The control of human behaviour

Most of us i think i am safe to presume like to think of ourselves as not being superficial people, and that in the the routines of our lifes there resides a inner kernal of deep thought and understanding; which embodies the best parts of everything we can be as men or woman living on earth. I dont have any doubts this potential is the ultimate truth.

I cant however ignore what i observe in reality is much the opposite. Instead of embracing the depths of intellectualism and understanding; people are absorbed in the superficiality of themselves and the events taking place around them. For exampe, look at those cheap fire sales in department stores, people walking over eachother and acting like a herd of wild rampaging animals, with no let up on this behaviour if it allows the making of the bargin before someone else.

That just one isolated example, and i can think of many more where self absorbed behaviour raises it head. There is no one particular place the self absorbed personalities can be found as they can be found virtually anywhere in society. On the road, in house, in the office, in a club, on a sporting field, in learning institutions, on the internet...virtually anywhere.

The only limiting restraint to curb the self absorbed behaviouralists are the civil and criminal sets of laws/rules enforced by society on the individuals. There is also the force of ethics and morality taught by parents, televison programing and religous institutions. All these restaints certainly do have a effect of moderating an indivdiuals behaviours and actions to levels which is palatable to society.

Is it legitimate however to present the implementation of these governing retraints on indivduals as an example of why humans are civilised? Without these restraints would we be naturally violent, hedonistic, cruel, full of tivial jealousies and hatred?

Or would we naturally find the opposite grounds, of being peaceful, monogonous, kind, loving and accepting of eachother?

The answers to these questions may reveal some insight to true underlying nature of humans, and the associated patterns of behaviours that we could expect to see from people if the constraining systems of laws and beliefs were suddenly taken away.

you take the laws away..people will go woooping crazy. The weak will die.

Look at people (not all, but lots) when they get behind the wheel, driving..crazy nuts!

I read a few years back, that 20% of the human race, are completly bonkers!

Have you ever wondered that if the human brain is controlled by signals that are stimulated by the self and the environment the self is in. That if the brain could receive signals outside itself in a telepathic sense. Much like a radio signal to a antenna.

That it could be possible to control people in a sense like this. We need this guy to be this kind of personality and we need this other person to be this personality. We need this many people to be dumbed down and we only need this many to be intelligent.

It's like producing personalities and lives out of a factory but your just sending brain waves out in mass and randomly getting the desired effects that way people are more apt to be controllable.

Is it possible this is what all the hysteria is with todays world. I mean lets face it no way people in ( 2012 ) are what we observe naturally.

reply to post by AthlonSavage

I think people have a "bent" in life. Theres the kind that would stop and hold a door for a stranger without thinking anything of it. Then theres the kind of people that may hold the door, but inside they secretly wish they could let it slam on them for a laugh. They don't because they are in public and others are watching.

Theres an underlying proclivity, but we don't really know others motivations...

Originally posted by RUFFREADY
you take the laws away..people will go woooping crazy. The weak will die.

Look at people (not all, but lots) when they get behind the wheel, driving..crazy nuts!

I read a few years back, that 20% of the human race, are completly bonkers!

what do you mean the weak will die?

a baby can kill the strongest man in the world........ with a gun...

reply to post by intrptr

I think people have a "bent" in life. Theres the kind that would stop and hold a door for a stranger without thinking anything of it

i do this all the time. Then sometimes the strangers slams the door on my face.

reply to post by ImaFungi

what do you mean the weak will die?

I think hes saying the people who are already crazy...take the restraints of them and they wont be strong enough tto curb their own destructive tendancies

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Good post.

Problem with everyone walking around assuming that they personally hold the key to ultimate truth, is that they'll all have different ultimate truths.

Some might have similar ultimate truths and form a religion or a cult or an order or dance naked around a large stone under the moon, moon light bouncing off their butts and bald heads as they leap around...

Some may despise people who have different ultimate truths to the one they defined as the only ultimate truth, and pledge war on them where they find them. No one will believe it however, and next thing everyone had their heads lopped off for being heathens. The Trojan Horse of the Modern Era.[nobibliography]

And then there will be some who have an ultimate truth so outlandish it will be ostracised to the corners of society. Life on other planets? What hallucinations.. Confine him to his residence for life.

Either way, 2012 years after some guy decided to start writing things down on a lump of wood that he would use to mark the passing of the days and years, you would have that thought by now someone would have worked it all out. But all the different ultimate truths have lead to many wars, crusades, pretty buildings and paintings, lots of deviant activity in almost every fetish arena, and so on and so forth.

And not surprising really, considering we are just animals that have an illusion of consciousness via chemical and electrical activity in a very very complex organ.

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
reply to post by intrptr

 

I think people have a "bent" in life. Theres the kind that would stop and hold a door for a stranger without thinking anything of it

i do this all the time. Then sometimes the strangers slams the door on my face.

edit on 23-11-2012 by AthlonSavage because: (no reason given)

I thank them anyway, so they hear it. even if they don't care, they'll think about it curiously next time.

reply to post by AthlonSavage
I guess we're all spread across the bell curve and also limited according to our cognitive abilities too.

Mix all that up with our upbringing and cultures and it becomes unavoidable that some law and order came to be codified.

I honestly don't know if society would break down without it or whether it could become self-moderating. However if we look at places where moderation and order have been diminished or usurped, it's hard to feel confident that the weak could ever thrive without checks and balances. We could look to Somalia, Mexico, Southern Pakistan, Serbia or Northern Ireland to see that warlords and gangs do far more harm to intellectual expression and freedom of speech than society's own tendency towards minor conservatism.

reply to post by winofiend

I enjoy your stuff. You are witty and intelligent.

...we are just animals that have an illusion of consciousness...

"Illusion of Consciousness"? How can you be not be conscious and still understand "illusion"? Knowing that we know makes us sentient, in my humble opinion.

reply to post by AthlonSavage

My favorites are the ones that let the door go and pretend it was an accident. Tee hee.

Edit: Or the ones that let the door go, "for your own good".

reply to post by intrptr

My favorites are the ones that let the door go and pretend it was an accident. Tee hee.

yeh i have been getting alot of that lately making me paranoid everytime i see theres a door open for me.

"Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all." — Aristotle.

I strongly agree with Aristotle in this regard. The majority of people are decent, but there is enough potential for evil within all of us to negatively impact the collective well-being of society if humans are not kept within some system of law and justice. I know many people would claim "they would not act any differently" if separated from law and justice, but I think these people are kidding themselves.

reply to post by Dark Ghost

"Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all." — Aristotle.

Aristotle was way ahead of his time.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Yes, he most certainly was. And apparently about 50%-66% of his works were never recovered. Some of the greatest ideas to ever be recorded might have been lost in those works...

reply to post by Dark Ghost


His works were probably deliberately destroyed. People too ahead of their time always get rolled.

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
Or would we naturally find the opposite grounds, of being peaceful, monogonous, kind, loving and accepting of eachother?

I don't think removing laws from society would accomplish that. I don't think people do bad things because they resent having laws imposed upon them.

But it seems there must be some change in society that would move us in that direction.

I think the change we need is in our own understanding, as individuals one at a time, of our own capacity to take care of our needs in a way that is effective and beneficial for ourselves as individuals in harmony with the whole. In other words - learning how to behave so that what's good for us is also good for society at the same time. I think it's normal and good to be self-interested. Why shouldn't we be self-interested? That's our job. Nobody else is going to do it! It's just that we need to figure out how to make what's good for us be what's good for all of us.

reply to post by Mary Rose

It's just that we need to figure out how to make what's good for us be what's good for all of us.

This sounds easy said than done.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Yes, it is.

But I think this internet is making a huge contribution in moving us in the direction we need to go. I am very hopeful about the future. I think that if we keep reaching out to each other with our thoughts about what is actually going on in the world, as opposed to what we've been conditioned to believe, and have accepted without question, we will have a renaissance.

I think most people are innately good. What makes us bad is fear of not having our basic needs for food and shelter met. And it's that fear that has enabled the powerful elites of the planet to dominate the rest of us and keep us in ignorance of what we could become were we free to entertain the thought.

I think the alternative history and science communities are paving the way for us to unlearn the lies we have believed and start over again to create a better paradigm for us all.