[extropy-chat] moveon.org

[Trend Ologist]

It's all a result of my aging, when I was young had thought the world was a bowl of cherries, now see it as a cup of metamucil :-/
Nonetheless, there are too many who view life benignly, then are surprised when things go awry. They think God will protect them. 
The war will just 'work itself out' , optimists think. 100 years ago people thought democracy would spread, then WWI soured them. 

BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: Spike 
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 20:53:11 -0700
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] moveon.org
To: ExI chat list 
>
> OK well I hope I live long, but not so long that I begin to mistrust humanity. 
> 
> I have a lot of trust in humanity. I trust every human to act in her own 
> best interest and the best interest of her offspring. I trust people to 
> be greedy, for I do not see that as a negative thing. I want to see 
> legal systems set up so that it works best when everyone looks out 
> for number 1. 
> 
> Do think of another word besides misanthrope however. It carries 
> too many negative connotations to refer to just the reclusive. 
> 

The traditional meaning of misanthrope is:
"one who hates mankind," 1563, from Gk. misanthropos "hating mankind,"
from misein "to hate" + anthropos "man." Alternate form misanthropist
is attested from 1656.
[French, from Greek msanthrpos, hating mankind : mso-, miso- + anthrpos, man.]
Like misogynist, woman-hater, or. 
miser (see: Ebenezer Scrooge from 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens)

But misanthrope does seem to have been weakened in modern usage to:
"someone who dislikes or mistrusts people in general and tends to
avoid their company" or
"A person who expects only the worst from people".

W. C. Fields (1880 - 1946) created one of the great American comic
personas of the first half of the 20th century - a misanthrope who
teetered on the edge of buffoonery but never quite fell in, an egotist
blind to his own failings, a charming drunk, and a man who hated
women, children and dogs, unless they were the wrong sort of women.

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, was almost certainly as
famously misanthropic as his reputation. He wrote that "human
existence must be a kind of error."
More specifically, he has also been accused of misogyny.

There is also the famous satirical play "The Misanthrope" by Molière
(French 1666)
"The Misanthrope, Alceste, impersonated by the author himself, was a
character wholly new to the stage, and, is intended to enjoy at least
our respect, and even a certain measure of sympathy. He is no vulgar
hater of mankind, no churlish or brutal cynic. High and noble in
nature, he is alienated from the world by its want of heart, its
insincerities, its more or less veiled falsehood, its hypocrisies of
complaisance, its thousand petty foibles".

"Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness,
meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have
stopped being a misanthrope".
Irving Layton (1912 - ____) Canadian poet, author
The Whole Bloody Bird, "Aphs" (1969). 

Caution:-
Regardless of the validity of a misanthropic worldview, those with
strongly-held misanthropy often suffer from low self-esteem,
depression, and even suicidal tendencies.

Best wishes, BillK
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