Good People / Bad People

[Shawn]

I said that I didn't wanted to start a thread about this... But here I am again


And I'm starting now with the question: What a good person really is?


For me it's hard to explain, because every of us has been raised and encountered in life with many situations that has builded our own awareness of that meaning.


We can see on the news, for example, a some people who make some kind of things who may be considered 'bad', but in their minds they are doing those acts in name of a perfect or better society by political, religious, or philosophical reasons. (I don't want to offend any so I'll let yourself to bring your own conclusion about who those groups are)

Buy why?... Tradition should be the answer?... Dysfunctionality on their minds? but a Dysfunctionality can be collective to the point of involve whole countries?


... I don't know and that's what is my point about, maybe we, as how we have been raised consider this behavior unnatural or inappropriate... but I'm pretty sure that they should think the same about us.

Because the truth is that, it's really not stated what is good and what's bad... everything is just subjective.


But we don't have to go that 'global' to put those examples. We can see disparity in our everyday with people we know, maybe of our own city, neighborhood, or own home and family...


Imagine if one day you and your best friend decided to go on a restaurant and in the middle of the order he says to the waiter that he will not eat the meat menu because he has read that 'meat brings cancer' and you never knew in all the years you had met the dude that he doesn't eat meat by that reason.

In the other side you find yourself the best meat lover... BBQ, hamburgers, meatballs, stews...the list could be extensive about how many of those plates has passed through your mouth and they've been so delicious that you can't actually believe the dude is speaking about, such delicious things could bring a something so harmful as cancer is, you spoke to him arguing that all societies, most of the animals had been eating meat by millennials and thinking that way is no more thing than just absurd.

And then he started arguing back about how the life expectative has increased through all these years just because humans started to have a more balanced dieting, and the longest living societies are those ones who doesn't eat meat in their daily diet...


And what happened? yeah you started a fight with your best friend, just by such a simple thing.


Three things are actually happening there... First, yes they're arguing about a particular difference between them because of something that they had ALREADY LEARNED... Second because they're "trying" to defend their own conception about what's good vs what's bad, and third... We see it simple because we are not involved in the situation.


... that's not part of the main topic but worth it to mention, we usually see the things easier to resolve when we aren't part of the trouble.


And yeah, my personal opinion about this topic is:

I believe about something that is over all those concepts of goods and bads... and that's is Justice.

But what's justice? well, to me as I told, justice is the concept that doesn't really care about what's good and what's bad, is well represent with the balance, because it's exactly that, is the thing that maintain the equal conditions between all the species... in this case humans.


I know that I may sound 'bad' for some of you with this example, but I'm gonna try to be the expressive as possible:


Imagine that you had a boyfriend and then after a lot of beautiful years together suddenly you discovered that he had been cheating you with your bestfriend for a couple of months... You found in your thoughts that you have decided to take revenge on your best friend so you decided murder him, so you plot it perfectly... poisoning him on the thanksgiving dinner and then revealing all your plan before he faint in front of everybody meanwhile you're laughing with the evilest 'muahaha...'


The things are done, you had believe that you made yourself justice... but let me tell you, you did it wrong.


Why?

Because if you had decided that you will not care to go in jail, and you had decided to take justice by your hands, because you will not accept to just get over the thing and find another person for yourself and accept the occurrence as something that could happen in a lot of people lifes, everyday...


Ok, the right answer is... both cheated on you! not only your ex-friend. You should have killed both!


Why?, because what you've done may be bad or good depending on what kind of society eyes are watching you at the moment... but justice is always equitable, so to my own concept is always right.


And I had putted an exaggerated example, but in the case of the friends with the food issue the right thing should be to let each other eat what they wanted because they have the right to do what their want to their own bodies (and that's an universal right)


People always try to put other people's on their teams... no matter if what they're doing is wrong, bad or unfair, some will gonna try in certain moments to make you believe the same things they believe or to think in the way they think


So the main thing is that if you want to do something, what you really have to ask if that if by doing this, are gonna really please yourself?... and in the case if this affects someone else, are you being fair to these or those persons?... that's the basics.


I can talk about the mainstream concepts about what people consider good vs bad, but I think that it would take days to complete... so what do you believe?

[InbetweenDreams]

Good versus Bad people...

Bad people do things with malicious intent. Such as a troll for instance. Someone who is a serial killer.

I'm not talking about the subjective here. There are people who are simply bad because they do terrible things to people, whether it is their family, friends or to the public at large.

Everything else falls in the gray to good area. Take Trump for instance, while much of what we know comes from the media I would guess that he does things for himself to give him wealth and power he probably isn't out to create an oligarchy most likely. No can't say there, we're making assumptions and all have our points of views and so on.

People who press their beliefs and values on to other people aren't necessarily bad, say the food thing. Someone says you're going to get cancer from eating that crap well probably not any of their business to go up to a stranger and lecture them about it but from their point of view they're trying to help someone make better choices in most cases. Some people just aren't shy about things like that.

I think *most* people are intrinsically good. Without including the extreme, like serial killers and people who have mental ailments that lead to those people doing horrible things, I think everyone is good but due to society, desires, wants, needs people who are generally good people can and do bad things.

It is largely subjective but there are limits where it is no longer in the gray for me...

[deephiance]

Good people do bad things and bad people do good things, but what is good an bad is largely a subjective manner. Generally speaking murder is bad, but in war murder is for the greater good.

There are also some people who like to portray others as a bad person for no other reason than the sheer thrill of conflict.

To me what is a strength in a good person is to be able to see we all have faults, we all make mistakes, and to be able to forgive, apologise and move on.

The weakness in a bad person is the inability to see what impact their actions has on another human being or their environment and continue on in their destructive ways with no regrets.

[larafan25]

I agree with the OP that good and bad is subjective. There is no universal indicator of what is good or bad, we all have our own preference.

However, with regards to that individual preference, there is good versus bad, for ourselves. And so only you can judge what is a good or bad thing to do. If you don't wanna stab yourself, don't stab yourself. Kind of scenario.

I think people would care less about the vagueness or uncertainty of good and bad if they understood that they have total control over their reality and emotional climate.

[InbetweenDreams]

I think there limits which are subjective to what is considered to be subjective when it comes to good and bad. Going to have a hard time convincing me that Hilter was a good person.

I think what makes it difficult to say whether someone is good or bad is mostly due to our limitation that we're "stuck in our own" head and can only go by our own, flawed, observation of other people. I can't assume other people view the world or interact with it a certain way. Kind of goes back to "Is your red the same as my red?"

Take someone who volunteers at a soup kitchen. Most would assume that someone who volunteers for something like that is a good person, but really...why are they doing it? Does it make them feel good? Probably so, but why? Are they doing it because they're able to help people or because they get praise for doing charitable work? What motivates someone matters a lot to me when it comes to determining if someone is good or bad. As in if you do something that would be seen as bad, why did you do it? Say if I am mean to someone, did I do it for the thrill of it? Or did I have grounds to be mean? Not that being mean for any reason is the best choice, but the choices we make shape us and one way or another it places us on a spectrum of being good or bad...

[Ibex]

Even the most kind person has something that is considered bad inside them.
Ying yang.

[meridannight]

There is no such thing as good people or bad people. People are people. Human nature is human nature. Neither is there any good or evil.

[InbetweenDreams]

Hmm I don't know about that... I have a hard time buying into that there aren't bad people... When someone straps bombs to themselves only to kill and harm others I can't accept they're not a bad person. Human nature? Eh perhaps it is our nature to fall somewhere between good and bad.

[knickerbuck]

maybe you mean enemies, you can have enemies but that doesnt necessarily mean that they are bad people? ..

[InbetweenDreams]

maybe you mean enemies, you can have enemies but that doesnt necessarily mean that they are bad people? ..

Of course not. Anyone who has be deluded to think that killing innocent people in the name of God is a bad person.

However to your point. I realize that people who I don't like, or even hate for that matter aren't necessarily bad people. There are very few who I don't like and maybe one person who I would use the word hate with. I do try to see the good in people, I think most people want much of the same things and I try to empathize with them but I have my limits. However, that is all on a personal note. In the not so distant past I had tried putting a lot of effort into trying to be friendly with someone who I had issues with and simply didn't pan out, personally I feel they were toying with me. I went against my instincts and well I should have went with my instincts from the get go.