We Could All Be Murderers

[RedAnarchist]

'PROGRAMMED TO MURDER'

Humans are programmed to kill and anyone could commit murder in the right circumstances, a scientist claims.

Professor David Buss, an academic at the University of Texas, argued in a new book that killing is part of human nature.


Murder could be traced back to the "ruthless evolutionary drive to reproduce", he said.

Prof Buss, an evolutionary psychologist, told the Times Higher Education Supplement: "I believe we all have the capability to commit murder."

His book, The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill, argues that 91% of men and 84% of women have had fantasies about killing someone.

It rejected the conventional view that people are driven to kill by influences such as child abuse, images in the media or culture.

Thousands of years ago killing an enemy would boost a man's social status and improve his chances of attracting a mate, the book argued.

Murderers' genes won the evolutionary battle over those of their victims and the instinct to kill now lies dormant in all of us, Prof Buss argued.

The book draws on a study of 375 murder cases, including interviews with convicted killers.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13347531,00.html

[Elect Marx]

I agree to an extent... I could kill, you could kill. Really just about anyone could kill another.

Humans are a very versatile animals and able to overcome the most basic biological programming and even the drive to live. So what if we have the programming to kill?

Obviously violence is something we can take to easily and pacifism seems to take more effort.

"fantasies about killing someone,"

I am shocked! Well, in the living conditions you find people... that seems like a LOW percentage.
Who hasn't thought of killing someone? You have to reconcile the idea of life and death at some point. As of now, I have never killed anyone and don't have any intentions but killing? Yes, killing is a viable option if you are forced...and people must have the biological ability to do so.


Humans are programmed to kill and anyone could commit murder in the right circumstances

Could these "the right circumstances" be self-defense? What are they defining "murder" as?


mur•der (mûr“d…r) n. 1. The unlawful killing of one human being by another, especially with premeditated malice.

Oh no&#33; Don&#39;t break the law&#33; :lol: War is okay though <_<


It rejected the conventional view that people are driven to kill by influences such as child abuse, images in the media or culture.

Though it seems that could influence "dormant instincts." This whole study seems to have sensationalist bias.

[OleMarxco]

We communists plan to overthrow the capitalist-state in a violent revolution. If we do so, are we murderers? :D

[Black Dagger]

Self-defence is not murder ;)

[monkeydust]

Junk science.

I mean, for a start...


Prof Buss, an evolutionary psychologist

[Paradox]

Don&#39;t forget that it&#39;s in us to cheat as well. By cheat, I mean cheat on girlfriends/boyfriends, husbands/wives, that kind of cheat. Of course we as humans have the ability to ignore that biological drive and stay faithful. But I was watching it on tv the other day, how monogamy is extremely rare in the animal world and how people have the same drive which is due to the fact that the more partners you have, the better your chances of spreading your genes. They watched birds in one of the studies, and found that the mother bird would often "sneak away" from her babies after feeding them to go mate with males. Anyway, yeah, any of us could kill, and any of us could cheat. Does that mean we&#39;re all gonna do it? No. Of course not. We have the capability to override those types of things... though not always successfully&#33;&#33;&#33; :lol:

[Spoonman]

It is true that many people have the fantasies of killing someone usually when they are angry but who honestly has the courage to go about doing it? Definately not the majority of people.

[Don't Change Your Name]

Err...i thought this was common sense

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Social darwinist nonsense, probably to justify imperialism.

[Commie Rat]

one of the major obstacles in the drive for humans to kill is the fact that we think abstractly(if that is even a word :P ) animals kill thinking food is food when humans kill (unless in extreme circumstances (revenge-sociopaths-ect) we think that the thing we are kill isn&#39;t just flesh and blood but some one who has a family who is alive not just meat and bones

[Clarksist]

Well I&#39;m part of the 91% of men that have fantasized about killing someone. I mean, I do that a lot. Does it mean that I could kill though? Maybe so.

But only because if would be a capitalist in the most dire of circumstances.

[bed_of_nails]

Last night I had the dream that my stalker tried stabbing me with two screwdrivers. I disarmed her and was walking away when she tried to stab me with a knife. I took the knife, stabbed her a few times before sawing off her head and dunking it into a very conveniently placed vat of liquid nitrogen and then smashing her head against a wall.

[Elect Marx]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10 2005, 11:57 PM
Last night I had the dream that my stalker tried stabbing me with two screwdrivers. I disarmed her and was walking away when she tried to stab me with a knife. I took the knife, stabbed her a few times before sawing off her head and dunking it into a very conveniently placed vat of liquid nitrogen and then smashing her head against a wall.
Damn&#33; I thought I had crazy dreams... I&#39;ve died a few times and one dream was like watching a horror movie; people just kept dying; I think I may have been thinking about horror movies but being some incorporeal spectator in a "real life" horror movie is apparently a little different. Oh, and there wasn&#39;t a killer; bad stuff just happened I think.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2005, 04:09 AM
Well I&#39;m part of the 91% of men that have fantasized about killing someone. I mean, I do that a lot. Does it mean that I could kill though? Maybe so.

But only because if would be a capitalist in the most dire of circumstances.
What makes you think that women don&#39;t think about killing people?

[bed_of_nails]

Originally posted by 313C7 iVi4RX+Jun 11 2005, 03:06 AM--> (313C7 iVi4RX @ Jun 11 2005, 03:06 AM)
[email protected] 10 2005, 11:57 PM
Last night I had the dream that my stalker tried stabbing me with two screwdrivers. I disarmed her and was walking away when she tried to stab me with a knife. I took the knife, stabbed her a few times before sawing off her head and dunking it into a very conveniently placed vat of liquid nitrogen and then smashing her head against a wall.
Damn&#33; I thought I had crazy dreams... I&#39;ve died a few times and one dream was like watching a horror movie; people just kept dying; I think I may have been thinking about horror movies but being some incorporeal spectator in a "real life" horror movie is apparently a little different. Oh, and there wasn&#39;t a killer; bad stuff just happened I think. [/b]
Dreaming sucks for me, due to the fact that I am capable of feeling pain in my dreams.

I have had limbs amputated while I was awake, set on fire, blown up, stabbed, hung, broken various bones, and more shit than I care to think about.

[TC]

Meh, people fantasize about a lot of things that not only would they never do, but they would never actually want to do if given the oprotunity.

To privately wish that someone was dead doesn&#39;t mean that you&#39;d actually kill them if you had the chance and could get away with it.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12 2005, 03:41 PM
We communists plan to overthrow the capitalist-state in a violent revolution. If we do so, are we murderers? :D
Murder is a legalistic term. If you attempt to kill off the bourgeois but fail and get captured... you would easily be tried and sentenced for murder in an just court of law... because laws are laws.

[Clarksist]

Originally posted by NoXion+Jun 11 2005, 11:36 AM--> (NoXion @ Jun 11 2005, 11:36 AM)
[email protected] 11 2005, 04:09 AM
Well I&#39;m part of the 91% of men that have fantasized about killing someone. I mean, I do that a lot. Does it mean that I could kill though? Maybe so.

But only because if would be a capitalist in the most dire of circumstances.
What makes you think that women don&#39;t think about killing people? [/b]
When did I say anything about women not being able to commit murder?

[The Z-Man]

Of course.