The Dark Side Of Humanity - Unrecognized And Under Estimated
As a human being, we know good from bad and right from wrong but still, that doesn't keeps us by committing some bad behavior. Sometimes we, willingly or unwillingly, do some bad things even though we know we're doing wrong things which could have consequences in the future, but we do it anyway.
Lust, greed, envy, anger and revenge are some 'dark' traits we like to avoid - but turns out, we can't help it. Our mind has tendency to attract towards dark and easy things which gives temporary pleasure. Sometimes we take pride in our dark acts because our mind craves it.
War and violence are fueled by human greed and envy which human can't get rid of. Genocide has never resolved any problems – in fact it made existing problems worse than ever. Why human trafficking, drugs, alcohol, prostitution and pornography exist in this World? It's simple because there are many people who craves it and even motivates it. Remember there's no supply without demand.
The perfect example of the Dark side of Human Nature is the event of Holocaust. It was a traumatic experience to human history and still has it's dark roots buried deep into some people's mind. Before it happened, no one ever predicted that humans can be capable of such heinous act which made into reality by Adolf Hitler. Holocaust had shown the shameful, greedy and genocidal side of human being which took the 'Dark Side' of humanity on a whole new heights just because Hitler wanted revenge.
There are numerous acts we engage in our daily life which represents our dark side. Racism, bullying, destructive criticism, envy, lust, revenge, greed and selfishness are few of the dark acts we commit on a daily basis. We do know all these activities are wrong, yet we commit them anyways because that's what our inner self desires. That's what we wanted for so long, so whenever we get the chance, we took it anyways without caring about anything.
Now I believe humans are losing their humanity because now no one cares about anyone but himself. 'Every person for itself' mindset has been deeply rooted in human mind and this openly represents the dark side of humanity. People are replacing love for casual relationships, kindness for practicality, goodness for hatred and envy, now what else to remain.
Now the time has come, people should think of changing themselves first, then think about changing the World.
Thanks for reading.
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Hello, I can relate to this post, I have felt this way many times. However what most people don't realise is that their perception of the world is not their perception of the world, it is their schemata's perception of the world which influences how they perceive it.
I have copied the definition of Schema directly from Wikipedia to further elaborate-
"Schema Psychology- In psychology and cognitive science, a schema describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information. Schemata influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge: people are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit. Schemata have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information. Schemata can help in understanding the world and the rapidly changing environment. People can organize new perceptions into schemata quickly as most situations do not require complex thought when using schema, since automatic thought is all that is required"
Schema (psychology) - Wikipedia
If this is your view of the world you will seek out and identify with information which supports your concepts. This is subconscious, you can consciously alter your schema, look for the person handing a sandwich to the homeless guy, look for the local charity event in your area and go and observe how many people will give up their time and money with no return for the benefits of others, often strangers, altruistic acts are all around you. Don't focus on the negativity, it is there and it is strong, but so are we :)
All the darkness in the world cant extinguish the light from a single candle.
Yeah, that is really a great explanation to 'How our Mind works' theory. So basically the conclusion is, if we want and we choose to be strong and decide to walk on the road to positivity, then even our own darkness would not be able to stop us. If I conclude it right, that would be the meaning of this information you have provided to me.
And yeah, I am pretty sure that you are right at your perception. Humans do have extra-ordinary skills to compress our feelings and we can use that for compressing our dark emotions.
That is really a good concept, thanks a lot @caronellis for spreading some light on this matter.
I do apologise I have just realised that English may be your second language? I should have explained things a bit better for you, but yes you have understood the meaning of what I was trying to express.
There is positive and negative, or light and dark, good and evil, whatever you want to call it, all around us. We live in a duality. We each have aspects of both inside of us.
Your Schema, or preconceived thoughts and beliefs have lead you to this conclusion - "Now I believe humans are losing their humanity because now no one cares about anyone but himself". This is just not true, but this is what you believe the world is like so your brain will specifically pay attention to anything that confirms this bias, for example, a news story, or a post on social media about some horrible event that has taken place. And it will filter out things which go against your beliefs, so you might skip past any stories of good news as you brain does not draw your attention to it.
This video should help you understand.
Yeah, I watched this video and come to a conclusion that If we train our mind or keep our mind busy for some particular things, say for example the positive things like helping others, showing kindness, then our mind will never go to the negative thoughts. This video helped a lot to understand this whole schema.
But my concern was for whole humanity, most of the people don't have control on their actions and thoughts, and they are more prone to this dark side factor of humanity.
Anyways thanks a lot @caronellis . You have made things more clear.
I know what you mean, it is overwhelming sometimes to realise the state of affairs on this planet and feel so differently about things, and think differently. But shift your focus to finding projects and people who are in control of their thoughts and actions, you will realise there is light at the end of the tunnel :) Great chatting to you.
Yeah, actually I am already on the brighter side of humanity. I just wrote this article to make people aware about the whole situation so that they could at least try to learn the ill effects of having a dark side and develop their good side with more enthusiasm.
And yeah, it's great to have a chat with you too. You really have a good mindset, people should learn things from you. Wish you all the success on Steemit or whatever you're doing. Thank you @caronellis
Steven Pinker wrote a book, The Better Angels of our Nature, showing how physical violence in the world has declined steadily. Here's his TED lecture on the same topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence
However I do think that in place of physical violence, we now use psychological violence, like the bullying and racism examples you gave. Basically people are moving on to more surreptitious forms of violence.
But their need to be violent I think might be revealing of some more fundamental injustice being done to them. For instance systemic injustice, like having to work 2 jobs to make a 'living' wage. As a result of that injustice they may turn to violence, crime, etc.