Issodhos,
When you walk the streets, turn on the telly, listen to the radio you do indeed see the pack in action. Mostly doing things to survive and to help their friends and family survive, doing things also to help the world at large. If one were to look at all the actions of the pack collectively and over the centuries I think you will find more good than evil. History books are written by the victors and invariably paint the losers as evil. Those bloody paw prints you see are accompanied by many many more you simply don't see because there is no blood nor avarice to make them as clear.
Removing yourself from society at large and claiming no kin nor debt to your race is nothing new, self centered and greedy people have always existed and always will. You may set yourself above me and the rest of humanity, you may set yourself apart. This is nothing new, this is nothing commendable.
Oh really, Greger? There are just a few problems here once the warm and fuzzy kumbayesque fluff is blown off of your and some other posts. You wish to support the claim that
individuals “owe” ‘humanity’, yet your very first example is one of you “owing” respect ONLY to those (
individuals) you (as an
individual) “deem worthy of it. You have demonstrated here that you do not think you “owe” ‘humanity’ respect – only
individuals you deem worthy. I agree.
You then claim to “owe” kindness to your fellow man because some
individuals showed it to you. Has not ‘humanity’ shown enough kindness to you for you to “owe” ‘humanity’ kindness and so state it here as an example --- or did that kindness come from
individuals who bestowed it upon you (
another individual)?
And then you say you don’t “owe” anything to charity but you give anyway in anticipation of possibly getting some of it back in the future. I agree in part. You do not owe anything to charity if you have not received it. Never the less, one gives simply because one thinks it is a good thing to do, doesn’t one?
Then you state that you “owe many debts of gratitude” to
individuals for what those
individuals did for you –
individuals again, not ‘humanity’.
And now you want to revert from humanity to the actions of
individuals leaving their
individual foot prints unseen. I think if the warm and fuzzy kumbayaesque fluff is blown from your and a number of other posts we find that you and others have not shown any specific example of “what, if anything do we as individuals owe humanity?” which is the actual originating question asked in this thread.
Your stating that I am self-centered and greedy and seek to set myself above and separate from others simply shows that you, like a number of others here, mistakenly interpret a rejection of coerced giving and unwarranted demand as also rejecting voluntary giving and interaction.
I’ll close by suggesting that your way, the way of the “pack”, is what put George Bush into the White House – twice. That alone is enough to relegate your way to the dustbin of a long and bloody history.;-)
Yours,
Issodhos
