[Vision2020] Cruelty Is Learned Behavior

Sat, 7 Feb 2004 07:31:39 EST

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LuJane:

I understood immediately what you meant in your original post about not 
understanding people being mean, I think. 

Of course I'm sure you could read a textbook on the causes of criminal 
behavior and, being an intelligent person, pass a test in school on what causes 
people to do mean cruel things to other people.  But you then might still not 
"understand" it on an emotional direct level inside your own feelings, which is 
how I understood your statement.  

Some people who are sadistic might be that way congenitally, born with a 
reduced capacity for caring empathy.  But most mean people learn the behavior from 
being abused themselves by others, or growing up watching others be mean, 
thereby learning to accept it as normative behavior, even expected behavior to be 
accepted in their peer group.

Cruelty in one form or another is far more common and accepted in our culture 
than I think many people want to confront and face.  They'd rather live with 
comfortable illusions about how kind and generous and noble Americans are.

Ted Moffett

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<HTML>
 LuJane:
 
 I understood immediately what you meant in your original post about not=20=
understanding people being mean, I think.=20
 
 Of course I'm sure you could read a textbook on the causes of criminal b=
ehavior and, being an intelligent person, pass a test in school on what caus=
es people to do mean cruel things to other people. &nbsp;But you then might=20=
still not "understand" it on an emotional direct level inside your own feeli=
ngs, which is how I understood your statement. &nbsp;
 
 Some people who are sadistic might be that way congenitally, born with a=
 reduced capacity for caring empathy. &nbsp;But most mean people learn the b=
ehavior from being abused themselves by others, or growing up watching other=
s be mean, thereby learning to accept it as normative behavior, even expecte=
d behavior to be accepted in their peer group.
 
 Cruelty in one form or another is far more common and accepted in our cu=
lture than I think many people want to confront and face. &nbsp;They'd rathe=
r live with comfortable illusions about how kind and generous and noble Amer=
icans are.
 
 Ted Moffett</HTML>

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