Helping someone is not common at all!!

[nopointofliving]

Some titles from western media news:

"Bus Driver Run Into Traffic to Save Boy"
"Hot Cops' Save Man From Burning Car Wreck"
"Man Who Dove Off Bridge to Save Baby 'Didn't Think Twice'
"Neighbors Help Rescue Sleeping Mom From Fire Nearby"
"See 23-Year-Old Help Scared Elderly Man Down Escalator"
"5-Year-Old Rescued From Cooler After Screaming for Help"

Like seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Normal acts of kindness aren't the default/common behavior of humans, let's talk about them on news!!!!

 

[GrumpyFrog]

I'm genuinely surprised that a fully grown adult would wholeheartedly believe that being kind and helping others is the default and normal human behaviour. You're too pure for this messed up world. No offence.

 

[WornOutLife]

Ridiculous!!!
News can only make me see how much this world and human beings suck.

I wish I was my dog!

 

[FuneralCry]

I think they focus so much on these headlines as they want to convince people to try and have some hope in humanity. The rest of the news is pretty much just misery really and people doing awful things.

 

[justsayin]

I'm genuinely surprised that a fully grown adult would wholeheartedly believe that being kind and helping others is the default and normal human behaviour. You're too pure for this messed up world. No offence.

Common and normal are not necessarily interchangeable. Big companies using child labor is common, but not normal. Police shooting unarmed people is not normal nor common, unless you happen to be in one specific country where it is more common than the common sense. Way too many things are common but not normal.

That being said, some things can be considered normal just because they are common, and enough brainwashing can make anything seem normal. I'm not sure where exactly shitty news articles fit, though.

 

[GrumpyFrog]

Common and normal are not necessarily interchangeable. Big companies using child labor is common, but not normal. Police shooting unarmed people is not normal nor common, unless you happen to be in one specific country where it is more common than the common sense. Way too many things are common but not normal.

Well, I don't exactly agree. If something isn't considered normal, it's simply not common enough. A little over a century ago child labor was much more common - and that's precisely why at that point in history it was considered normal.
I believe "normal" is whatever is objectively most common and likely to happen, whether or not we're subjectively okay with that. We might wish to live in the world where everyone is kind and helpful, we might get angry and sad and demand that the world must be this way, but objectively that is not what the world is like, that is not what the majority of people are like. You can eventually establish a law that will enforce that everyone must run into traffic to save little children or whatever, and people will do it to avoid punishment but they aren't going to be kinder and have more desire to help.

 

[Weary Soul]

Heya nopointofliving,

I think that normal acts of kindness and caring for others should be the default as well, and the reporting of these acts should not be limited to heroic acts of kindness. They should include both heroic acts and every-day simple kindness. (If I understood what you wrote correctly - am having yet another bout of insomnia and am not sure I am making much sense!!)

I do not watch the news.

The news generally capitalizes on pain and drama.

It is how they sustain their existence because people (in general) are glued to the drama - maybe it makes people feel better about themselves, because they can say, "Phew - thank god that didn't happen to me," much like a Shakespearean Tragedy. But who knows.

In this world we live in, happy stories and every-day simple acts of kindness do not pay the bills.

This is why I do not watch the news. It brings me down and I have to be very careful of that.

In my opinion, the news is just a reflection of societal norms in general. And that is sad.

<3

 

[justsayin]

Well, I don't exactly agree. If something isn't considered normal, it's simply not common enough. A little over a century ago child labor was much more common - and that's precisely why at that point in history it was considered normal.
I believe "normal" is whatever is objectively most common and likely to happen, whether or not we're subjectively okay with that. We might wish to live in the world where everyone is kind and helpful, we might get angry and sad and demand that the world must be this way, but objectively that is not what the world is like, that is not what the majority of people are like. You can eventually establish a law that will enforce that everyone must run into traffic to save little children or whatever, and people will do it to avoid punishment but they aren't going to be kinder and have more desire to help.

Important part of my post is missing from your quote. I make effort to write concisely, and removing any part is messing up the point. The missing bit is already addressing first part of your answer.

I didn't write my post in order to have philosophical debate about how world should be, nor to define what is normal. I intentionally left out more striking examples like rape and child abuse, because many forum members are victims of it. My point is that common and normal are not the same thing, and that @nopointofliving is not naive, just pissed.

 

[avoid_slow_death]

Sadly its all about money. They sell tragedy because its what gets eyes watching. Most people see this and it reinforces their world view of a shitty and dying world void of hope and love. What they don't realize is that keeping in that way of thinking only makes things worse, not better. Meanwhile the people who enable this sort of thinking gain more money, power and control over the population as a whole and we lose more and more of our freedoms and free will each day....

 

[James82]

Not the norm, but it does happen. Most news stories are generally negative so I think they like to put some of these positive ones to balance it out. If everything was negative, the average person would just stop reading eventually.