Are People Capable Of Goodness?

[Heloin]

Going purely off the the question in the title it'd take a severe cynic to say otherwise.

As for the clarification in the OP, yeah probably. I'd still say someone is still far too world weary if they actually think the answer is a flat no.

[Polyester Football]

The news right now seems pretty hopeless. It's easy to see it and assume that people are incapable of love for their fellow human beings, or compassion, or generosity. After all, there are so many people who act as if they don't care right now. But at the same time, there are positive news stories out there if you know where to look. Those stories make it seem like every single person can become a hero, and every single person is capable of acting out of love and compassion. I believe that people don't easily fit into either one of those categories, since we're just too complicated for that.

But the question I do want to ask is this: Are people capable of being entirely good in every situation? Or is the news (which doesn't explicitly try to make people look good) right about what human beings are capable of?

Personally, I believe that people are already good. That is why we have positive news stories about people who are willing to do the right thing. It is also the reason that positive news stories aren't acknowledged often in the news. Good people are so common that we don't consider it news when they do good. But, I don't think that we can become perfectly good, at least not in this world. Otherwise, we would have no news and no need for it. Everything would be too predictable and peaceful. So, essentially, I believe that people can become better but not perfect.

Most people are capable of good, and capable of bad. Some are off that spectrum, but most people aren't.

However...

...if we want to look for examples of goodness and badness in people, doesn't it make more sense to look around us rather than in the news?

I see good and bad behaviour by people every day, at work, in my local shops or wherever. When I see that, what I'm seeing is unvarnished behaviour, whether positive or negative.

I see good and bad behavior every day in the news. When I see that, what I'm seeing is what the news outlet has chosen to sell me. And whether that is news about goodness in people or badness in people is in some ways irrelevant. Either way, the real reason I'm seeing it is because the media outlet is selling it to me to keep me buying, or keep me clicking.

That's how it is for a media outlet, and the same goes for social media, surely?

[West Leas Oros 2]

Going purely off the the question in the title it'd take a severe cynic to say otherwise.

As for the clarification in the OP, yeah probably. I'd still say someone is still far too world weary if they actually think the answer is a flat no.

I’ve met only a few people who I’d call “good people”, and most everyone else was smug, rude, violent, mean, greedy, or generally otherwise unpleasant. As such, I became even more of a spiteful, bitter, resentful, envious asshole myself. Life sucks. That’s why I come to NSG, where it’s much worse, and much better at the same time.

[FutureAmerica]

Most people will serve their own or their own family's interest. They will be good for their own, but not for others.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Going purely off the the question in the title it'd take a severe cynic to say otherwise.

As for the clarification in the OP, yeah probably. I'd still say someone is still far too world weary if they actually think the answer is a flat no.

I’ve met only a few people who I’d call “good people”, and most everyone else was smug, rude, violent, mean, greedy, or generally otherwise unpleasant. As such, I became even more of a spiteful, bitter, resentful, envious asshole myself. Life sucks. That’s why I come to NSG, where it’s much worse, and much better at the same time.

I've met a few really saintly people in my life. People who really had no character flaws.

Everyone else including myself seems to be good at being a dick. I really think the amount of "good people" differs based on the era though, which my mom disagrees with because I suggested that my granddad wouldn't be such a great guy in the modern day. I would know though. I'm supposedly alot like him, so I guess the way I am is how he would be.

[US-SSR]

We need a definition of "good" somewhere. "Good" as in "acting consistently with some set of rules that some authority declares to be good," no; because no such set of rules can be complete or consistent (q.v. Goedel). "Good" as "doing the best they can to act with compassion and intelligence in most situations," more likely.

Most people will serve their own or their own family's interest. They will be good for their own, but not for others.

Which is a consequence of living in a capitalist society, as most of us do. We must compete with each other for the needs of life and, in many cases, provide the same for our families. I yearn for the socialist workers' paradise, but if my job depended on throwing my best friend at work under the bus today that's exactly what I would do. Which is why I say that in every nation where it has been tried, capitalism has failed.