It's something that's present in many animals. Foxes, chimps, etc., all give and share when they have no need to. MelT
I read this right after contemplating how I got stiffed on tips 11 out 15 times yesterday, and I'm the fastest driver and one of the friendliest to the customers. Oh and when you give people something for free, they are almost guaranteed to exhibit very little if any "generosity".
But this doesn't mean that generosity is nonexistant. But it's true that people aren't always generous all of the time and that's just how some people are. Believe me I used to work at a retail store and being nice is part of the job. Even when I was nice there were still some customers that were rude anyway but at least I only dealt with those type of people for a couple minutes before they were on their way. At least in my experience the majority of people that came through the door were cooperative. However, some people just want to give others a hard time.
This is only true in a civilized society, when society breaks down it is every man and woman for themselves. No generosity
the generosity is built in, but so is greed, and as we learn and experience things, one of them becomes more important to us
i did a nice thing the other day. a guy from turkey was trying to buy a pack of rolling papers because he rolled his own cigarettes. the dude at 7-11 wouldn't sell him the papers because the turkish dude only had a turkish license. he thought it was fake or w/e. so being nice i bought the guy the papers. so he wouldn't think all americans were assholes.
It's like when I grab moths and hold them in front of frogs' mouths. I'm being generous by giving them easy meals. On the other hand I'm kind of being a mega cunt to the moths. oh well, life's a bitch and generosity killed the moth.
I hate hearing people complain about others not being generous enough. The only thing you have control over is your own actions. Start being generous in its truest form. By this i mean dont stop being generous once nobody returns it. After a certain # of years, and very possibly past your death it will be come a natural thing that people can count on in everyday life. We wont even have to worry about people abusing us generous folk if we could count on each other for support afterwards My mentality is to try and be kind when ever i can... obviously my mood and ego get in the way occasionally, but i try my best to stay conscious of it.
I strongly disagree. It's not the society (civilized or otherwise) that matters, it's the personal mindsets of those interacting that determine the nature of generosity displayed (on both the give and the take sides). I find you've made an improper generalization.
Actually, that's not true - but I can't remember what the effect is called! When society breaks down people begin to self-govern and actually become more altruistic and disciplined. MelT
not true among cats. well, at least in a cat-human relationship hahahaha sometimes though it does work. good read though man i liked this a lot