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Which is the most universal human characteristic?

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Individual
 
Reply Sun 8 Feb, 2004 10:35 pm
A great question repeated by Louis Mackey in Waking Life:

Which is the most universal human characteristic, fear or laziness?
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Portal Star
 
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Reply Sun 8 Feb, 2004 11:11 pm
I go to the school that helped produce waking life, got to see a sneak preview before it was released Very Happy .

Mating.
After that, sleeping and eating.
After that, laziness, because if you are not sleeping, eating, or mating, you need to be conserving energy for eating and mating.

If prompted - fear dominates - because being killed will prevent eating, sleeping, and mating.

So, most of the time, mating takes priority, then food, then sleep, then laziness, but fear takes absolute priority on the occasion when there is an immediate threat to life and the fullfillment of the above goals.
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Individual
 
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Reply Sun 8 Feb, 2004 11:39 pm
I don't think that was the kind of answer he would have expected (if you knew the guy, correct me).

Put a human into a room with nothing in it. After he surveys the place for any escape, will he cower in the corner in fear because he doesn't know how he got there, or will he sit and do nothing because he is lazy?

Now stick that human in a real-world situation. If he sees a momentous task that needs solving, given these options only, will he refuse to attempt the problem in fear of losing, or will he refuse the problem because he is lazy and someone else will do it?

He is in a traffic jam. Does he worry about being late, or stop paying attention and let his mind wander?

Do you understand what I am saying? Sorry for so many examples but I tried to get a fairly adequate spectrum of situations.
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joefromchicago
 
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Reply Mon 9 Feb, 2004 09:10 am
Re: Which is the most universal human characteristic?
Individual wrote:
First asked by Louis Mackey in Waking Life:

Which is the most universal human characteristic, fear or laziness?

Actually, Arthur Schopenhauer said that all human life was a combination of fear and boredom about 180 years before "Waking Life" premiered.
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Setanta
 
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Reply Mon 9 Feb, 2004 11:00 am
And, well before Herr Schopenhauer, Thomas Hobbes wrote that life in a state of nature consists in: "No arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

I would personally assert that the most universal human characteristic is a variety of expression, ideation and expressed belief which defies categorization. Others are, of course, free to assert differing contentions.
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Portal Star
 
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Reply Mon 9 Feb, 2004 12:54 pm
I stick with mating. I'm a biologist at heart.
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rufio
 
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Reply Mon 9 Feb, 2004 05:48 pm
Fear implies an absence of logic, so I'll say laziness. Although, I would call it a concern for physical comfort, not laziness.
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fresco
 
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Reply Mon 9 Feb, 2004 06:09 pm
The most universal human characteristic is language. This allows us to internalize scenarios and play them out in our heads (think) sometimes to the detriment of more pressing business (hence "laziness"). The other qualities like fear and sex are not unique to humans but for other animals its usually "out of sight out of mind".
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rufio
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 02:42 am
Animals have communication systems as well, some nearly as complex as human language. But I think he was asking about human universals, not exclusively human universals.
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Setanta
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 05:49 am
Good point to make, Rufio. I too noticed the unnecessary interpolation of the term "unique," but was too lazy to mention it.
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Terry
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 08:26 am
The most universal characteristic is the desire to impose your view of the world on others. :wink:
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Nietzsche
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 11:30 am
In reading these responses, I can't help but notice there is an air of literalism that doesn't quite belong. Let's recall the context in which this question was asked. It was preceded by the question of why there were so few examples of true greatness in the world, "the saint, the philosopher," etc.

The issue was the manifestation of greatness: what causes it to emerge so sparingly? Mackey answers this question with the rhetorical question under present discussion.
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Portal Star
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 01:46 pm
I was aware. But not much can -really- be discussed about a rhetorical question.
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Setanta
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 03:06 pm
Unless one is to be disparaged for not having read the author cited, the context can be no more than was posited in the original post.
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husker
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 03:18 pm
Quote:
Louis Mackey: There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life, and those who suffer from an over-abundance of life. I have always found myself in the second category. When you come to think of it, almost all human behavior and activity is not, essentially, any different from animal behavior. The most advanced technologies and craftsmanship bring us, at best, up to the super-chimpanzee level. Actually, the gap between, say, Plato or Nietzsche, and the average human is greater than the gap between that chimpanzee and the average human. The realm of the real spirit, the true artist, the saint, the philosopher, is rarely achieved. Why so few? Why is world history and evolution not stories of progress, rather this endless and futile addition of zeros? No greater values have developed. Hell, the Greeks 3,000 years ago were just as advanced as we are. So what are these barriers that keep people from reaching anywhere near their real potential. The answer to that can be found in another question, and that's this: which is the most universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?
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Miller
 
  1  
Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 03:21 pm
Re: Which is the most universal human characteristic?
Individual wrote:
A great question repeated by Louis Mackey in Waking Life:

Which is the most universal human characteristic, fear or laziness?


It must be fear. Do you remember the "flight or fight" response? Shocked
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PDiddie
 
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Reply Tue 10 Feb, 2004 03:24 pm
I think it's the desire to intoxicate oneself.

Either that, or Internet discussion forums.
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Nietzsche
 
  1  
Reply Thu 12 Feb, 2004 10:47 am
Setanta wrote:
Unless one is to be disparaged for not having read the author cited, the context can be no more than was posited in the original post.


As Portal said, "not much can -really- be discussed about a rhetorical question." If you'll recall, this was indeed my initial observation: that the topic was much too narrow; that it was too literal. I then suggested, "Let's recall the context in which this question was asked." I then breifly outlined that context.

That you would ignore that outline, along with the potential avenue the conversation could have then taken in light of the new context, and elect to say this instead? Well, let's just say you only get one chance to make a first impression.
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Setanta
 
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Reply Thu 12 Feb, 2004 01:24 pm
If your first impression of me is negative or contemptous, allow me to assure you of my infinite indifference.
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Individual
 
  1  
Reply Thu 12 Feb, 2004 04:01 pm
Kids, kids! Break it up already!

Back to the subject
I would say that fear is the most universal human characteristic. It drives most of what we do. Take the current terrorist scare; obviously, anything that goes wrong in the world is because of terrorists. But before that, it was communism (or democracy, whatever way you look at it), and before that, it was the jews. The reasons for any mass of people to do anything in the past were usually instigated by a mutual fear manifesting itself as hatred. And, let's face it, it's very hard to hate someone if you are too lazy to even be afraid.

However, if we weren't limited to either fear or laziness, the most universal human characteristic is obviously the quest for power. Greed, fame, fortune; they all fit into the same category of power. Even the youngest person exhibits the same trait, they try to be the best or get the most attention.
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