Dear /personal/,
I am preparing a presentation for school with the subject 'misanthropy'. Seeing how I think there's been a few misanthropes around here - and the whole thing is anonymous - I thought this would be the best way to do this.
I'm sure this can be a fairly touchy and uncomforatble subject, however this is "personal issues", so I thought people might feel a bit more open about answering something like this in here.
If you don't mind doing so, then here's the question:
What's the reason you dislike humanity or people? What motivation did you have to take on such an attitude or philosophy?
I personally can relate to misanthropic viewpoints through social alienation and the seemingly more shallow relationships, so that's at least one perspective I can understand, however as there's many potential reasons that might trigger this I thought it'd be interesting to have more potential causes.
This would greatly help me in my presentation, so thank you in advance even if nothing becomes out of this thread.
i don't think i hate people, i just want to be left alone. In my experience, every relationship i've had (friendship&love) only serves in THEIR best interest= find a new guy =dump. Don't want to go to parties = make new friends who will = dump. You don't wanna go to the city?=fine dump. When i ask to go something like for example comic con or whatever the fuck..=eeeuhm no.
Heh, maybe i do hate people. Bah, talking about people gives me a bad vibe..imma stop here.
Locally, I don't relate to anyone because it is impossible for a person to perceive the universe (material or otherwise) exactly as I do, or understand exactly my motivations. Globally, I do not relate to humanity because it is impossible for humanity to maintain such emotional equilibrium as to eliminate the desire for an individual to be dishonest.
The basis for my motivation isn't anything complex. Dishonesty is saying one thing and meaning another. Multiplying k by 2 when you've really done it yourself by 3. Spreading false information. Pointlessly, slowly increasing confusion, such that the terms relayed are not in line with the conditions present.
I am misanthropic because I have trusted people in the past and they have hurt me.
I can also be very trusting on an individual level- almost too much so.
As far as distrusting humanity goes, I lack hope for a positive future and that trickles down into my perception of the present.
I don't dislike people- quite the opposite. However, my inability to fit in socially naturally translates into a withdrawn lifestyle. I feel as if I can relate, but no one can relate back (whether that is true or not, I can't know). I also feel as if my social awkwardness leads people to the wrong conclusions about me- that I think I am somehow better than them (which I do not). That in turn leads to social abandonment. What can I say? Life is tough. I never chose misanthropy as a philosophy. More like my natural self in contrast with social situations led to it.
>>4
I would like to apologize if it seemed like I implied that the path was chosen.
Out of lack of a better word to describe the non-philosophical misanthropy I put "attitude", which probably was a bit off, same with motivation (which doesn't necessarily refer to positive things, just to clarify that).
On another note, thank you all so far, I really appreciate that you took your time to answer. This will definitely be put to use.
I hate society because every man finds little girls sexy as hell and yet as a whole they still consider anyone they find this out about a sicko.
I don't hate people though as everyone has a positive and lovable side.
>>every man finds little girls sexy
Sorry but I'm a guy and I totally fail to find little girls sexy. I find womanly curves very sexy and you have to wait for sexual maturation for them to develop.
Now of course little children are cute, but that's a totally different thing, at least for me.
As for misanthropy, I don't dislike humanity as a whole, just the fact that benevolent feelings (generosity, empathy, etc) are usually parochial, whereas negative feelings (hate, fear, contempt) are more general. This is what causes people to help their neighbors but don't give a shit about millions of suffering foreigners.
>>7
Suffering foreigners are happy to be left alone and given freedom, ¨caring¨ too much about them like Al-Murqua'a did is bound to cause more harm than good. Even when well-intentioned.
>>8 In general I would agree with you, but that's less the case if those foreigners are suffering because of the actions of your own country's governement, and when comes election time you don't give a shit about them,...
>>7
What do you expect everyone to do? Sit around and be depressed because children in Africa are suffering? There isn't very much that your average person can do to help and worrying about it isn't going to do anything. I would rather pay attention to the problems that I CAN help with than those on another continent.
>>10
You are taking a comfy example,... What I mean is that even if you could do something about the issue, you would care much less than if it's people from your country than otherwise.
But anyways the same principle applies within a country, town, neighborhood, family.
We engage in things that don't help us at all, only help us for the short term, or somehow hurt others. We don't care where things come from, and we care too much about what other people look like.
What's the reason you dislike humanity or people? What motivation did you have to take on such an attitude or philosophy?
Light disliking of giving out too much attention or remembering and paying attention to others problems. I stopped caring about the people who surround me, because i just simply got tired of them. Why it happend and how? Time did it..
>>13: what are you even doing in /personal/ then? ^_^
Some interesting points in here, thanks again!
I have to hold the presentation tomorrow and this definitely did help clarify things for me. I really appreciate it.
On another note, now that I think back on it, I don't think I should have included the part about philosophical misanthropy into the question in the first place, considering this is the "personal issues" board.
Despite me being mostly done with this thread there's absolutely nothing speaking against this thread continuing on, so feel free, not much I can do in the first place really
To answer your question, mostly just because I don't care about people. I think humans in general are a renewable, expendable resource. I don't give a shit how people feel, if they're hurting or dying. If someone I know dies, I feel nothing at all.
I think it started because of the massive amounts of bullying at school. I am from a very poor family, but I liked to read a lot, so I got good grades -> double the amount of torture. My only hope was to get away from my home town and to the country's best high school (where people with much worse grades than me got accepted), but my parents said they didn't have enough money, so I had to stay in the same school I loathed so much.
Since I had studied so well before (straight As), I didn't bother to do shit during high school and lost motivation to achieve anything. And during the final year, I got my front teeth punched in by the same bully I had had so many confrontations with before. No money to get teeth implants, no money for the lawyer (the bully's father is the owner of a local foresting company), so I just withdrew from life and spent my time playing Diablo 2 and Lineage 2.
Somehow I still got high scores from the national final exams and was accepted into the country's best university's Spanish studies department on a state-funded spot(3rd highest standards after law and English department). Now imagine a poor kid from a backwater town without front teeth trying to fit in that crowd... Yeah... I lasted for 1.5 years of shitty jobs, starving and no sex, before I just gave up and became a hikikomori for half a year.
At the moment I'm doing my compulsory military service, still a virgin and with no teeth, contemplating suicide each time I am given live rounds, but for some incomprehensible reason I live on, hoping to find somebody to love. And yet I hate everything around me and fuck with the minds of the few people who actually have taken a liking to me.
So, this is my story of starting to hate people. In short the formula is no sex + no recognition = HATE.
>>17 Man, you are a sorry dude, which is a pity, because you have a lot of potential. Your story is rife with blaming the others and never questioning yourself. But at the end of the day, it's pretty obvious that the biggest problem are not the others but yourself and your attitude.
Why don't you be more pragmatic and focussed? No front teeth? save for the prosthetics. At least you're not on a wheelchair, cleaning your bloodstream every week. You can function, work, etc. Sure, you probably have more trouble seducing the girl next door, but your problem has a simple solution, unlike many others.
If only you could realize that your problem is your attitude, and not the other people, or your poverty, things would be much easier for you,...
I feel for you. Don't suicide, and just live until you've found a reason to live. Don't let your shitty past destroy your future.
But why are you so negative to those who actually like you?
You sound like an ignorasmus who never had to face any kind of those hardships in his life, to be honest. Of course we decide what we do with our lifes, but denying that the outside world has a lot of control over us is naive and ignorant.
>>18 You can't really say that. It's same deal when people do the "at least you aren't in africa, they don't have any food!", it doesn't change shit. It's all about point of view, sometimes you are just depressed.
>>19 i agree, sometimes we need a "win" in our life to balance all the bad shit.
>>17 i used to be really suicidal,with a few attempts. it's something that never really goes away. All you can do is just hold on. goodluck man.
>>19, don't worry, I was also a victim of bullying during my schooldays, and I know exactly what it is about. And I also know that your attitude has a lot to do with what happens to you,... And I'm not saying that the outside world is not important in shaping your life. For instance, at some point I was ambushed at school and thoroughly beaten by about twenty guys, simply because I had a funny accent since I came from a foreign land. It was not my fault that I had that accent, but not being guilty did not save me.
I understand very well what >>17 is going through, and I also know that even if before he had problems with the outside world, now his problems are mostly internal, and he is the most dangerous person to himself. And this is what he has to realize if he wants to overcome his difficulties. It was not his fault that he lost his front teeth, but it's his fault for letting that ruin his life.