Thread: is there something seriously wrong with some people

people who hurt other people...

we all know the stories : it wasn't really meant that way...

but is there something seriously wrong with the minds of some people ?

some people who are walking around somewhere in the world right now and who may inflict pain to ohers in the future well something like that...

I mean what about people who's minds REALLY don't understand the concept of inflicting pain to someone else well enough...

so not something like "Oh I understand the crime or whatever" but like what??? that person's mind doesn't get the basics of pain...

well ?

There are such things as Sadists in the world.

Firstly: this is not Philosophy.

Originally Posted by Outside the box

people who hurt other people...

In what way?
Physical?
Emotional?
Financial?

we all know the stories : it wasn't really meant that way...

What do you mean by "it wasn't meant"?

but is there something seriously wrong with the minds of some people ?

Define "wrong".
Define "some people".

some people who are walking around somewhere in the world right now and who may inflict pain to ohers in the future well something like that...
I mean what about people who's minds REALLY don't understand the concept of inflicting pain to someone else well enough...
so not something like "Oh I understand the crime or whatever" but like what??? that person's mind doesn't get the basics of pain...
well ?

I think you should learn to express yourself better.

The current OP statement is slightly too general for me to understand the point or relate to it.



(The masochists tells the sadist 'please hurt me',
the Sadist says with an evil voice 'no! hahahaha')

Originally Posted by dan hunter

There are such things as Sadists in the world.

And masochists. The trick is getting them together.

But surely the sadist (knowing what the masochist wants) would do nothing

There's no need to discriminate against masochists.
They should be given a fair crack of the whip.

Originally Posted by Dywyddyr

There's no need to discriminate against masochists.
They should be given a fair crack of the whip.

or a fair whip on the crack...

*gets coat*

Originally Posted by PhDemon

Originally Posted by Dywyddyr

There's no need to discriminate against masochists.
They should be given a fair crack of the whip.

or a fair whip on the crack...

*gets coat*

I think this is all getting VERY SILLY…...

Originally Posted by Outside the box

but is there something seriously wrong with the minds of some people ?

Yes.

http://www.thescienceforum.com/trash...-question.html

people who hurt other people...

Far and away, the great majority of people like this are psychologically normal. They just happen to be nasty people.

Some nasty people start out as pretty standard but not very nice on some subject or other - take race or religion as the prime examples. If they get mixed up with others like them or live in an area, or even a whole country, where bad behaviour is excused or, all too often, openly encouraged in this particular respect, then they can do deeply evil things on very little provocation. If that bad behaviour is praised and rewarded, then pretty soon they're taking their kids to picnics to watch and enjoy the lynching.

I'd use the KKK and depression era Germany as my two examples. Other people might choose one brief, desperate period in Rwanda's recent past or Mao Zedong's Red Guards or all those people dobbing in their neighbours to the Stasi in East Germany.

And of course, some people can be more or less forced into bad behaviour for fear of even worse behaviour directed at them or their families. I'd put a lot of the horribleness of Stalin's regime down to this. I realise that this sort of random cruelty was quite common during the time of the czars and after the revolution, but Stalin's particular version of florid psychiatrically abnormal threats and mass executions and brutal exiles made it just that little bit worse.

It takes a very brave person to stand up in favour of decency and kindness when everyone around you is either passively going along or actively enjoying their big chance at real cruelty.

What the OP is describing is a lack of empathy. Merriam-Webster online gives a definition of empathy as: "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this". Basically, a person with empathy can feel other people's pain. To those of us who have a strong empathic sense, it seems universal. However, a lot of people have no noticeable trace of empathy. Such people only refrain from hurting others if they see negative consequences, such as being jailed for breaking the law. You will hear such people say things like "why not, its not illegal?" Beware those who can't grasp things don't have to be illegal to be wrong.

some people who are walking around somewhere in the world right now and who may inflict pain to ohers in the future well something like that...

I mean what about people who's minds REALLY don't understand the concept of inflicting pain to someone else well enough...

so not something like "Oh I understand the crime or whatever" but like what??? that person's mind doesn't get the basics of pain...

The first requirement for this to have any meaning is that the person may be quite empathetic, helpful, even kind to another person. What happens when they don't recognise the other as a person?

Some people think of various other people as being lesser people than themselves or not a person at all. This happens a lot in some racial conflicts, especially when you look at how most indigenous people have been treated by the now-dominant groups in their areas. And it's equally bad when a dominant indigenous group wants to de-personalise people who've migrated to their country or who were brought there as slaves or indentured labour. Think Malaysia, Fiji, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Africa for various versions of these kinds of population mixes where people's personhood is denigrated, restricted, denied or legally obliterated (by not being included in the census for example).

Similar considerations apply to attitudes about violence and cruelty to children and women. Where the law and/or the culture treats people as the property of other people, as women and children have been for most of recorded history, it takes more than some legislation to overturn the habits of mind and its associated bad behaviour in three generations or less. (Or not at all in too many countries.)

Pessimists decry the painful state of the world: revolutions, wars, genocide, rapes, murders, etc.

An optimist recognises two things:

1. The qualitative leap in news gathering and distribution has made us very much more aware of such negative events.
2. The bar of decency and acceptable behaviour has been rising intermittently, but progressively over at least the last two centuries.

Things are better than they were; there is plenty of room for improvement; we are making that improvement.

I'm an optimist.

Originally Posted by John Galt

Pessimists decry the painful state of the world: revolutions, wars, genocide, rapes, murders, etc.

An optimist recognises two things:

1. The qualitative leap in news gathering and distribution has made us very much more aware of such negative events.
2. The bar of decency and acceptable behaviour has been rising intermittently, but progressively over at least the last two centuries.

Things are better than they were; there is plenty of room for improvement; we are making that improvement.

I'm an optimist.

Guess i'm a pessimist.

Pessimists decry the painful state of the world: revolutions, wars, genocide, rapes, murders, etc.

An optimist recognises two things:

1. The qualitative leap in news gathering and distribution has made us very much more aware of such negative events.
2. The bar of decency and acceptable behaviour has been rising intermittently, but progressively over at least the last two centuries.

Things are better than they were; there is plenty of room for improvement; we are making that improvement.

I'm an optimist.

agreed

We all have our motivations for things.