Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

I was just reading, "The Lord of the Flies", and the book brings up the issue of violence being human nature. In this book (I hoping you have read, thou illiterate pigs ) A bunch of schoolboys land on an island during WWII, they end up in tribes and such and become savages. What do you think provokes violence, nature, or situations? Does violence bring joy to people?

(I'm hoping this hasn't been discussed, if it has, lock it and direct me towards it, please)

We do it because we were never mean't by god to become the dominating species on earth. So it's like a vacation, a traumatic, painful vacation.

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Not sure what your personal beliefs are, but in the interest of covering all sides, I will give you my opinion as a Christian.

First, I do not agree with Mr. Sparkle, as good as his laundry detergent may be. I believe mankind IS meant to be the dominant creature on Earth, as evidenced by what God said:

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." - Genesis 1:28

Anyway...through Adam and Eve, sin was introduced into the world, and it was at that point that humanity as a whole became cursed. We are all born with an inherent sinful nature. People are born with a nature to tend toward certain types of sin...for example, lust is a sin I struggle often with, while others have very little problems with it. Some people are born with a nature that makes them violent, I am not one of those people (I'm more of a doormat ^^;; ).

Also, and it's interesting that this coincides with the topic, when a human's survival is threatened, morals and decency seem to go out the window. Just look at what people are doing in the wake of Katrina to see that. People looting and murdering and raping, shooting at rescue copters...it's pretty sad.

I'd have to say that violence doesn't bring joy to most people, but that they feel it is necessary in the interest of self-preservation.

So I'd say both those answers you gave are correct. It is due to both the fact that we live in a fallen world (our sinful nature) and also the situations that we get thrown into that make people act in violent ways.

Well, there's my two shiny pennies.

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DISCLAIMER: The preceding post was the opinions of Nate, and should be taken as his two cents. Actual exchange rate may vary by location, see stores for details, void where prohibited under penalty of torture.

It's not like I can easily give up...the feelings...of needing her. - Sohma Hatsuharu

It's human nature to gravitate towards that which is repressed, which is one of the reasons you find that parochial schools have absurdly high numbers of teen pregnancies and whatnot.

Violence is nature in general, though. Haven't you guys ever just sat around and watched animals interact? Watch dogs play, they'll beat the hell out of each other, cats with chew on animals until killing them finally, animals eat other animals, males fight to the death for dominance in packs, intruders or those attempting to take food get ripped apart. Violence is all over the place in nature.

Humans, being animals, are no different. In nature, if someone is about to take your meal you'd beat them until they ran away or until they beat you worse and took your food. This is an inherent part of being an animal, and a few hundred years of civilization (I'm starting at around 1600 since most of us aren't descendants of royalty) aren't going to counteract eons of genetic predisposition.

Moreover, like my first paragraph said, when you're consantly held back from taking your aggression out on anything or anyone physically, if you ever find yourself in a situation where no one has the power to stop you, you're gonna go completely insane, see N'awlins for reference.

I just started Lord of the Flies in class. I just finished the fourth chapter. But NEways....

I like to believe that humans are ideally good. I'm an optimist like that. In the ideal situation, they are going to be peacefull and happy and whatnot.

However, the problem is that the situation isn't always ideal, mostly because of human urges brought on by the natural instinct to survive. food, sleep, ect. When people are deperate, they'll do anything to get those. That's where negativity emerges from.

In the book, the island is set up as an eden-like place, and when humans arrive, we see the first indications of some evil on it. The scar from the crash, the coconuts that look like skulls, ect.

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Violence makes some people happy, that's why boxing and ultimate fighting are televised sports. Violence isn't human nature but it's an instict, to fight for what you need to protect.

Por Exemplo: It's been seen in sleep studies that in (heterosexual) married couples that the males are drawn to the side of the bed that's closest to the door of the room so they can protect their partner if need be. This has also been seen in the caves of cavemen, that the strongest man of the cave would sleep closest to the mouth of the cave to protect everyone else.

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RIP Nathan "Buz" Buzdor

ya know, i dont think that humans are the dominent species. you have to think....... what animal can you find everywhere in the world, which there are more of than humans???? easy....... Rodents. rats and mice are everywhere, we have no way to take care of them without killing them. ohh, and as for violent nature of humans, yeah, we are naturally violent. i mean, if we werent, then, lets use this as an example: Two Rap Artists have a Crew, and the first rappers crew are gettin all mad cause the other rapper and his crew are makin all the Bills, so they decide to take a whack at em to see if they can get a little scratch of somthin somthin of there profits. there, so intern they begin to get into a war, first battling, then fist fighten, then Doin some Drive bys of the other rappers crew. so in the end, we are all naturally violent. but thats just one example. there are many others to show that we are. but i belive i am wrong, for everyone can be a kind hearted person, but because of the world we live in today, everyone is Dog-Eat-Dog.

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I don't think humans are inherently violent. I don't think humans are inherently anything. The sheer complexity of the human condition makes it ridiculous to make sweeping assumptions about how people turn out. And yes, violence does bring joy to some people, but as with the even more extreme kicks available to be had (and none of the examples I can think of are suitable for this forum), there are issues of social conditioning and upbringing to be considered there

Man, I promised myself I was going to stay the hell out of this forum as well...

I believe the french philosphe Thomad Hobbes who said that all humans are greedy and violent by nature so we must accept a social contract to follow the boundaries of society. In my view he is right. I mean look at those anarchist punks beatin on the rednecks and the new wavers.

RRRRRRRIIIIGHT NOW!!!!
(i hope one of you gets the 2 jokes)

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Thomas Hobbes? He believed that people were naturally greedy and easily corruptable (which isn't that too far off in mark in some cases) but he also believed that because of this we needed an all powerful monarchy to keep everyone in check. Would you like that to happen again? I didn't think so.

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RIP Nathan "Buz" Buzdor

Did i ever say i agreed with the monarchial side of his thinking? No, I just believe that people are that way, by nature. You looked into that tp much. Sorry if i came off as supporting monarchy. I'm still sad you guys didn't get the jokes.

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