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08-22-2005, 08:35 PM

Well, I disagree with the "life is just a bowl of cherries" theory. Come on, if life were that wonderful, why would folks have any reason to cop an attitude in the first place? If you want to look to anthropology for answers, try looking at the Polynesian peoples. Nice tropical climate, plenty of good food, nice ocean, lots of free love, and great sunny attitudes until the white boys showed up. I don't think the human species evolved to be unhappy. And sure, you can find an occasional person whose entire family was murdered by drug crazed members of some cult or a person living at 300% below the Federal poverty guidelines who is being evicted from his home who is somehow happy as a lark and quotes Anne Frank, saying "I think there must be some good in everyone." Generally, such individuals have severe personality disorders and should be locked up for the good of society, let's face it.

I think the reasons for the animosity you see on the Internet are:

1) Its really pretty impersonal. You don't see the person you are replying to. Its just words on a computer screen. Outside of road rage, people are at least minimally civilized to one another in real life - mano a mano.

2) People feel powerless to do much about issues that really upset them and may even impact them personally. Fine, you read all about the hole in the ozone layer and then find out that your aunt is dying of a melanoma. Is there much you can do about this? Not really. You can join 10 worthy environmental causes and tithe 10% of your paycheck to cancer research, but you're still going to be attending your aunt's funeral in about 6 months.

So, some innocent posts something about "stupid environmentalists". Its time to go in for the kill big time! After all, its just the computer, right?

08-22-2005, 08:35 PM	#7
marichiko Guest Posts: n/a	Well, I disagree with the "life is just a bowl of cherries" theory. Come on, if life were that wonderful, why would folks have any reason to cop an attitude in the first place? If you want to look to anthropology for answers, try looking at the Polynesian peoples. Nice tropical climate, plenty of good food, nice ocean, lots of free love, and great sunny attitudes until the white boys showed up. I don't think the human species evolved to be unhappy. And sure, you can find an occasional person whose entire family was murdered by drug crazed members of some cult or a person living at 300% below the Federal poverty guidelines who is being evicted from his home who is somehow happy as a lark and quotes Anne Frank, saying "I think there must be some good in everyone." Generally, such individuals have severe personality disorders and should be locked up for the good of society, let's face it. I think the reasons for the animosity you see on the Internet are: 1) Its really pretty impersonal. You don't see the person you are replying to. Its just words on a computer screen. Outside of road rage, people are at least minimally civilized to one another in real life - mano a mano. 2) People feel powerless to do much about issues that really upset them and may even impact them personally. Fine, you read all about the hole in the ozone layer and then find out that your aunt is dying of a melanoma. Is there much you can do about this? Not really. You can join 10 worthy environmental causes and tithe 10% of your paycheck to cancer research, but you're still going to be attending your aunt's funeral in about 6 months. So, some innocent posts something about "stupid environmentalists". Its time to go in for the kill big time! After all, its just the computer, right? Last edited by marichiko; 08-22-2005 at 08:39 PM.