Machiavelli Personality Test

Back to the abortions: okay, you believe that those having them are good and kind (basically). I think we all accept that those killing the doctors who performed the abortions acted out of religious belief. Do you think that those people are also good and kind? And that the doctors were good and kind?

In other words, you see no evil in anyone? Stalin? (GSOH, enjoyed socializing, family life, the countryside, on the plus side.) Pol Pot? The Janjaweed? Al-Queda? The Taleban? The Spanish Inquisition? All basically good, and kind?
 
Originally posted by krizon@Jun 17 2006, 09:26 AM
I'll research that, while you try a straight answer to my question, Pollyanna.
....

Or that like Pollyanna, you so want to see good in all around you, that you believe it's actually there?
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:what:
 
Originally posted by krizon@Jun 17 2006, 09:48 AM
Back to the abortions: okay, you believe that those having them are good and kind (basically). I think we all accept that those killing the doctors who performed the abortions acted out of religious belief. Do you think that those people are also good and kind? And that the doctors were good and kind?

In other words, you see no evil in anyone? Stalin? (GSOH, enjoyed socializing, family life, the countryside, on the plus side.) Pol Pot? The Janjaweed? Al-Queda? The Taleban? The Spanish Inquisition? All basically good, and kind?
Click to expand...
I do believe these people (those involved in abortions for what they believe are ethically and morally justifiable reasons) are basically good and kind. They do not see the wrong in what they do, but they are acting according to what they believe.

Our TV programmes are littered with interviews with war veterans who can't hold back the tears when they realise their involvement in atrocities but they were acting under orders or brainwashed by powerful leaders.

The factions you quote represent in terms of sheer numbers, a very small percentage of the world population at the time and, as I said elsewhere, I do believe some people are truly evil.
 
Well, I think we've given that one a square go! :D Always interesting to get another viewpoint. I'd like to feel more warm-hearted towards the mass of humanity, but I don't. Perhaps it's because I've been close-ish to some very nasty conflicts, and worked with dispossessed Palestinians and Lebanese whose families were wiped out (during the Lebanese conflict in the 1970s) that my own view is thus coloured. It's not just a world-weary cynicism drawn from the news, but a view developed from being only a few miles from the Congo when Lumumba was assassinated (and possibly Hamarskjoeld, too), the fall-out from that dreadful time, and then a more personal appreciation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Lebanese factional fighting, and word from old pals still in South Africa about the casual daily murder rate there. Not a lot to make one feel other than jaded about the goodness and kindness of humans towards each other. :(

Thanks for a good belt at the subject, Dessie - I'm gasping for a cuppa, drawn in peace and tranquillity from Sri Lankan tea slopes, I hope... :brows:
 
I would never predicate my existence on humanity's good bits, AC, any more than I would end it because of its nastiness - though that's a fairly common reason for many suicides - being treated cruelly in love, being blackmailed, being bullied, being forced into situations you cannot bear, etc. You'd be daft to add yourself to a very long tally of the self-despatched based on other people's unpleasant behaviour.
 
I did'nt imply that any of the events in your post would make me consider suicide. They wouldn't.

What I did say was that ff I didn't believe that most people were basically good and kind I think I would end my life.
 
Yes, I know you did, AC - I did understand that you're saying that if you believed that people were basically not good or not kind, you'd kill yourself. You're saying that you believe most people are good and are kind, and that belief sustains your desire to remain alive.

I'm just positing the view that however much some people may believe in the goodness and kindness of 'most' people, the faceless good, kind, masses are as nothing compared to the lack of kindess and goodness wrought by many a far more close and personal problem. It may be a moral nicety to adopt, but it's also one that's often too generic and too emotionally distant to be useful. It's a bit like saying to someone whose family's just been wiped out by a drunk driver: "But on the bright side, every day, millions of people drive without having an accident!" :)
 
If I am, it's only because of relentless childhood conditioning. I take no responsibility for forcing myself to act in an occasionally decent manner. I blame my parents entirely.
 
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