• Benj96
    2.3k
    If you suddenly decided to say "Yes" to every request made by anyone you encounter (like in the movie by the same name), and were highly capable/ able to fulfill their desires, where do you think you'd end up?

    Possible outcomes I've considered:
    1). Dead by suicide
    2). A slave
    3). A sex worker
    4). A drug addict
    5). Locked away/incarcerated
    6). A clown/joker/comedian/stunt devil
    6). Someones wife /husband
    7). A missionary/priest/nun/ spiritual guide
    8). A hermit
    9). A celebrity
    10). An innovator/inventor/scientist

    This is a question based on the quality of people's intentions. In a sense saying yes to everything your told makes you innocent as you've assumed the role of pure function/goal orientated with no autonomy of your own.

    What I want to know, is if our collective goals are wholesome or unwholesome towards one another.

    Would people try to protect you/ put you do good use or harm you/harm others?
  • Tom Storm
    9.1k
    11) A nihilist.
  • Andrew4Handel
    2.5k
    Who is going to be making the requests of you.

    Usually the most common request I face is "can you spare some change"

    Giving away my change would probably be funding a substance abuse problem.

    I wish I was in a situation where I was given more opportunities that I could fulfil.

    I suppose.
  • Vera Mont
    4.3k
    Hermit. It's only two steps away anyhow.
  • Paine
    2.5k
    What I want to know, is if our collective goals are wholesome or unwholesome towards one another.Benj96

    I don't understand how your thought experiment connects this question to the results you express interest in. The proposal suggests we are experiencing the immediate result of such decisions.

    That sounds more like a thesis than a poll of other people's experiences/opinions.
  • Manuel
    4.1k


    You'd probably blow a fuse. End up in psych ward, heavily medicated. We assume crazy things like ending up with a prostitute or bungie jumping off a helicopter or something, but most of these types of requests are rather mundane, lots of it tedious and not of much consequence.

    Assuming the people you will be saying yes to are immediate family and friends, and no is not an option, then you cannot argue, cannot get away, and so on.

    Eventually you will break or blow up and your mental health will take a serious toll.

    Unless your neighbor happens to a mountain climber or something exotic, this is the way to madness.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    I knew some really good-bad people who could've made offers I couldn't possibly have refused. They never put me in a position that could jeopardize me. They never asked, they could have, but didn't. I was deprived of the opportunity to be a yes man! Bless their souls wherever they are now! Amazing people, right?

    To answer the question, I'd say it would depend on the kinda people who make the proposals. If good, one should find oneself in a warm, cozy spot; if bad, ouch time!

    P. S. I'm a pushover.
  • Benj96
    2.3k
    I don't understand how your thought experiment connects this question to the results you express interest in. The proposal suggests we are experiencing the immediate result of such decisions.Paine

    True I suppose I jumped the gun a little bit. What I meant to say is if this yes person was just randomly wandering and doing everything they're told by any person they encounter, say after hundreds of interactions with people (a sample of the general populous) where woukd they end up.

    After all those encounters would they be better off or worse off? The list was just a few ultimatums that one could imagine if they got stuck under the orders of a specific person or group.

    The hermit on the other hand is a protective ultimatum where once realising this person does whatever theyre told, they're told to live far away in isolation and avoid interacting with anyone for their own safety. The celebrity could be the case if the media/news got a story on it. But I think that amount of exposure to people's commands would be very unstable.
  • Benj96
    2.3k
    Assuming the people you will be saying yes to are immediate family and friends, and no is not an option, then you cannot argue, cannot get away, and so on.Manuel

    This is true, probably they woukd be heavily controlled by one person or at most a small group.

    It's interesting that most likely people would be compelled to control them. The hermit offers an outcome where their only command is to go away into isolation from everyone. In that way I suppose its the best scenario because they have the most personal freedom and can survive with relative autonomy and self sufficent survival.

    Probably such an instruction would come from a loved one. As keeping them around the family home I'm sure someone is likely to break in and steal them for their own devices.
  • Benj96
    2.3k
    Hermit. It's only two steps away anyhow.Vera Mont

    If they were my family or friend this is probably what I'd tell them to do also. I don't they'd be safe in society.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_0

    When the experiment is done, the results are not nice. Such is what we are.
  • HarryHarry
    25
    When the experiment is done, the results are not nice. Such is what we are.unenlightened
    Do you think the experiment would go the same in the East?
    In a small rural village or tribal community?

    I hope the experiment reflects the depravity modern western high wealth materialistic society, and not humanity generally, for all time.

    But maybe your conclusion is based off of many other examples in history.
  • Bylaw
    559
    Would people try to protect you/ put you do good use or harm you/harm others?Benj96
    I think you're in trouble regardless. People can, and not unfairly, assume that you are an adult and are going along with them. Perhaps you don't end up an addict or mercenary etc. But all your relationships will be twisted to unhealthy places: at work, love life, with your kids!!, on the street, in stores, any transaction with a salesperson and so on.

    It would rightly be seen as a kind of mental health issue.

    And that's without anyone consciously deciding to abuse someone who is a clinical soft touch.

    And you'd certainly end up close to friends and lovers who are the wrong people for you, unless you're a masochist who is generally passive.

    I mean, there'd be something wrong with someone who chose to be close to someone who always said yes. They'd be messed up too.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    Do you think the experiment would go the same in the East?
    In a small rural village or tribal community?
    HarryHarry

    I don't know. In a way Marina's experiment was a set up. It would have been dull if everyone had been kind, and there was no sex or violence. So there was and that is interesting, and remarkable, but it tells us that that is what interests us, and that it tends to escalate.
    In my dull normal life, people are never that free with each other, even when drunk. But it's interesting that sex and violence is where the op's mind went, and it reminded me of Rhythm 0 because 'do whatever you want with me' is very close to 'say yes to everything'.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    In my dull normal life, people are never that free with each other, even when drunk. But it's interesting that sex and violence is where the op's mind went, and it reminded me of Rhythm 0 because 'do whatever you want with me' is very close to 'say yes to everything'.unenlightened

    Do you mind me asking, that on a deeper level why do people behave this way? Namely, the yes to everything ending up with negative things?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    I'm in my early thirties, and have seen many people fall through the cracks in society. I have been around homeless people quite a lot in the great state of California, in rehabilitation facilities. My experience with them is that they are tough people with a certain demeanor that wouldn't threaten or hurt you. They don't tend to hurt or exploit one another. It's the gangs and criminals that cause the most amount of trouble with selling methamphetamine and other highly addicting drugs to people. Never been to jail; but, have also dealt with people who have come out of prison or jail for misdemeanors or even felonies. I suspect the rich wouldn't go out of their way to actively hurt someone, since they're having so much fun with themselves.

    People tend to maintain homeostasis and don't explode. Only those coming back from war or the battlefield with conditions like PTSD tend to fall apart or implode under the stress if not helped by their own Veteran's Affairs.

    I suppose to answer the OP, I think your results may vary depending on the area you inhabit. If it's late at night on a street in some slum, you might get hurt.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    Do you mind me askingShawn

    Not at all, ask away. Do you mind that I don't really know the answer?

    There's a phrase that haunts me; "Be good for Mummy." One is told to be something, always and everywhere, to be good, to be better, to be, God help us, authentic. And so everyone is always being something or other, which can only happen by negating what one is. And the being that is negated is angry, frustrated, and hungry, for its own life. The prisoner in one's own psyche hates the one who is so free as to say yes to everything. Does that resonate at all?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    One is told to be something, always and everywhere, to be good, to be better, to be, God help us, authentic. And so everyone is always being something or other, which can only happen by negating what one is.unenlightened

    I don't think we're as driven to ideals as you make it seem. We usually start with socialization, then individualization. It's during the teenage years when things start emerging as problems. I think these teenage years where mental health issues can crop up is what your talking about. Is that something that I'm portraying accurately with regards to what you are saying?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    And the being that is negated is angry, frustrated, and hungry, for its own life. The prisoner in one's own psyche hates the one who is so free as to say yes to everything. Does that resonate at all?unenlightened

    I read this again, and kind of slowly understood this psyche as dominated by want's. A lot of people want things, but to return to the OP, I don't think people want to hurt other people most of the time.
  • Sir2u
    3.5k
    If you suddenly decided to say "Yes" to every request made by anyone you encounter (like in the movie by the same name), and were highly capable/ able to fulfill their desires, where do you think you'd end up?Benj96

    11. A genie in a bottle with an unlimited wish list available on a monthly basis. Sort of like amazon without being paid.
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    It's during the teenage years when things start emerging as problems. I think these teenage years where mental health issues can crop up is what your talking about. Is that something that I'm portraying accurately with regards to what you are saying?Shawn

    Yes. a child is helpless and dependent and cannot resist the demand to be this or that. The teenager is starting to become more independent, more resistant to demands to be, and starting to become sexual. All of which is in conflict with being good for Mummy. So that is when there is an internal conflict developing.

    I don't think people want to hurt other people most of the time.Shawn

    Yes, but it is because they don't, that the person they are busy not being because they are being good becomes the bad person who does want to hurt other people, and in a special situation it can to come out. Have you read about the cruelty of nuns, and the sexual antics of priests? The saint creates the sinner in himself.
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    The teenager is starting to become more independent, more resistant to demands to be, and starting to become sexual. All of which is in conflict with being good for Mummy. So that is when there is an internal conflict developing.unenlightened

    Not a local phenomenon, in the least. My view is that after a period, which can last a decade and a half, the brain is developed, society steps in, and you either became something through work or college or something went awry throughout that process and just depend on a government check.

    Yes, but it is because they don't, that the person they are busy not being because they are being good becomes the bad person who does want to hurt other people, and in a special situation it can to come out. Have you read about the cruelty of nuns, and the sexual antics of priests? The saint creates the sinner in himself.unenlightened

    I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Take for example the homeless. Have you dealt with them? Don't they come off as the genuine saints of society, and even the target of Jesus' teaching? May, I ask if your speaking about only people in power such as leaders or priests?
  • unenlightened
    9.2k
    I'm sorry but I beg to differ. Take for example the homeless. Have you dealt with them? Don't they come off as the genuine saints of society, and even the target of Jesus' teaching? May, I ask if your speaking about only people in power such as leaders or priests?Shawn

    I'm describing very generally the conflicted nature of the human psyche, as an explanation for occasional violence and violation. Power, as opposed to dependence is a factor in the expression. There may be people who are not conflicted, or are never in the position to manifest their negative. Homeless folk who tell passers by to f off do not thrive. They are like infants in their dependence.

    But I'll stop here, because we have drifted too far off topic.
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.