![[Signifying Nothing]](/local/memlogo-1.png "Welcome to Signifying Nothing")
I like to think that most people, at heart, try to do the right thing. Moreover, I have to wonder how people can get along in their daily lives operating under the assumption that people who don’t agree with them do so out of malice or spite. It seems like having that attitude would destroy one’s soul after a while.
Then again, maybe I’m just in a melancholy mood from putting together a bunch of IRB paperwork and finishing up my lecture notes on multiple regression, or perhaps just from stopping Love Actually at the emotional low point of the film.
![[Permalink]](/images/permalink.png "Permanent link to this entry"){kind=small}
Recent posts
![[The GIMP]](/buttons/gimp.png "The GIMP"){kind=small}
![[Steal These Buttons!]](/buttons/steal.png "Steal These Buttons!"){kind=small}
2 comments:
“I like to think that most people, at heart, try to do the right thing”
Perhaps it’s my own “humans are scum” mood arising, but I think that most people equate the “right thing” with “what’s best for me.” The fact that most do it unconsciously doesn’t make it any better.
So where can I turn for some uplifting words about humanity….how about the Good Book?
Micah 7:3 “Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice (NRSV)”
…color me uplifted.
Granted, peoples’ perceptions of the right thing are colored by self-interest. I just don’t think self-interest is overriding.
Then again, I’m an optimist when it comes to human behavior (I come from the “groups are evil” school—was that Niebuhr?).