Are People Doing The Best they can?

[Yama]

People are dying in the street. We are dealing with major environmental issues, police brutality, massive homelessness...all you have to do is pick just one, even if you aren't equipped to address everything, be a political delegate, or volunteer for everything...pick one and do it.

The Pokémon Go craze is absolutely inappropriate to what is happening in our nation at this time, unless you are under eighteen. There's nothing wrong with having hobbies, I like music and books, and I've never attacked gamers, per se, but yeah this whole bullshit is disgusting three weeks before the Democratic convention and in the middle of all the violence, and trying to shoot down TPP, and one of the most bizarre elections in history happening in November.

There's nothing wrong with having fun. There's something wrong with large groups of fully grown adults obsessing over a corporate child's toy to the exclusion of real engagement in human society.

In fact a lot of African Americans, poor students and working class whites are about to march across the country with pitch forks, so if you're so concerned with having fun, I'm sure you won't mind when the zombie apocalypse feeds on your useless corpses.

My cousin posted the most hilarious meme from Silence of the Lambs, about Pokémon being in the basement, and she's not even a Bernie supporter or BLM activist.

Be very afraid. Be useful to society or be overthrown.

You're right, I absolutely forgot that playing pokemon go and caring about societal issues are mutually exclusive! After all, black lives only matter if there's not a pikachu on my screen!

 

[prplchknz]

Pokemon go doesn't interest me but that's because it doesn't interest me but at the same time i'm not really effected by others liking it we've always had distractions and distractions are important they keep us sane.right now i'm reading the justice league new 52 comics do i have to read those to survive? no but it does keep my sanity

 

[EJCC]

Ok, do you believe that, in general, people are doing the best they can or doing far less than they can?

I have struggled with this question a lot, as an e1. And the only answer that I am comfortable with is this: Yes, people do the best they can, within reason. They cannot operate at their best 24/7. One can only expect so much of people without being disappointed by their fallibility, their limited energy and willpower.

 

[SearchingforPeace]

I have struggled with this question a lot, as an e1. And the only answer that I am comfortable with is this: Yes, people do the best they can, within reason. They cannot operate at their best 24/7. One can only expect so much of people without being disappointed by their fallibility, their limited energy and willpower.

And by giving others the benefit of the doubt we are better people, per Brené Brown's research. Her very honest struggles with the point really help drive it home.

I am pretty accepting of strangers and their limitations. I do notice I struggle more to accept that others are doing the best they can the closer they are to me. And I struggle really hard cutting myself slack, no matter that if I looked at someone else dealing with my life I would see clearly that I was doing the best I can.

Anyway, reading this section last night was a big kick to my backside.......

 

[EJCC]

And by giving others the benefit of the doubt we are better people, per Brené Brown's research. Her very honest struggles with the point really help drive it home.

I am pretty accepting of strangers and their limitations. I do notice I struggle more to accept that others are doing the best they can the closer they are to me. And I struggle really hard cutting myself slack, no matter that if I looked at someone else dealing with my life I would see clearly that I was doing the best I can.

Yeah. We definitely have the highest expectations of those closest to us.

It's easier to be a misanthrope when you don't care about anyone.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

People are dying in the street. We are dealing with major environmental issues, police brutality, massive homelessness...all you have to do is pick just one, even if you aren't equipped to address everything, be a political delegate, or volunteer for everything...pick one and do it.

The Pokémon Go craze is absolutely inappropriate to what is happening in our nation at this time, unless you are under eighteen. There's nothing wrong with having hobbies, I like music and books, and I've never attacked gamers, per se, but yeah this whole bullshit is disgusting three weeks before the Democratic convention and in the middle of all the violence, and trying to shoot down TPP, and one of the most bizarre elections in history happening in November.

There's nothing wrong with having fun. There's something wrong with large groups of fully grown adults obsessing over a corporate child's toy to the exclusion of real engagement in human society.

In fact a lot of African Americans, poor students and working class whites are about to march across the country with pitch forks, so if you're so concerned with having fun, I'm sure you won't mind when the zombie apocalypse feeds on your useless corpses.

My cousin posted the most hilarious meme from Silence of the Lambs, about Pokémon being in the basement, and she's not even a Bernie supporter or BLM activist.

Be very afraid. Be useful to society or be overthrown.

Do you think people are getting exercise with this Pokemon Go thing? Also, are they getting out and meeting people in their community? So sort of networking?

 

[á´…eparted]

See, I am inclined to say no. And I would also distinguish between laziness and apathy/lack of motivation. Because if we say for the most part they are always "doing their best" what do we call it when they eventually do better?

I guess it's a catch-22 in a way. If you say people are doing their best, then it implies complacency and no point or need improving. Say they aren't implies laziness and a need to pull oneself up by their bootstraps. It's cold and lacks understanding/nuance.

I guess it's better to say people are trying. Which is to say they aren't doing their best, but there might be very valid reasons as to why.

I'm an eternal optimist with humanity.

 

[EJCC]

See, I am inclined to say no. And I would also distinguish between laziness and apathy/lack of motivation. Because if we say for the most part they are always "doing their best" what do we call it when they eventually do better?

Pleasantly surprising?

 

[Bush]

Just "best they can"

I struggled to find a way to phrase my reply. And I appreciate the opportunity to try to think deeply about something.

The best thing someone can do, I think, is to reflect on some sort of "meta-best." Like, doing your best involves digging in and actively searching for what "best" means. We're all going to come to at least slightly different conclusions -- even though to us those conclusions may seem in complete opposition to others'.

But I'd still also say that achieving what's best on the societal level comes from the aggregation of individuals doing their best. And what's good on the societal level is then by and large good on the individual level -- infrastructure, support, collective experience, and so on enables the individual to more closely approximate that "meta-best" that they're striving for when he/she's doing their best.

As far as whether or not people do do their best? Not everyone does, but I do believe that a majority of people put in more effort than we'd think if we look at them on the outside.

 

[anticlimatic]

Trick question. It's a matter of perspective. How optimistic, pessimistic, altruistic, or misanthropic someone is. Everyone can only be one thing and do one series of things. The past has no variants, therefore the future won't either. The present is just the spot where the dominoes from yesterday collide with the dominoes from tomorrow.

 

[ThaumaturgicTheorist]

Hell no, that should be obvious to anyone.

 

[cascadeco]

See, I am inclined to say no. And I would also distinguish between laziness and apathy/lack of motivation. Because if we say for the most part they are always "doing their best" what do we call it when they eventually do better?

I view this whole topic as, people are doing their best *in a given moment*/knowing what they know in a certain moment, based on accumulated life and experience and self perception up to that point. Even being lazy and apathetic -- well, that person has rationalized a damn good reason, I bet, for justifying the laziness. So in that sense, they are doing their best given their mental makeup. If that makes sense.

It doesn't mean I'll necessarily agree with them and it doesn't mean their best = my best, because it's not the case.

Then when they do 'better', well, something must have caused them to shift gears, and now they're doing their 'best' in that new moment in time.

Something like that.

I mean, I could berate the lazy person for not getting off their ass more and doing something, but then, by doing so I'm putting them on my own set of notions of what *I* think is 'best'. In having been in bouts of laziness (just using this as an example since you mentioned it), I'll tell you, the reason I'm lazy on a given day might be because I'm stressed, I simply don't care atm, I genuinely value de-stressing and relaxing and not doing a thing, I am in a place where I'm genuinely trying to figure out what I want to do next and even I am annoyed with my laziness, etc etc .

That sort of thing.

There are so many possibilities tied to all of this. Just some additional thoughts sparked by your post.

 

[ceecee]

I think in many cases, people are doing the best they can. As much as I want to have expectations of people, I refuse to put that kind of stress on myself. With some people, I know they're doing the bare minimum and are too fragile to take criticism or advice. What are you suppose to do with that? I despise people who won't take personal responsibility and those who enable them but trying to fight this fight is pointless.

 

[Hawthorne]

I wonder if there's a relationship between "doing one's best" and how many regrets a person has...

 

[Tellenbach]

Clearly not. If people were doing their best, I wouldn't see litter on the streets, kids cyberbullying other kids, or dirty plates at the local restaurant. I see half-assedness all around me.

 

[highlander]

"Best" is s strong word. I think a lot of times absolutely but maybe nobody truly does their best because there is always room to improve - which in some cases may not even be necessary. A lot of people beat themselves up too much.

 

[Grand Admiral Crunch]

Clearly not. If people were doing their best, I wouldn't see litter on the streets

People throw trash on the ground when a trashcan is a foot away. It may not make sense to you, but maybe it does to them. Like, they feel better when they do that and are able to put more effort into something else because they conserved that energy. Or, maybe they figure someone will get paid to pick that trash up, so they are doing a favor to the economy by throwing it there. Or they just don't understand what they're doing. Whatever the reason, that might be the person's best, for now, until someone enlightens them.

 

[Tellenbach]

People throw trash on the ground when a trashcan is a foot away. It may not make sense to you, but maybe it does to them.

I wasn't referring to the scumbags who litter but rather the people whose job it is to pick up trash.

 

[Vasilisa]

Just the 8 Billion of Us

I have no idea, and I really don't feel like I could judge.

Nancy

 

[Thalassa]

I might respond to some of these quotes later, but you need to understand what I said is indeed half-true...and the other very silly, talking about zombie apocalypse and changing my avatar to a cat with a pitchfork.

A lot of people think Pokémon Go is wasteful and a poor usage of adult time, particularly since so many people are obsessed, Google has been caught stealing your info, we are in the middle of a national crisis, and articles gave already been written about morons wandering out at night, wasting their lunch breaks, and generally just being more wrapped up in Pokémon Go than reality. Seriously if you're going to be that obsessed, make it something that is edifying or fruitful. It's just seems kind of like the WoW thing, which I already thought was pathetic. You're not going to learn anything permanent from Pokémon Go, unless you're a child. It's not like reading, listening to music, volunteering, or even arguing about politics. You're just going to walk into strangers capturing imaginary creatures in public places. ..yay? Whatever.