Sitting idly in front of my work station and waiting for a helpless freshman to walk in with 802.1x wireless problem, I begin to wonder whether I would have enjoyed helping people setup their university wireless connection if I weren’t paid.
I consider myself a friendly easy going person who loves to see others laugh, but do I really have the right to think such highly of me? I don’t think I would have been sitting there helping people out for free.
One of the difference between human beings and other animals is that men help each other out more effectively and makes a community for greater good they say .But is it really the truth? Or do we just help others for ulterior motives if not monthly checks. Lack of helpless inquiring minds in front of my desk encouraged me to play around with my computer and I stumbled upon folders of philosophical literature that I had saved for my Rhetoric class couple of years ago.
Comparing Thomas Hobbes with Jean-Jacques Rousseau I try figuring out who is right? Thomas Hobbes wrote human beings are savage and evil at the core and is driven by greed whereas according to Jacques Civilization is the root of human greed and thus evil.
I can neither deny nor agree with either. Human beings might be driven by instincts at the core, but that’s just the animal instincts essential for survival and makes sense because we live in the nature where “survival of the fittest” razor is so prevalent. Civilization and human evolution has done a great job in covering up these basic savage instincts making us a wiser race. But Civilization has also brought corruption and greed that has gone beyond mere survival. We have fought countless meaningless wars for land, gold, power and status. We have killed countless men for more than just the need to survive.
At the same time a good civilization keeps its citizens content and wealthy. Compare a third world country like
With Civilization we might be trading one form of evil with another. May be we are not civilized at all. We are just a bunch of half civilized fools judging civilization by walking only two steps towards real civilization,
