The Truth About Human Nature On Display

It pains me when I hear about some of the stupid things that we as people do to one another, or at least it used to. After a certain amount of time passes and more of the ridiculous and idiotic things we do to each other comes to light, the more it starts to dawn on me that maybe these aren't one of situations but rather the true representation of our human nature. Maybe, just maybe, we are all inherently bad with touches of good instead of the other way around like people try to persuade us we are.

It should have never taken so long to help the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

I never used to think that this was even a remote possibility but it becomes more and more of a distinct possibility with each news broadcast I see, with each documentary I watch on HBO about Hurricane Katrina and how slow the US Government was to help out its own people (preferring instead to spend Billions waging war on people thousands of miles away), or about 3 innocent boys convicted of murders they did not commit in Arkansas and incarcerated for nearly 20 years because of it (only released because of the judge that convicted them leaving his position and their signing off on a type of plea deal that basically makes it seem as if they did commit the crimes in order to be released with time served instead of having to die for something they didn't do).

If not for the evil of hatred, these 2 men would have changed the world decades ago....

Then there was the documentary about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a man who was going to change the world in even more profound ways than the ways that we all believed his brother was going to do before his own untimely assassination in November of 1963. It seems as if we are living in a time when every so often a shining beacon of light comes into the world that could bring about fundamental change, and just as quickly as it appears, that same beacon is either dimmed by scandal or political gridlock or it is extinguished completely. Look at US President Barrack Obama, who came blasting into power on a platform of changing the system, only to be completely stymied by the older white republican base that would prefer to wage war on everyone and make billions off of their deaths while keeping most Americans scared to death, then to actually allow the winds of change to blow through their country and make the world a better place.


I have kind of started developing this thought process because of that dumb radio commercial I have been hearing from Lisa Loeb, that former singer from the early 1990's who has done nothing with her life ever since (or at least nothing of note other then live it). Not sure if you have heard it but its basically just her talking about her doing something to prove that human nature is actually good by holding the door for someone. How that show that people are "inherently good" (as she puts it), I have no idea. That, to me is more about being polite. Being polite does not necessarily make you good. The commercial makes no sense.

 This is the way some people think we can "save the world"

The only thing it does is make me think of the exact opposite. Just read the news one day a week and you will read about all kinds of disgusting things we do to each other. From the Tori Stafford murder trial to the way we treat the environment to the way RIM is being destroyed by greedy investors who have been purposely short trading their stock (basically betting that RIM stock would go lower and lower and making shitloads of cash in the process) destroying a Canadian Company that was the innovator of so many cell phone innovations we now take for granted.

A good man and his company shall be destroyed by the pettiness and greed of others.....

There are the human rights violations in China, Tibet and Taipei. The Syrian and Middle East conflicts which are still raging, the austerity measure in Europe where the average worker is bearing the brunt of government cuts yet not a single Government minister has seen even the slightest cut in his or her pension/salary/perks in countries like Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece. We are seeing massive student protests continuing now for over 12 weeks in Quebec over proposed massive tuition increases which are being forced upon them by an unforgiving provincial government. This is just the basic news too. Is it any wonder why I try not to watch "Reality" TV and focus on Sports instead?

 When will Eurozone politicians stop picking on the pensions and wages of the everyday worker 

and focus on their own salaries and pensions? Never, that's when...

It has gotten to the point where something good actually happening is such a rarity you hardly see on the news that you can go weeks between top headline stories that are actually good news stories. Almost every single major headline is either a scandal or a death, robbery, murder or rape. The news has gotten so graphic that I find it appalling that they don't have that viewer discretion is advised thing pop up before each and every story, instead it pops up after every commercial break for family guy. What the F&%K?!?!?!


Suffice it to say that my opinion of human nature has taken a major hit over the years. It is very rare to find some good news in the world today and when you do, it's usually a "miraculous" occurrence or something along the lines of being of a divine nature. Unfortunately, some of that "evil" human nature creeps into the sporting world as can be seen right after the Washington Capitals upset the Boston Bruins in overtime of Game #7. Joel Ward, a black Canadian, scored the winner setting of a torrent of hate being spewed against him on both Twitter and other websites online. The only thing those disgusting posts proved to me was just that the amount of respect I have for some people may be a little too high. There is no need in the sporting world (or really ever) to spew that kind of hate at someone over something that happened in a sporting event. It's so useless.

 What should have been the best night of his life, quickly turned into a vile, heinous

night when the true nature of Twitter and the internet reared its ugly head

It's gotten so bad that we are now at a point where our everyday heroes are being so grossly over looked and forgotten, in some cases even being shown to be corrupt on so many levels like the way movies portray our heroic police officers. Our firefighters are marginalized and made to work part-time hours, our teachers are being forced to deal with politicians that would sooner cut the salaries of people who help shape our future then take a hard look in the mirror and realize how vastly over paid they themselves are.

We are now forced to turn to our more modern literature to see versions of ourselves that we wish would be on display in our everyday lives. Our comic book heroes are coming to life in film to show us what "humanity can become". Just in the last few years we have seen a TV series based on Superman come to a conclusion after 10 years on the air, movies based on Spiderman, the X-Men, Green Lantern, Wolverine, Batman, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America and their merger film, the Avengers (out this Friday in theatres everywhere).

 We have to look to fictional heroes because of how we marginalize the everyday heroes all around us

We look upon these "Super Heroes" as what we hope to be, as examples of the best aspects of humanity; courage, valour, honour and loyalty. All of the most noble nature that on so many occasions are sorely lacking in the reality we call life. All traits that are so hardly ever found around us that we have to glorify the literary versions of them and make them come to life to give future generations examples of what we can be, but sadly, have very little chance of ever becoming.

We have the ability to be good and bad, to be able to commit to being great or being and acting in an evil manner and yet the majority of people choose the lesser of the two. Why? Because it is easier to do. Because being good is too difficult or boring for some to want to be. One of the lines from one of the Super Hero movies I mentioned earlier mentions how with great power comes great responsibility. It is within each of us to have the ability to achieve great things. The fact that for the great multitude of people we don't is yet another example of how people choose the easier path, the one with less resistance. The one that puts on display all the bad aspects of our human nature that we see all around us on each and every day.

 The whole world needs an "Uncle Ben" moment right about now....

Some times I wish I was living in a comic book-type of fictional world. At least in those stories, the good guy and the good aspects of our human nature (eventually) win out over the evil ones. It doesn't appear that that will be the case in this world any time soon....