Then maybe I can scrounge up some things to change that. A lot of these things you may have seen, read, or done before, but for those who haven't.. First, a game that I think you all know about. There was a thread on it a few weeks back. It helps everybody. Improve your vocabulary - for every word you get right, 20 grains are donated to someone who could really use them. FreeRice And some things to read.. US Soldier in Iraq adopts child with cerebral palsy. 'Web of miracles' join soldier, disabled Iraqi boy - CNN.com Man hops a fence and sprints to catch a 2 year old who fell from a window. Pantagraph.com | News | Man saves child falling from window Man leaves woman $50,000. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/071228/koddities/oddity_posthumous_tip And some videos I found.. Some guy in a Guy Fawkes mask asks people to write on their hand what they would, I suppose, want the world to think more about. YouTube - One World He gets thousands of replies by either text-based comments, or actual videos of other people writing on their hands what they'd like us all to take into consideration. He montages a few of these into one video. YouTube - The Message The same guy. Just a little inspiration. YouTube - Inspire Some people from Australia, headed by a man named Juan, start a campaign. A free hugs campaign. YouTube - Free Hugs Campaign. (music by Sick Puppies.net album out) This gets pretty popular, and sparks interest in countries like China, Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, Scotland, and so many others that weren't able to bring a camera with them. YouTube - Free Hugs in KOREA YouTube - Free Hugs Amsterdam YouTube - Free Hugs in China! YouTube - FREE HUGS in NYC Carl Sagan speaks of how we are all in this together. YouTube - Carl Sagan, "We are one planet" Another good video by the Guy Fawkes man, similar to the "One World" video. . I look forward to the responses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0VS_3XmEpY This video isn't particularly related to humanities kindness, but I thought it was awe-inspiring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHkOQFF5ewk I will update this thread, whenever I, or you, stumble across something that would fit here.
You don't even have to go on line to see things happen. Look around your neighbourhood and see what people are doing to make the world a bit better and make you believe there is hope for us yet. Last year a man was christmas shopping and dropped off some canned goods at the food drive. He asked what they really needed and the lady said they didn't have any candy. He went to 2 stores and asked if he bought $200. worth of candy would they give him a discount. The one store did. He went and cleared out the candy aisle and the christmas candy display. The owner gave him a 50% discount plus vouchers for purchases since that was a promotion they were having. He got over $400 in candy and about $200 in vouchers which he gave as well. The volunteers went and bought items that they wouldn't have had without this man. All he said was Christmas is for kids. that is what makes people who we are. Not the gangs not the grinches it is normal everyday people trying to make the world a little nicer one good deed at a time.
Well said, Lessa! The man who did that had a heart of gold! And as for Free Rice and Free Hugs, I've done both! I love spreading joy!
They have a Free Rice program at my school. That's how we get our vocabulary done. That's my homework right there. And I'm telling the truth.
Well in Greece it probably wouldn't have happened. I'm actually glad I moved to California. Though my English is still horrible and I have a very heavy accent still.
nice try, folks!... the sad reality is that such things are the 'exceptions to the rule' in this human-made mess of a world... only when rape, torture, murder, war, and all the other everyday occurrences become rare exceptions, will i have any 'faith in humanity'... till then [which will never come about, sorry to say, due to mankind's violent nature], i'll go on noticing that mankind isn't... 'kind' that is... here's my take on the word: love and sorrowful hugs, maia
I do agree with what you say. Mankind is the wildest beast of them all. Never to be tamed. They have tamed themselves bad. I have little trust in humans.
I find it hard to read that someone has given up on humanity. I could never think that we as a race are so far gone that there is no hope. As long as one person smiles at another and recieves a smile in return, there is hope. As long as one person reaches a hand out to help a child walk his first steps there is hope. As long as one person stops and helps someone stranded in a ditch there is hope. I know as a group we seem to be a pretty bad lot, but individually we are a pretty awesome species. I for one hope and pray everyday that the individuals of the world conquer the mass of humanity.
I find it extremely hard to believe as well lessa. And not all of mankind is unkind maia. Over the last few days I have seen so many down and out people and all it took was time to walk up to them and say merry christmas to give them a massive smile and brighten their day. It isn't that mankind is unkind, it is that mankind has stopped doing the little things that make peoples lives worth while living and giving people something to smile about. I spent christmas with a freind who was on her own and it made her day. She had no one and I put all my plans on hold for her to make sure she wasn't alone. All it takes is one nice gesture, a smile even to make the world a better place. Just do something nice for someone and they will do the same for another person. This is a great thread, puts hope in everyones hearts that is for sure
900 Grains on Free Rice. Fun game. In response to maia, how can you say there is no hope for humanity whatsoever? Despite your belief of humanity's violent nature, you can still observe these acts. Therefore, isn't it even more inspiring seeing what these people have done? To me, humans are pretty much neutral. You're obviously not agreeing with these rapes, murders, torture, and war -- so doesn't it seem like it may not be what everyone wants? If were so quick to violence, why would society have ever created laws punishing those that commit these perceived wrongs? However, I believe what Edmund Burke said:[SIZE=-1] All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.[/SIZE]
I like a quote from Men in Black which I will now paraphrase. "Humans alone are smart. Together they are panicky, cowardly, stupid." When dealing with a single individual that person can be nice or violent, apathetic or generous, usually they don't actively try to be mean or destructive. But get us into gangs, mobs and large groups and all bets are off. So there is hope, we just have to figure out how to control the masses rather than focusing on the individual.
I disagree Dom. deal with and influence a single person. then that person concentrates on another one. You cannot shout down a crowd or mob but if you get to the one before he gets to the crowd you may stop the crowd especially if someone has reached a few as well. You have to get to people before they join forces. One good deed a day can make a big difference in this world.
you folks who seem to need to see a rosy side need to look at the whole world, not just your own neighborhoods and towns... and to study the whole history of humankind, not just the few random acts of niceness that have always been the exception and have never been the rule for the vast majority of the species... should you be brave enough to be honest enough to do so, you'd see my point... there have always been the aberrant few who do good deeds now and then... but they have never been able to overcome the predilection of the many to do evil... and that includes all the 'little' evils even 'good' folks do, as well as the great big awful ones commited by the more honest monsters among us... and that's why it's a hopeless exercise in futility to try to change this race into something it's not by its very nature...
I have studied history, and right now at least in the Western world we're living in a veritable golden age in regards to social concious. Kind of a scary thought. But I don't see it as bleakly as you do. If the entire race was as bad as you make it out to be we'd have killed ourselves off a long time ago. A lot of people are very evil, a few people are very good. Most of us are somewhere in between. We'll spite our neighbour but won't actually try to destroy them. We'll lie occasionally, but won't steal the bread from our neighbours mouth. We'll try to get what we want by various means, but won't cause irreparable harm to those around us to get it. If we were all evil we'd have torn ourselves apart shortly after leaving the tribal stage of development.
My faith in humanity does not suffer by the acts of the selfish and the cruel. Yes, I am appalled my rape, torture, murder, war, and the public's fascination with the lurid. But as long as there are people who reach out to help their neighbors, expecting nothing in return, humanity still lives and shines. It matters not that the news is dominated by horrors and cruelty. The teenager who runs after a man in the mall to hand him the wallet he dropped by the escalator (I saw that last Friday); the guy who overhears a young couple trying to find pine nuts in the supermarket, and stops what he's doing to go back and point out the bag of pignolas on the next shelf; the lady at the laundromat who warns a stranger to avoid the washing machine that sometimes quits mid-cycle; these little incidents show people being helpful just because they can. That is humanity at work. Never mind the bit on the evening news about someone donating a kidney to a dying child - these matter too, but it's the everyday behavior I see that impresses me the most.
Wellput Cogito. Stopdwelling on all the negatives out there. There is evil in everyone yeah sure. But there is so much goodness inpeople as well. Just takes a bit to bring it out in some people. If you open your eyes and your heart you will see that the world is just as good as it is evil. Just need to havea positive outlook on life. There is no point in being negative about it all as negativity gets you no where fast. Positive thinking will get you everywhere and believing mankind is evil...well that can lead you to a path of misery if you ask me!
...it's not my eyes that are closed... i've had them open to the entire world all my life, studying not only what i see and hear, but the history of the world and its inhabitants... and my heart can't be closed, since i've been doing nothing in my life for the past dozen years but helping others, can it?... ...the part of it where you live, maybe... but even that is questionable, if you look beneath the glossy top layer and see what festers below... on the whole, i'm sorry to have to tell you that is not at all true... to see the global truth, you have to watch the news constantly and tune into the history and animal planet and science and other learning channels, read books and newspapers and magazine articles... yes, it's a lot of work, but if you don't want to leave your head in the sand, it's necessary... ...when living a more or less ordinary life in a privileged part of the world, one can do that, torana, though sadly, the majority of folks on this planet who don't have your fortunate lifestyle can't... positive thinking will not get a raped mother and her starving to death child in darfur anywhere or make them feel any better, or keep a worshipper from being blown to bits in sri lanka... or keep the polar bears alive when the ice melts... and, as a philosopher, i have to study the whole ugly picture, can't just let myself ooh and ah at the pretty bits in it here and there and tell myself it's not all that bad...
Its a shame but I have to admit Im kind of forced to agree with Maia on this note. We do have it in us to change but there have to be the majority of us to want the change for better and saldy as a race in the whole we are greedy Christmas alone is proof of greed (I know there is a great amount of Joy in people also.) I have seen the horrors that some are suffering and at christmas I donate to make povery history. (After were I've been its the least I can do) There are many great things and many great people but there is so much hate that comes with the people we live amongst that its so sad. I beleive unless we change we may see worse times to come.
I agree with most of what maia said. People may not be naturally evil, but it's easier to do bad things instead of good. Let me rephrase that, it's easier to do nothing instead of something.
now, maybe I'm just a cynic, but uh... if they've got rice to be giving away, why should I have to earn it when they could just give it to poor, hungry people? Regardless, 2000 grains. personally I try to live by a sort of chivalry: I see something I can do to help and I'll try to do it. On the other hand, I'm shiftless, lazy, make fun of minorities, mock the establishment, and as previously stated I'm as cynical as can be. And I know there are others out there like me, who are less chivalrous, courteous, and even more shiftless. Indeed, often the world is out for it's self, little more than canis canum edit, and yet there are also the dogs that'll stop the dogs trying to eat the others. tl;dr: Yes, the world is going to Hell, it's been doing that for a long, long time though, and it's human nature to be that way. What's better than God and worse than the Devil? People.
They have ads on the site. Every time you get a word, the ads refresh. This way, the ads are paying for the rice.
