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Are We Civilized

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Submitted By tomfitz98
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Are we as human beings civilized? I personally think that is a loaded question but I believe we are but only when it is convenient to us. We can’t answer the question before we look at what being civilized means. Dictionary.com defines civilized in 3 different ways. First definition is having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc. The second definition is being polite; well-bred; refined. And the third is easy to manage or control; well organized or ordered. We are at a stage of social, culture ,and moral devolvement that is considered to be more advanced but at what cost to others? You read in the news every day of murders and genocide for the “good” of a nation. Take the events in Thailand recently. Many children were killed during anti-government protests. These children were not causing any harm to anyone but where killed for voicing their opinion. Also in order to answer the question fully we need to first to separate people from persons. People which refers to a group of persons they are unintelligent. They operate as a hive mind using mob mentality usually with the loudest most unintelligent one being the leader, while person is a singular unit capable of reason and well organized thought. The greatest example of course being the red scare which occurred between 1947 and 1957 and was a modern day witch hunt. But instead of witches they were hunting communists. The government was able to evoke so much fear that most citizens that most people saw no problem with the actions they were taking. They threw the 4th amendment out the window and broke many civil liberties. The people, the president, and Supreme Court where all okay with it. We also need to look at why people continue to be civil or give the appearance of being so. Do they do it because they are generally good people or because of the fear of repercussions whether it is from law enforcement or from a higher power? For example religion is a two edged sword. It has the ability to bring people closer together and unite them to help people however it also has the ability to unite people to do the opposite. The crusades which where military campaigns conducted by the sanction of the Latin Catholic church during the high middle ages through the late middle ages they used religion to kill an extraordinary amount of people. So is religion a major cause of these issues? My friend rob said he didn’t think so because most religious people are happy and help out others. I am liable to agree with him because most religions in modern times don’t usually cause harm to others. With exception to religions that are extremist religions that use suicide bombers they are pretty harmless. Now what if there was no government? What would happen? Let’s look at some literature. In lord of the flies the children had absolutely no government things fell apart. There was murder and discord all around. Some can argue they were just children they didn’t know any better but I don’t believe any of us would act any different. The accounts of people hurting other people are endless. I asked a few of my friends what they thought. My friend Andrew said that he didn’t think so because we are so violent toward other human beings and animals. We even have made a sport out of killing aka hunting. My friend Nick said we are civilized in the basic definition but when it comes down to how we treat each other we aren’t. To wrap things up I don’t think we are civilized in the sense that we treat other all people the way they deserve. I believe some people do but the issue is that the bad outweighs the good in most situations because of reasons that we believe at the time are good enough to harm another individual.
To wrap things up I believe that we are civilized sometimes but when it is convenient to us another words not for the right reasons. As in all things there are exceptions to this statement but there is too much wrong in the world to ignore the evil that is present. ”Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different."-Thomas Hobbes

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