Hacker News Reader

Comment by whalesalad | Hacker News Reader

Most people are good. You're born good. You are friendly and welcoming and like to make friends. But ultimately we grow up and fall victim to the tragedy of human condition. We form tribes, we alienate others, we hold grudges, we harbor prejudice. You can't just go around with a happy-go-lucky attitude when it comes to life. There are bad people out there. I think dropping bombs on people is wrong. I do not, however, have a problem with keeping a ton of pre-aimed nuclear weapons armed and ready. I'm all about our nations defense. People can't fuck with us, they'll lose. It's a deterrent.

View on HN

"Most people are good. You're born good"

I don't believe so. Do you have kids?

kids care first and foremost about themselves, like adults do, but worse.

I had seen 10 years old killing a dog with wooden spears just for fun(or curiosity or whatever crazy reason), cutting the tail of reptiles or just smashing them with stones. Or beating , insulting, humiliating other kids for the same reasons.

Not that far from Romans wondering how much time it will take for a Lion to kill a slave.

I did not argue on that point, but I tend to agree with you there. Kids are usually way worse than adults in regard to how they treat people around them. Maybe it's because they don't realize the harm that they do, or they don't understand responsibility in the same way an adult does. Education is what makes them behave and understand how they can hurt other people.

You only notice the bad. Go look for some good in people: you'll find it. But you're not wired to look for good, by default. You do have to work at it.. doesn't mean that people aren't good. Just that you haven't noticed yet.

(Hint: this viewpoint will probably change for you when you have your own kids one day, if you do ..)

Except that deterrence does not really work. There are weapons out there who are in the hands of people you do not control, and who knows, one day they may turn out crazy and launch a nuclear strike on the US. And because of their condition, they won't care less about total annihilation (they'll be safely in a bunker anyway) of their country and citizens as long as they can harm your country.

So, deterrence only works if your opponent has something TO LOSE. That's the whole concept, and the limits of the concept. That's why people get nervous about North Korea (and their elite who lets their own people starve to death), no matter how many nukes you have in your backyard to deter them from doing anything. There are some cases where it won't work.

PS: during the Cuba crisis, some nuclear russian submarines were THAT close to launching a strike on the US (2 of the 3 people in place were in favor of doing it until the 3rd one managed to calm them down), and they were sensible people who knew very well what it would mean for their mother country as well in terms of retaliation. Again. Deterrence is really a weak theory.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com