Flying Dutchman:
You know, I respect people who go through hell and still turn out to be nice to others. More often than not, however, I find that they are people who have some kind of foundation in religion which gives them the strength to continue to (as some would put it) be human. Of course, being an atheist, it rings hollow with me because I don’t believe in that kind of thing.
Just because everyone is working against each other need not necessarily mean that it is no longer a society. There are various definitions of a society (taken from the Merriam-Webster dictionary):
Companionship or association with one’s fellows : friendly or intimate intercourse.
This, of course, is your definition.
The other ones if you read further down are:
a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests OR a part of a community that is a unit distinguishable by particular aims or standards of living or conduct : a social circle or a group of social circles having a clearly marked identity
This is a definition more applicable to what I am talking about. The former in terms of everyone collectively trying to capitalise on something within the law, the latter all having the aim of making more money.
I guess you could say what I am trying to say is that you are right that it may not be a “society” as we would prefer to know it, i.e. a friendly one. More likely it will be a competitive one held together by fear of the law (goes back to the might is right thing).
ckin2001:
About your experiences with idiots, when you talk about homemade shotgun blanks, it sounds more like any untoward event that happened to you was an accident by people who were still largely your friends. After the incident, they are still your friends (albeit foolish ones). In my case, it was being (as the saying goes) “Biting the hand that feeds you”.
Re: Giving hope to the homeless. First off, you may be interested to know that some beggars can make more money off begging than working class people. Secondly, there are charities that are meant to give such hope to them - offering some kind of work, shelter and food. Of course, I think that such charities should be disbanded and the money spent on things like police or infrastructure development, but a charity is a charity and if people want to go give their money away that is their business.
Yeah, yeah, I know I’m a bastard but hey, I’m happy with my attitude towards people – I’m merely giving what I received – and in real life I try not to show it anyway.