began fighting over land.

Nothing is making us mean. We simply are mean. And today, we can be mean without any consequences.

I remember when I was younger (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth ) people were still mean, but if they got too mean to the wrong person, they would end up in some serious pain. You learned in school that if you got in someone's face, that someone would quite probably punch your face. It led to a few bloody noses and busted lips, but that was about all. We were kids, and really didn't have the strength to hurt each other seriously.

As time progressed and we all grew older, a few still hadn't learned the rules of politeness. The punishment got tougher since the people they now angered were stronger and more capable of producing bodily harm. A few broken bones here and there, now on rare occasions, resulted. But by the time we became adults everyone had learned that rudeness was a painful experience.

Now we have telephones that call across continents. You can dial a local number from your phone and it be re-directed to a city thousands of miles away. There is no consequence for the caller to not be rude, since it is unlikely that you have a telephone that can transmit physical contact. Or we can message each other across the entire planet via email. Again, no consequence. Even this forum, which I do enjoy, contributes to this lack of consequence. (Although I will have to give credit to the Owners for maintaining what is a relatively peaceful environment.)

As time has progressed, some in society have decided that the tried and true method of allowing children to settle their own differences is somehow antiquated and no longer advantageous. Thusly, we have preteens expelled from schools for such acts as throwing a punch, rather than punishing them and allowing natural adjustment to society. This serves only to embolden and further anger the victims, until finally they show up one day in a college campus with an illegal gun and no reason in their mind to live.

We also acclimate when adults to this new concept of no repercussion for rudeness, and when we are confronted face to face with another actual human being, we don't remember as strongly those lessons learned in our youth. So we get road rage incidents, domestic violence, etc.

Want to stem the tide of meanness? It's simple. Every post, every e-mail, every phone call, imagine the other person is as big as you are and standing in front of you with a clenched fist. I do. It's amazing how much more polite and respectful you become.

TheRedneck

reply to post by forestlady


There's enough food energy land and water for everyone though. We arn't that overpopulated. Plenty of unpopulated land regardless of the overpopulation of cities. And I mean everyone in the world.

reply to post by TheRedneck

Good points but I focus it up more on social upbringing. I was raised with having to say please and thank you and now I dont see parents concetrating on that type of behavior anymore. PERHAPS it has to do with the fact that each generation is having less and less actual PHYSICAL contact today as children sit inside and play games on Xbox live instead of the park or will have conversations on IM rather in person or even on the phone?

I would agree that there is a problem with this and I would put the blame on the government simply because the government controls the education system.If we were all taught to be kind and be loving toward each other then this wouldn't have gotten as bad as it is.

Some of you would dissagree and say its the parents fault but what child is with their parent more than 8 hrs a day because they have to work to support the family.

Anyone who believes the government's claim that crime, violent or otherwise, is decreasing, is deluded. Our prison population is now at a record high. That is all the proof you should need to establish the fact that the government is lying about crime statistics.

reply to post by rtcctr

I won't place the blame all on the parenting, especialy in this day and age when the concept of stay at home mom/dad just isn't a reality BUT. I think the time parents spend with not only the child but with eachother will effect the outcome.

I have to say I think it is largely a media issue. I think that as television watching increases, the need for human/social interaction is decreasing along with our education. It's a primitive dumbing down of the masses and what is available now is violence at uncanny levels. Used to be rare to hear about someone getting shot and now it's rare not to. I think it largely stems from the fact that we are all demanding instant gratifaction. If someone misses our point we become frustrated much more quicky. We are much more ego driven today (today's college students rate higher on narcisistic personality scores and are generally feeling more priveleged than any generation before them).

So if instant gratification and violence are celebrated as a society (ie. through movies, television, etc.) then we are quicker to react to these things.

On the bright side I feel like this might be changing. People are learning tolerance and diversity much more than was emphasized when I was younger. Bullying is frowned upon much more openly and directly, so perhaps society will tip the scales the other way. Who knows? I just think it's a pattern of desensitization that is a breeding ground for hostility and lack of compassion (unless it's dogs being thrown from a cliff- we seem to be more outraged at animal cruelty than human cruelty :@@

reply to post by Sleuth


Yes, but most of the people in prisons are in for non-violent related charges such as drug possession. That and the world population is higher than ever. The prisoners-to-non-prisoners ratio would naturally lead to more total prisoners.

Originally posted by AWingAndASigh
So I have to wonder what's making us so mean.

It's all that flesh and blood, seasoned with prions, in your diet that is to blame. Well, partially to blame anyhow. It is a vampires nature to be mean and eat the weak. Kill, kill, kill. Seriously.

reply to post by rhawkins

Good points but I focus it up more on social upbringing. I was raised with having to say please and thank you and now I dont see parents concetrating on that type of behavior anymore. PERHAPS it has to do with the fact that each generation is having less and less actual PHYSICAL contact today as children sit inside and play games on Xbox live instead of the park or will have conversations on IM rather in person or even on the phone?

Is there a difference? Social upbringing is simply the way our morals move from one generation to the next. We live rather short lives, as compared to humanity as a whole, so we train the next generation in our image, hopefully with some enlightened viewpoints that come with old age.

So if those enlightened viewpoints become distorted, we devolve. I've always wondered, actually, if Darwin didn't get it backward...

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


One's view on what are considered good morals and bad morals are different, though. Defying traditional upbringing is what has led to social progress (as well as social degeneration, I know). When elders share their knowledge, the younger generation then has the choice of either accepting it or rejecting it. It's like growing up in a family where everybody smokes cigarettes; you're either ten times more likely or ten times less likely to smoke cigarettes yourself.

reply to post by Cham Zord

Very true! As I raised my children, I took what I had seen my parents do and kept much of it. Some things I decided to try differently. I think we all do that.

This is why change comes slowly. To a large degree, we are a result of our raising, and and our children are a result of theirs. So changes for the good typically take at least a generation to take effect. Unfortunately, with negligent parents, a lot of bad can come with that same one generation.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


I agree up until the statement of only bad coming from negligent parents. It's just as likely that good can come from negligence, as well. Such children would simply be influenced and learn their ways from others, likely from either their peers or other adult figures.

There's obviously a danger in depending on others for influence rather than the parents, but there's just as much of a risk in letting bad parents raise a child if those parents are constantly imposing their ways upon the child. If a mother tells her son that shoplifting is okay and she shows him how to pull it off, then the child learns from a group of friends that shoplifting is detrimental to other people in general as prices for the objects become inflated, then someone from an objective point of view could easily conclude that it was the parent who was at fault.

reply to post by Cham Zord

The thing I love best about debates is when I realize something I have missed. Thank you, I did indeed miss that concept. And I totally agree with the premise.

I caution you though, that not every belief that goes against society's wishes is an incorrect one. Sometimes it is society that is incorrect.

TheRedneck