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Is our world becoming more cruel?

Psychopaths manipulate their way to the top. Always have done, likely always will do. Probably true for all mammals, maybe most species, though humans have the resource and ability to be more destructive. As an allegedly intelligent species we have collectively proven exceptionally bad at choosing good leaders.
 
The case of cruelty in Hitler's Germany may just have resulted from his tapping into strong and deep rooted anti-Jewish sentiments in European culture. Something was rotten about the culture which led to something rotten about the people, which Hitler exploited. The reason I'm suggesting that is that Hitler (this is from memory, I could be wrong) wanted to exterminate people with serious mental and physical disabilities, but there were riots on the streets to stop it, and he relented. He couldn't always get what he wanted -- but being cruel to Jews seemed to come easy.
 
mandryka said:
The reason I'm suggesting that is that Hitler (this is from memory, I could be wrong) wanted to exterminate people with serious mental and physical disabilities, but there were riots on the streets to stop it, and he relented. He couldn't always get what he wanted -- but being cruel to Jews seemed to come easy.
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He got there though. The Holocaust took many mentally and physically impaired as well as vast numbers of LGBTQ+ people. The mentally disabled were frequently subjected to truly brutal “medical experiments“ on the way to their inevitable murder.
 
hifinutt said:
Yes our world is becoming more cruel and evil each day that passes , just look at the middle east , many parts of Europe and the cruel oppression of many minorities in India
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I don't think that's necessarily true, look at the slave trade, the genocides , mass murders or enthic cleansing of the native Americans, Aboriginal tribes and of course the holocaust in Germany and surrounding countries during WW2.
There's lots more examples of extreme cruelty in the past.
What I do see now is as we have a growing number of peoples who are more accepting of others there seem to be a rise in opposition, whether that's base racism, gender based hatred, etc, etc things in many ways are moving in the opposite direction of the reasonable and rational mindedness.
 
Tony L said:
He got there though. The Holocaust took many mentally and physically impaired as well as vast numbers of LGBTQ+ people. The mentally disabled were frequently subjected to truly brutal “medical experiments“ on the way to their inevitable murder.
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Germans sent to the concentration camps because they were gay had to wait decades to be officially recognised as victims of the regime. The German government only paid compensation in 2017. There's a reason people still wear a pink triangle.
 
gez said:
I don't believe in evil. Evil as a concept allows us to abrogate our individual and group responsiblity to do the correct thing. It implies that the perpetrators are in some way "other" and that none of "us" could ever do the same, makes us feel better about ourselves. The truth is that any human under the correct circumanstances (which are different for every individual) is capable of acts of extreme cruelty and inhumanity.
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I do. I've only met one person who was evil and he was bloody scary. I've talked about him on here bef ore. He was a kid at school and my dad taught him before I met him, he was the only one of whom my dad ever said "I'll tell you this straight, *do not* have anything to do with him. I wouldn't say this about any other kid but JC is warped. He's a criminal." He was. Last I heard he had done time for drug dealing. I'm not afraid of anyone or anything, and I've worked with slaughter men in abattoirs where you take a deep breath before talking to them, no problem, but I was afraid of him. My dad said that as a teacher he dealt with every kid in the school, and this lad, aged 13, actually scared him, as an adult.
But in terms of who could harm or kill others, the answer is unfortunately "all of us." Was it the Stamford experiment where they set up a prison? I think it's the great flaw of our species, our ability to form tribes allows us to cooperate within the tribe but allows us to think that any atrocity we like is acceptable when it's directed at "those other bastards from the other side of the river".
 
stevec67 said:
I do. I've only met one person who was evil and he was bloody scary. I've talked about him on here bef ore. He was a kid at school and my dad taught him before I met him, he was the only one of whom my dad ever said "I'll tell you this straight, *do not* have anything to do with him. I wouldn't say this about any other kid but JC is warped. He's a criminal." He was. Last I heard he had done time for drug dealing. I'm not afraid of anyone or anything, and I've worked with slaughter men in abattoirs where you take a deep breath before talking to them, no problem, but I was afraid of him. My dad said that as a teacher he dealt with every kid in the school, and this lad, aged 13, actually scared him, as an adult.
But in terms of who could harm or kill others, the answer is unfortunately "all of us." Was it the Stamford experiment where they set up a prison? I think it's the great flaw of our species, our ability to form tribes allows us to cooperate within the tribe but allows us to think that any atrocity we like is acceptable when it's directed at "those other bastards from the other side of the river".
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Deep down we are animals, no matter how tame/civilized.
 
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Tony L said:
Psychopaths manipulate their way to the top. Always have done, likely always will do. Probably true for all mammals, maybe most species, though humans have the resource and ability to be more destructive. As an allegedly intelligent species we have collectively proven exceptionally bad at choosing good leaders.
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It's this. The probable 90% plus of the population who aren't psychopaths seem perennially incapable of preventing those who are from causing wholesale harm.
 
It couldn't happen here.
"A speech that he delivered seven years ago at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Kibbutz Tel Yitzhak caused a furor. Golan, who was then the deputy chief of staff of the I.D.F., warned that Israeli society had grown callous to “the other,” and said, “If there is something that frightens me in the memory of the Holocaust, it is identifying horrifying processes that occurred in Europe, particularly in Germany, seventy, eighty, and ninety years ago, and finding evidence of their existence here in our midst today, in 2016."
 
Seems to me the world has always been cruel, with a brief respite from the post-WWII era up until the middle of the last decade. For that short time there appeared to be a trend of improving quality of life and prosperity for many, and less conflict, armed or otherwise. This relatively peaceful intermission seems to have passed.
 
I think with 24h rolling news and social media we just see more of it than we used to. It only used to be big events that made the news and even then we only knew whatever spin had been put on it by the media, now we get every little nasty event- warts and all- relentlessly beamed into our eye holes. Some days it feel like you can't catch your breath for the endless stream of shit pouring out of every device.
 
tuga said:
Deep down we are animals, no matter how tame/civilized.
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Yes, and have natural survival instincts that can lead to uncivilised behaviour.
Human population growth is the elephant in the room that is not debated often enough. In some countries it's not an issue, in fact falling population is, however globally it is a major factor. Coupled with climate change, the proliferation of nuclear arsenals and competition for ever decreasing resources, especially drinking water, one wonders whether human civilisation will still exist in 2,000 years time.
 
The World has never been cruel and is not now. Individuals can do cruel things or, if in positions of power, encourage and empower others to do cruel things. Individuals can refuse to do those things or choose to do them - in either case directly or indirectly. This has always been so and will continue to be so.

Another issue is that what one person considers cruel another does not; what one country considers reasonable in terms of how men, women, children; those of different ethnicity; sexual orientation etc. are treated is not universal and never has been and never will.

The answer? There is none.
 
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I was thinking of starting a thread about this subject, what was better in the olden days. Then I sat down and thought about and couldn't find much, if anything.
 
RJohan said:
I was thinking of starting a thread about this subject, what was better in the olden days. Then I sat down and thought about and couldn't find much, if anything.
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The only thing I can think of is 1950s school dinners. Nearly every kid had them and they were nutritionally perfect. They were measured for the right amount of vitamins and calories etc and a healthy generation was the result. That was advanced planning at its best.
 
I appreciate the more intrusive nature that we are held accountable for our actions from an obligation perspective (if you get what I mean) e.g. policing, health, government.

The flip side is that, in some instances, this means everyone with an opinion voices it, especially on social media. This thread has examples of it - also arguing over diction and phrasing, and being quite pointed when responding.

I do think, again in some cases, we have lost the art of politeness, discretion, and patience. The use of emotional intelligence isn't as prevalent.

However I don't think it was much better in the 70's. We have previous posters giving examples of being bullied at school, and finding solace at home with their loved ones. That post resonated enough with me to write this post on this thread.
 
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