Is self-destructive behaviour a natural response to the need for a cull of humans?

[Pickman's model]

The phrase “the need for a cull of humans” terrifies me.

i always add the person suggesting such a thing to the priority list for special measures.

 

[Jay Park]

No.
The basic biological imperative of any animal is to survive.

that’s bollocks, otherwise we wouldn’t have suicide.

 

[Jay Park]

Looping back to the original question:

No. And the terms of the question itself indicate a slippery slope to full nazi thinking. The premise that there are "just too many people" nearly always tips straight into picking the sort of people you think the world's best rid of.

You're arbitrarily calling some behaviours 'self destructive' when it suits the argument but leaving many others out. (And what does 'self destructive' even mean, anyway? Suicide? Smoking? Riding motorbikes? )

It's also blindingly illogical even on its own stupid terms: if true, if there is some sort of subconscious response where overcrowded humans get stressed out and destroy themselves, then rates of suicide, murder, whatever, should be highest in the world's most densely populated places. Which they are measurably not.

So: no.

Do you see any comparison with the idea that there are too many humans, and the rejection of such, to be similar to the once firmly held belief that unbridled immigration is of only a benefit to an economy?

Hunter Gatherer groups back in the olden days (remember? ahh) had a completely different concept of the numbers a group should hold and whether or not an individual would be able to join, or continue to be, within a group.

and didn’t the Nazi’s want more room for themselves, and in effect more of themselves, besides the need for imperial domination and extermination of different ethnicities?

I’m sick of this ‘durrr sounds a bit nasty nazi’ go to line. Hear it all the bastard time.

yes - blasting cigs, blasting motorbikes, and of course suicide are destructive behaviours. The first two give us something to do - with varying effects of adrenaline. The third, need I continue?

show me these measures of low suicide rates in highly densely populated areas. Show me them now. I say Seoul, Tokyo, and the dozens of dead bodies I and friends have seen in India.

 

[Saul Goodman]

No

 

[Jay Park]

No

Im all ears, G-man

 

[Jay Park]

i always add the person suggesting such a thing to the priority list for special measures.

hopefully sloppy language, hopefully

 

[Saul Goodman]

Im all ears, G-man

It's like yes, but opposite
It was in reply to the thread title and OP.

 

[Jay Park]

It's like yes, but opposite
It was in reply to the thread title and OP.

ah, ‘no’ as in the direct opposite of yes

I see now

 

[trabuquera]

interestingly, within the US the absolute reverse is true (to a degree that surprised even me) - suicide rates higher the emptier your county or state is, and the effect is even more exaggerated if you only count youth suicide - because being a teenager in rural areas often REALLY sucks (PDF) How are mortality rates affected by population density?

 

[alsoknownas]

that’s bollocks, otherwise we wouldn’t have suicide.

Shallow. It's not suicide you should be looking at in this context, but despair. Like many human functions it is helpful right up to the point that it is no longer helpful. A person might exercise obsessively to the point of heart failure, but that kind of occurrence is rare. The drive to perform exercise is generally a healthy one, so it overall benefits the species, even if occasionally it hinders certain individuals.

Many aspects of our being are configured such. People have an almost unlimited capacity for despair because mostly that is a beneficial trait. Proportional to the population as a whole suicide is a relative rarity.

Despair (even at the risk of suicide) is a survival mechanism, just like all of our impulses and behaviours.

 

[Jay Park]

Shallow. It's not suicide you should be looking at in this context, but despair. Like many human functions it is helpful right up to the point that it is no longer helpful. A person might exercise obsessively to the point of heart failure, but that kind of occurrence is rare. The drive to perform exercise is generally a healthy one, so it overall benefits the species, even if occasionally it hinders certain individuals.

Many aspects of our being are configured such. People have an almost unlimited capacity for despair because mostly that is a beneficial trait. Proportional to the population as a whole suicide is a relative rarity.

Despair (even at the risk of suicide) is a survival mechanism, just like all of our impulses and behaviours.

interesting

 

[Jay Park]

Shallow. It's not suicide you should be looking at in this context, but despair. Like many human functions it is helpful right up to the point that it is no longer helpful. A person might exercise obsessively to the point of heart failure, but that kind of occurrence is rare. The drive to perform exercise is generally a healthy one, so it overall benefits the species, even if occasionally it hinders certain individuals.

Many aspects of our being are configured such. People have an almost unlimited capacity for despair because mostly that is a beneficial trait. Proportional to the population as a whole suicide is a relative rarity.

Despair (even at the risk of suicide) is a survival mechanism, just like all of our impulses and behaviours.

May I ask do you have an academic background in psychology or is it one of many things you’ve become knowledgeable about?

 

[alsoknownas]

May I ask do you have an academic background in psychology or is it one of many things you’ve become knowledgeable about?

It's one of the many things, including craft beer, Subbuteo table football, and making silly videos. I'm kind of a renaissance man of sorts.

 

[Jay Park]

It's one of the many things, including craft beer, Subbuteo table football, and making silly videos. I'm kind of a renaissance man of sorts.

I yield. A person of many talents. Thanks for that perspective. It feels somewhat emancipating for me.