Animal vs. Human

Human nature is an odd thing. Everyone has his or her own way of thinking and his or her own way of dealing with problems or situations that may arise. This can sometimes cause problems and make certain social situations awkward. There are times when humans are no different than animals when it comes to how they handle situations, yet no matter how animalistic a human may act the human will always be a human because of the simple fact that he or she is in control of his or her on actions.

Many times a person may say something that he or she is perceives as complimentary and the outside world sees as insulting or threatening. I have personally been in a situation like this one; a guy thought he was flirting with me when he was actually just insulting me and making me feel badly about myself. Now, of course he did not mean to come off this way, but he did and it was not a good situation. Animals, however, are threatened no matter what the other animals intent may be. A human has reason and can think about what the other person may have meant rather than just what they came off as saying.

Charles Horton Cooley writes about the evolution of humans from animals in his book Human Nature and the Social Order. Animals attack at the first sign of the feeling of being threatened, much like how humans react when they feel as though they are being threatened or attacked. There is no way for a person to be completely understood by another person; there will always be at least a slight difference in perceptions from person to person. This fact causes many problems when it comes to human interaction, the only difference is that humans have conscious control over how they communicate and act towards each other. In order for humans to maintain a humanistic quality and keep from becoming animalistic, they must emphasize manners early on and at an early age. Cooley says that our “social origin” comes from the interaction of humans with one another; the people that we are around most often have to most impact on us socially.

"I'm your teacher, not your mother..."

The people that we grow up around, such as our parents, are the ones that determine how we interact with others in a social setting. They are the ones that are supposed to teach us the difference between right and wrong as well as teach us good manners. Unfortunately, teachers are the ones that are usually stuck with teaching or enforcing the manners that they may or may not have been taught at home. Without manners, the teachers would never get any respect from their students. According to psychologist, John Rosemond, if a student is respectful towards his elders and the people around him then he will be respectful towards himself. If people respecting other people than this could lead o bigger and better things, people couls start using manners again, there may just be a polite revolution Stephen L. Carter writes about the fact that manners are not taught in schools anymore, but says that when they are it is a complete sight to see; the story was written in a 1996 version of the U.S. News & World Report magazine.The story talked about the decline of civility and how young people were actually being taught how to be polite. In the forties it was expected that children learn how to be polite not only from their parents but as well as in the classroom setting. In recent years the teaching curriculum is less about manners and more about sex issues and does and don’ts that go along with that. This new fact makes me think about how bad our society has gotten. Our morals and focus is completely turned around from what it used to be, it used to be that you would learn respect and discipline in grade school and now things like that are seen as things that only “good kids” take part in. Today, manners are seen as something that is forced on children rather than something that is taught to children because it is such a big part of society. We are more interested in ourselves and making sure that we are individuals with our own minds and our own way of thinking that we completely forget that there are some traditions that deserve to be a character trait of all human beings, no matter how different they may be.

There Is No Excuse!

There are many times when humans act like animals because of how threatened they many feel by other humans; but just because someone’s actions are seen as being like an animal’s does not mean that it is entirely their fault. It may just have to do with the way that they were brought up and the way in which they think. But that does not excuse them; it simply means that they are in need of a lesson in etiquette and values. Wikipedia states this well by saying that human nature “is the concept that there is a set of inherent distinguishing ccharacteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have.” This simply means that people are different and are wired differently according their background, their personality, and the way that they look at the world and the people in it. That does not mean that they have an excuse to be rude and unkind to other people. It simply means that they need a lesson in the way that they act towards other people; a lesson that should have been taught to them at a younger age but was not or the message was simply not received at that point in their lives.
No matter what all of the articles say about the nature of humans the one thing that remains constant in all of them is the fact that humans are in control of the way in which they interact with the things and beings around them. No matter how they have grown up and no matter how many excuses they have up their sleeve the argument remains proven that humans do have control over what they do and how they do it.

Manners DO Matter

Manners have become a thing of the past in our society and it is not for the best. Many children grow up without being taught how to properly conduct themselves and have grown up with the idea that they can do whatever they want to do. This is not good and this is not okay. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks and it is even harder to teach an old dog to say "excuse me" or if they "have nothing nice to say not to say anything at all". The ladder is the one that really worries me, I began this blog talking about this very issue and I intend to end it on the same note.

I like this picture above because it says it all, plain and simple "Manners Matter". This could not be anymore true and close to my heart, manners are the things that keep people from getting hurt, getting the wrong idea, or just being bothered by something when it is not needed.

A Psychologist Pediatrician

Doctor D.W. Winnicott wrote a book about human nature that has been turned into an e-book. He is a a pediatrician who has become a psychologist of sorts. Working with children so much he has caused him to make a study out of it and become a child analyst. He studies the children that he works with as a doctor for illnesses as well as the ones that come to see him with short psycho-therapy problems and management problem children. He goes on to talk about the difficulties of giving advice to parents and the psycho-analysis of the mind and how it works. He speaks of intelligence, psyche health and ill health, as well as the melding of psyche health and body health. He combines his medical training with is analyst study and makes a more specified study geared toward his strengths as a doctor.

It's the Psychology of the Matter

This article in Psychology Today deals 10 different subjects of human nature and disproves them. The article goes from disproving the fact that men like and woman want to look like blonde bombshells. Then goes down a long path of subjects to end up at the subject of men who harass women are not being sexist.

According to this article men like blonde women with large breasts because it is easier to judge a woman's age. Most of the time woman that have blonde hair when they are young have brown hair when they get older and woman with large breasts have saggier breasts when they get older. So, for men it is all about the easiest way to judge a woman's age apparently.

The article then goes on to talk about marriage and suicide bombing. From what I understand about what this article is saying, neither men nor woman really benefit from polygamy because their are less and less woman that way and the woman have to share one man instead of having him all to herself. Polygamy creates a more competitive nature and so there is more violence in countries that have polygamy, so they have suicide bombing.

There is more about how 56% of parents that are considered "very attractive" are more likely to have daughters rather than sons. Also, genius in men peaks in early adulthood and then rapidly declines as they get on into the later years of their life. This article also throws out the idea that men have the desire unconsciously or consciously to be able to reproduce more and not just for the political power.

The last point in this article is the point about why men sexually harass woman. It is not all about sex for big wigs in the work place, it is all about power. Men who are higher up in the workplace harass workers that are lower than them, whether they are men or women. Before women even entered the workplace men were harassing each other to make themselves feel better. Women have just made the problem more prominent because it is not just a testosterone war now, it is a war of the sexes.

I believe that this article is for the most part a good one, the talking subjects are a little odd but make for an amusing read. It brings up points to think about as well as new views on old subjects and I find it fairly enlightening.