Beligerance
There's was an article in the newspaper today about how Western society was a world based on power. Friendship especially is based on power since people only make friends who can help them further their goals in life. You apparently don't make friends unless they're higher than you on the "power ladder".
I find this type of reasoning disturbing and full of more holes than my mother's latest knitting project. Really, we should just completely discount mutual interest, good will, and love. Those are just superfluous anomalies that mean nothing in this little vacuum that we're trying to create. Plus, there's also that little issue of "power ladder." If everyone's trying to climb up, then who's there to look down to help the less smart, socially apt, clumsy etc.?
The guy who wrote the article states that "young people" have a harder time believing in this theory because we are so naive and ignorant of the world. And maybe that's it, but there have been studies that show the human brain is hardwired to help one another. Basically on a neuron and cell level we're pretty damn altruistic, even when we think it's for our own gain. Sometimes a little faith in the positivity of human nature is a good thing.
I find this type of reasoning disturbing and full of more holes than my mother's latest knitting project. Really, we should just completely discount mutual interest, good will, and love. Those are just superfluous anomalies that mean nothing in this little vacuum that we're trying to create. Plus, there's also that little issue of "power ladder." If everyone's trying to climb up, then who's there to look down to help the less smart, socially apt, clumsy etc.?
The guy who wrote the article states that "young people" have a harder time believing in this theory because we are so naive and ignorant of the world. And maybe that's it, but there have been studies that show the human brain is hardwired to help one another. Basically on a neuron and cell level we're pretty damn altruistic, even when we think it's for our own gain. Sometimes a little faith in the positivity of human nature is a good thing.