My faith in mankind as a species, if I really ever had real faith or hope, is being eroded bit by bit, day by day every time I see or hear the News from around the world or just locally in my area. If it's not cruelty to animals, children and other adults, it's atrocities committed in the name of religion, or just because one race doesn't share the others belief in it's right to exist. Then there's the incessant greed and destructiveness of mankind, overuse of resources that can never be replaced and many other things that will ensure human race never becomes truly evolved as a whole.
The thing that prompted me to write this was something I saw on the News today about sadistic cruelty to a dog and the other day another article about a pony being driven into a river and beaten to death by teenagers.
“The world is beautiful, but has a disease called man”
Friedrich Nietzsche
I've had it said to me many years ago that I seem to care about animals before humans and back then it wasn't actually the case, but over the past ten or more years and probably longer it is an accurate description. It's not that I care MORE about animals, but that I care about all helpless and vulnerable beings, human or otherwise. This is a concept many people find hard to fathom or understand. On a personal level I most often find giving is better than receiving, whether it's my time or material things where possible of course.
I do have to say though that I don't have time or effort for people who refuse to try and help themselves, or for fools, but for people in genuine need I have a lot of empathy. Unfortunately, that can also lead to being taken advantage of as there's always someone who will exploit a situation and I'm not immune to this.
What I ask is how can mankind ever care about and nurture itself in a mature and positive way if it's underlying sickness continues to spread unchecked like an insidious cancer, exploiting and abusing wherever it can and destroying anything it touches without fear of consequence. Every human, no matter how kind or benevolent has a darkness inside whether one admits it or not. It's my belief that the "good" for want of a better word, have either better mechanisms for controlling desires, fear of guilt and discovery, or their brains are just correctly wired.
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.” Albert Einstein
Sometimes I wish I'd never discovered or had access to the Internet as my own curiosity and willingness to communicate with people is often my worst enemy. It's too late now though as the Net is my main means of communication and information gathering, by my own choice of course and I would be lost without it. I don't read newspapers, or watch much TV and rarely listen to the radio except if I'm laying awake at night and can't sleep.
In my earlier years I was naive about a lot of things. I've come to believe in later years that it's not so much naivety as a safety mechanism. Due to past circumstances going back to childhood I tend to blot out of my memory anything that I don't want to think about and I focus on things I do and ignore the rest as if it doesn't exist. Not that it always works so well as memories have a way of surfacing and it has caused me problems with depression and extreme stress over the years, so I know it's faulty solution.
As far as I'm concerned mankind is heading for disaster at as rapid rate and the brakes are definitely off on a slippery slope. I've said elsewhere on this blog I'm an Atheist and it's my opinion many of the world's problems stem from religious "blindness," but if I believed in hell this would be it. It starts with lack of basic morality and more willingness to overstep the bounds of human and humane decency. I'm not stupid. I realize many of today's underlying problems in society have always existed in one form or another I don't think anyone can deny things are worsening in all spheres of society.
The following paragraphs are about a computer game that I play and enjoy called Oblivion and is only meant as an example to illustrate what I'm talking about. It has added content in the way of many, many mods that enhance the game in lots of varied ways including sex simulation mods that are I believe are very realistically animated. I personally have no use or necessity for SIM sex in a computer game. I don't role play to that extent as my game style is more adventure and quest orientated. Each to his or her own though. Nudity is natural (see the history of art etc) and so is sex if tastefully portrayed. I don't have anything against erotica.
This is where the problems start though. A couple of days ago I removed from this blog and elsewhere an Oblivion screen shot of mine that I had posted of my character wearing a particular outfit and I have also removed the mod from my game. The reason I mention this is because I have issues with the author and others like him who create other mods that humiliate women in the most disturbing ways possible. Having seen screen shots and references to these mods I imagine it doesn't stop at women being the subject of degradation. I've also seen dubious references on forums about children, but that would be well hidden by the sick individuals concerned.
What disturbs me and is related to the top portion of this post is the rapidly growing trend towards sickening mods specifically featuring bestiality using dogs and horses and in many other cases monsters from the game like ogres and zombies etc. Then there are the various rape mods, including pregnant women, extreme torture and other bizarre things like the Japanese Hentai mods.
Edit: I'm not going to name or link the site concerned as in my opinion this gives it attention it doesn't deserve and it's not the only one.
However, those inclined towards bestiality, rape, and other sick fantasy mods can find them using key words. I only came across it when I was looking for hair styles and found a 4Shared folder and then the site, where if one can stomach a lot of the content, many other hard to find mods, including game rips are linked.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...I don't give a crap if it's only pixels on a screen. When people use these mods and think it's fun for women to be shown being raped by monsters and tentacle creatures or sadistically tortured there's really something wrong. It's a sad indictment on their humanity or lack of it. Fantasies can spill over to the real world as we all know and many of the real world equivalents of these mods already exist and have since the dawn of man or not long after. And I don't mean the religious symbolism of Adam and Eve.
The point about a computer game and morality is considering the wider world this is a small gaming community and reflects the views of what I would say is not a small real world minority. The line between fantasy and doing is a fine one and these mods and practices are wrong on so many levels. It's not just this one game, but Oblivion can be made to look very realistic so is a perfect medium.
DISCLAIMER: This is not, and should not be used as a stepping stone or platform for soapboxes against video games in general which annoys me no end especially when the legislators or protestors have never even played one let alone know what they are talking about. Just to be clear...The game Oblivion (and it's developers) is not at fault here either. It is about morality in the general sense and I used this as an example. After all movies, books music and other media are also mediums of entertainment.
I don't believe in censorship, but when it comes to what I've described above sometimes I have to wonder. What should happen is self censorship and realizing within oneself what's right and what's just very wrong in peoples minds and with certain parts of society and being able to recognize when the lines are crossed. Censorship should never be imposed by governing bodies. Years ago I used to say people should be free to do as they want do as long as it doesn't hurt other people, children or animals by coercion or force and is not inflicted on an unwilling audience. I still believe in that freedom, but the statement needs more definition as to who is being hurt and who isn't.
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Albert Einstein
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