BS: how can people be such b*****s !!!

Subject: RE: BS: how can people be such b*****s !!!
From: MAV
Date: 09 Sep 01 - 02:13 PM

Hey Kendall,

I believe it is my God given right to defend myself, and, even though the second amendment is often misinterpreted

Looks like YOU got it right mister.

mav out

Subject: RE: BS: how can people be such b*****s !!!
From: MAV
Date: 09 Sep 01 - 02:13 PM

Hey Kendall,

I believe it is my God given right to defend myself, and, even though the second amendment is often misinterpreted

Looks like YOU got it right mister.

mav out

Subject: RE: BS: how can people be such b*****s !!!
From: GUEST,Edward
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 12:34 PM

To answer the original question - people can be such bastards because they dehumanize other people. For whatever reason, they don't see an individual, or a class of person, or sometimes anyone outside their own immediate gang, as a human being like themselves.

This may be because they're evil, or emotionally damaged, or lacking the connections in the brain required for empathy, or raised badly, or just immature; but people who see and rightly condemn their actions are not in a position to judge the reason for it. Dehumanizing them in turn by epithets like 'scum' and 'son of a bitch' only reinforces the them and us mentality and ultimatly leads to situations like those we see in Belfast today.

I'm not talking from any moral high ground here. I've been socked in the face twice by strangers in the street and half-strangled by a highly-strung friend. But I did something myself long ago when I was young and had less control over my temper: somebody deliberately and just for fun destroyed something he knew mattered to me and since he was only about 10, but for luck (I hit his head on grass not concrete)I might even be the ultimate pariah, a child-killer and people would be calling me 'scum' and 'son of a bitch'.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that yelling at people and reacting violently doesn't help.

Subject: RE: BS: how can people be such b*****s !!!
From: Steve in Idaho
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 06:20 PM

I too am sorry about your friend - I am glad that he is alive and filled with the spirit of healing. It is incidents like this that reinforce my willingness to carry a concealed weapon (very legal) with the prayer that I never need to use it.

And Morticia is a Social Worker? How interesting - so am I. Did we not have a thread about social workers here a while back?