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I've found, for myself, traveling a good portion of the US by bicycle tempers my pessimism about the world. Bad things happen, to be sure, and it is good (I th

by mjhoy 10y ago

I've found, for myself, traveling a good portion of the US by bicycle tempers my pessimism about the world. Bad things happen, to be sure, and it is good (I think) to stay informed of the news, but it is also good to see how kind, generous and caring most people are, and also how people not of your political, religious, or cultural ilk are not exactly the ignorant or immoral monsters you may have thought.

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hacknat 10y ago
Anh, this isn't a great model of humanity in my opinion. Most people seem pretty good when you talk to them, but we're all involved in massive negative externalities right now. Pinker might be right that we're less violent than we used to be, but we're just as greedy (if not more), and I think all that ill behavior is being channeled somewhere else. Where? The environment of course. Wealth has spread and poverty has diminished in the world, but we really shot ourselves in the foot doing it. Unless a massive technological innovation comes along in the next 30 years Pinker's observations are going to seem moronic (sure we were less violent, but billions of people ended up dying). Edit: To prove my point do a Ctrl-F and search for "environment" or "climate" in this article, you won't find them.
harshreality 10y ago
I think it's misleading to infer too much from that. Most people are nice to strangers, face to face. Maybe it's that you're suddenly a member of each other's in-group, and forming a basis to exclude the other person (becoming enemies) requires some initial behavioral or ideological incompatibility and enough time for it to germinate into enough of a conflict to sabotage the automatic friendly social interaction. However, just because strangers generally get along when they meet randomly, that doesn't say anything about the major problems that cause people to not get along once they know each other—incompatible ideologies, behavioral patterns that the other person can't tolerate, and so on. To pivot to another realm, a cop can be the nicest person in the world if you hang out with them at a neighborhood barbecue, and the next week they can be harassing people and ruining lives over drug possession.
- mjhoy 10y ago
  I agree with you. And yes, in my travels I have met, for instance, racist cops who are quite nice to me. (I am white.) Still. I see that the people who are the most afraid, the most angry, the most surprised that I would trust strangers not to kill me, are the people that watch the most news. They simply do not trust strangers, at all. The answer, I think, is somewhere in the middle.
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by mjhoy 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

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hacknat 10y ago

Anh, this isn't a great model of humanity in my opinion. Most people seem pretty good when you talk to them, but we're all involved in massive negative externalities right now. Pinker might be right that we're less violent than we used to be, but we're just as greedy (if not more), and I think all that ill behavior is being channeled somewhere else. Where? The environment of course. Wealth has spread and poverty has diminished in the world, but we really shot ourselves in the foot doing it. Unless a massive technological innovation comes along in the next 30 years Pinker's observations are going to seem moronic (sure we were less violent, but billions of people ended up dying). Edit: To prove my point do a Ctrl-F and search for "environment" or "climate" in this article, you won't find them.

harshreality 10y ago

I think it's misleading to infer too much from that. Most people are nice to strangers, face to face. Maybe it's that you're suddenly a member of each other's in-group, and forming a basis to exclude the other person (becoming enemies) requires some initial behavioral or ideological incompatibility and enough time for it to germinate into enough of a conflict to sabotage the automatic friendly social interaction. However, just because strangers generally get along when they meet randomly, that doesn't say anything about the major problems that cause people to not get along once they know each other—incompatible ideologies, behavioral patterns that the other person can't tolerate, and so on. To pivot to another realm, a cop can be the nicest person in the world if you hang out with them at a neighborhood barbecue, and the next week they can be harassing people and ruining lives over drug possession.

mjhoy 10y ago
I agree with you. And yes, in my travels I have met, for instance, racist cops who are quite nice to me. (I am white.) Still. I see that the people who are the most afraid, the most angry, the most surprised that I would trust strangers not to kill me, are the people that watch the most news. They simply do not trust strangers, at all. The answer, I think, is somewhere in the middle.

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