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World History

raging moderate

(4,510 posts)

14. Europe DID go through dreadful suffering for centuries in the middle ages.

Reply to Scrivener7 (Original post)

Tue Mar 21, 2023, 09:31 AM

Mar 2023

Overcrowding, invasions, massacres, oppression, poverty, starvation, deadly cold weather, crop failures, epidemics...

Some of my early family left Europe to escape hopeless dreadful hunger and suffering. I have sometimes thought that the centuries of suffering must have created terrible widespread anger in the hearts of many Europeans, that was unleashed when the suffering finally lifted a little. Plus those who inflicted the suffering had this oppressive tendency baked into their family traditions. Maybe similar experiences have driven other populations to behave badly.

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Where does the Heart of Darkness come from? [View all] Scrivener7 Mar 2023 OP

we are a violent species. mopinko Mar 2023 #1

Yes, Putin is not really an exception historically Walleye Mar 2023 #3

Do you think it was at some point a necessity for survival? Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #13

When people get the upper hand they need to push other people around Walleye Mar 2023 #2

it's like w dogs- mopinko Mar 2023 #4

I agree with you on both points there Walleye Mar 2023 #6

well, evolutionary psychology posits mopinko Mar 2023 #12

I never thought of that. Nice. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #15

Evolutionary psychology debunked cbabe Mar 2023 #26

Great article! Thank you. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #30

good article. mopinko Mar 2023 #34

But is that changing? I'm thinking of the women at Abu Ghraib. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #10

yes it is. mopinko Mar 2023 #17

I'm trying to think if I, as a woman, would want to physically dominate people Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #5

I know, but as a rule we physically are superior to children and don't treat them badly Walleye Mar 2023 #7

True. For most of us. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #8

Oh yes that's what makes it so fascinating and so frustrating,a giant moral spectrum good to evil Walleye Mar 2023 #9

And there are backslides. I think we are in a backslide in the US now. That's what prompted the Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #11

i've given it some thought from time to time. lol mopinko Mar 2023 #21

Europe DID go through dreadful suffering for centuries in the middle ages. raging moderate Mar 2023 #14

Everything about European psychology does hark back to Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #16

And re-reading your post, just as violence goes from parent Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #22

Interesting question-I would say it comes from what some call man's original sin - the ego. c-rational Mar 2023 #18

What do you think were the insults to the ego that caused the "othering?" Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #32

Not so much an insult per se, rather just the existence of an ego which fools you into believing c-rational Mar 2023 #33

Fear modrepub Mar 2023 #19

Of what, do you think? I know with Native Americans Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #20

My first known European American immigrant ancestor married an Algonquin lady in Quebec. raging moderate Mar 2023 #23

Of Something Different modrepub Mar 2023 #24

Fear of being absorbed is definitely in there, and we are seeing that surging today. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #31

Conrad believed the origin and true nature of the heart of darkness could never be clearly Martin68 Mar 2023 #25

I did not know this. And he certainly made a study of it. Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #27

Pretty simple orthoclad Mar 2023 #28

I see your point. I'm thinking of, for example, the Sierra Leone civil war or the Scrivener7 Mar 2023 #29