Does character change?

[g0pher]

Are our personalities products of our childhood and adolecsent invironments or is our character the same from the time we were todlers?

[Phillip_Welling]

it definitely changes. your persona is constantly changing.

[Zylark]

As a general rule, no. People do not change. Shame to say it, but that is my experience. Shitheads are shitheads, and will always be shitheads. The only moderating factor might be age. But that is only due to developing lack of energy to be put into shitheadedness.

Goddamned I loathe shitheads. And I use every opportunity to ridicule them as shitheads when they rear their little heads. I got one intolerance, and that is against shitheads.

[abuckley89]

Originally Posted by Zylark

As a general rule, no. People do not change. Shame to say it, but that is my experience. Shitheads are shitheads, and will always be shitheads. The only moderating factor might be age. But that is only due to developing lack of energy to be put into shitheadedness.

Goddamned I loathe shitheads. And I use every opportunity to ridicule them as shitheads when they rear their little heads. I got one intolerance, and that is against shitheads.

i disagree

[Zylark]

As well you should. But why?

[adamBC]

studies of newborns with concurent follow ups have shown that peoples "general (VERY general) personalities tend to remain the same from early development right into old age.


look up easy babiess, slow-to-warm babies, and i cant remember the difficult one...

[CosmicSerpent]

Originally Posted by Zylark

As a general rule, no. People do not change. Shame to say it, but that is my experience. Shitheads are shitheads, and will always be shitheads. The only moderating factor might be age. But that is only due to developing lack of energy to be put into shitheadedness.

Goddamned I loathe shitheads. And I use every opportunity to ridicule them as shitheads when they rear their little heads. I got one intolerance, and that is against shitheads.

I think we can all agree there are some ignorant, simple minded people in this word, but generalizing like that is never a good thing. I'm sure plenty of the people you think are "shitheads" are probably not so bad if you get to know them. We are all conditioned based on the environment around us, and just because someone doesn't think the way you do doesn't automatically make them a lesser person. No one is perfect, no matter how great you think they are. If we all ignored everyone we didn't agree with, bettering each other's lives would be impossible. Understanding is definitely much more productive than hate, no matter how you look at it. And I know plenty who were once total fuck ups and have managed to turn their lives around into generally good people.

I would say the opposite... I don't think there are many people who's character hasn't changed a good bit throughout their lives. There are an infinite amount of contributing factors that change who we are every day.

[The Growin Guru]

We live in a world where the reaction is governed by the action. Therefore you evolve as a product of the action you perform. As adults everything we do is a reaction from childhood action, (some would say many lifetimes before that even). We are always moving toward the constant Cosmic pull if you will, which is inherant goodness, and love we are all born with. This may sound a little corny I know, but it is proved with science, our Universe works in a very spiecial way, we are that Universe.

Some will think of this as a joke, but it isn't. Each atom is it's own universe, we and the universe as a whole is made up of atoms all working in the same sequence from the smallest to the incomprehendably largest.

We all know the spiritual pull the plants have on us, but usually the miracle we witness when growing them from start to finish(being a survival tool in it's full life), makes us numb to the point where it becomes a repetative way of life, normal to us. As humans that's our ultimate weakness, forgetting the miracles of the universe.

[africantapwater]

Originally Posted by The Growin Guru

As humans that's our ultimate weakness, forgetting the miracles of the universe.

Excellent.

[Medicine Al]

Originally Posted by g0pher

Are our personalities products of our childhood and adolecsent invironments or is our character the same from the time we were todlers?

When I was a baby, I was told I was a " world class screamer". As a toddler, my feats of tantrum related destruction were "legendary".

I don't think too much has changed, I still let out a pretty good yell when provoked, although now its more laced with profanity.
And if I don't get my nipple(bong) time every day, my tantrums can start to look pretty childish.
So I guess I'm just a big Peter Pan Syndrome victim, growing slowly and painfully aware of my own mortality, keeping my behaviors in check with a little homegrown snakeoil. But, hey whatever works, just keep moving to find your own center, and you can't get too far off the path.

[HighGrowMan]

This is a pretty deep question. I believe that we will always hold a certain character from when we are born to when we die. However, I believe that what we do with that character determines who we are. I think we can grow our character, and by "knowing yourself" you are able to be more than the character your born with.

[naku06]

You are not the same person you where yesterday. People are constantly changing, in some small tweak here and there. But some traits stay strong, and thats what other perceive as the personality.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

I think we are born with a conscience that doesn't change (at least much or easily) but character is something completely formed out of experience.

We have a base character we are born with which is our conscience (leaning on good or bad, altruistic or egoistic) but our personality is developed by circumstance.

I believe we are mixtures of our surroundings (people, places and things) which are circumstancial but at our core is something that isn't influenced very easily if at all by surroundings.

EDIT- how did I guess this was a g0pher question???

Way to keep the awesome threads coming bro!!!

[naku06]

To cover the subject of birth, i believe we are born with nothing more than the desire to eat, sleep, and survive. The idea and concepts of personality and ego are created from our own inventions. You are not born anything, you choose or don't choose to be what you are. i don't believe in this soul rubbish.

I'm a bit of an existentialist, though.

[AndyPL]

There's no question that the experiences we have in childhood have a huge influence on how the rest of our life unfolds, but I don't believe we ever lose the ability to grow and evolve. Sadly though, I think that lot of people kind of get stuck in their life's journey pretty early on and give up any hope of changing their ways for the better, but even these people can still evolve if they make the effort of leaving their comfort zone and exploring uncharted territory.