Does society tame or corrupt the human being?

[Furah]

I'm going with corrupts. Without society we would be raised by our parents, who want us to be good people. We would be taught to not hurt another, without society whispering in our ear saying if we don't fight, it's a sign of weakness. We would be taught to love all, without society whispering in our ear that these people are savage barbarians wanting to take our women from us. We would be taught that it's ok to not be similar to everyone else, without society whispering in our ear that if we don't conform to these things we are a nobody.

Wait, what? There's parents in America being too drunk to care for their child, much less teach them good values. There's parents in Iraq telling their kids to hate Americans and run around with grenades, there's parents in India who sell off their kids for money. Parenthood does not equal instant love and compassion.

Now, why is it that those parents think it's good to go get drunk, or tell their children to hate others? Society.

 

If that was true, then most people would think that it's morally good to get drunk and tell your children to hate others. That clearly isn't the case.

They don't. Parents (should) tell their children that they shouldn't get drunk, yet society tells them it's ok to get drunk every weekend.

[Myweponsg00d]

Alcohol is a creation of society.

[Zierro]

A man who's been corrupted by society only likes to look out for himself. A man tamed by society will look out for others. Either way, it just seems like society is looking out for itself.

 

(technically inescapable but [bleep] that noise - I want repetition)

 

I like this.

[Furah]

Alcohol is a creation of society.

Alcohol is a creation of fermentation.

[Nadril]

Difficult question in all honesty. I'm inclined on saying that society tames the human but it's one of those "chicken or the egg" type deals. After all society isn't some sort of mystical force and it its self is created by human beings. I do think that human beings created this idea of society (that is, more than one person working together) as a means to survive. Under society I would like to say that, yeah, it does tame the human being because it is in their best interest not to do anything rash due to punishment but back in the day due to it being in their best interest not to hurt those that can help themselves.

 

However I also think that humans just aren't natural born killers and that is something that society can "breed" as well. [cabbage] man, I'd go as far as to say that it can do both and it all depends on what time period you are in or what environment you are raised in. The idea of society is that it definitely has an impact on humans and it is really difficult to say for a fact what it does 100% of the time. Honestly I don't think there is an easy, clear answer.

 

I don't think it's possible to condense the sum of human consciousness into to two opposing camps of "good" and "bad". So unless people cut down on the generalizations, this question is a crock of [cabbage]. =)

 

This pretty much is what I'm trying to say, haha. There are just too many factors to say what society does.