What surprises me, in a way, is how almost universally people are trustworthy and good. There are problems, and sometimes people bicker, which is a pain in the ass, but people are good. No matter what your religious background, we share pretty much the same values. There are some minor differences that we disagree on, but the differences are at the 5 percent level. That’s pretty good.
~ Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigs List in Founders at Work
Quote: Brainpickings. Photograph: bigmarketingsmallbusiness
Live & Learn 
I’m 100% in agreement..
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Oh, but how a one percent difference can make all the difference in the world. At 451 degrees Fahrenheit paper burns, as Ray Bradbury noted.
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Oh, but how so right are you!
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I wonder where Craig got his information. I am not saying I disagree with it. However I think it may be because of his position in the world. I also disagree with the word “good,” and assigning any sort of objective analysis using the word “good,” as a benchmark of commonality.
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I can’t disagree with you. Yet, I’ve found that living in fear or wariness of the “not good” is a tough road to travel.
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Hmmmm…not sure.
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Have to believe. What is the alternative? 🙂
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“…how almost universally people are trustworthy and good.” I just don’t know if I can agree with this. When I see what humans, as a species, have done to this planet and their fellow beings on this planet…and what they continue to do, selfishly, with little regard for future generations…it’s hard for me to see the good. There ARE a lot of people who ARE good and keep trying to spread that good…but to say that there is only a 5% difference doesn’t sound quite right to me. Yes, I too would like to believe otherwise, but when I look at the world, I’m left so much of the time with sadness.
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“I” have to believe it is true. (I do see your point)
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i do believe that most people are inherently good, though some make choices to go in another direction –
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Yes. And let their conscious run…
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I’m not sure that people are universally trustworthy and good, or the world would be a happier and fairer place. There’s some real bad stuff out there, due to selfishness, greed, and inflated egos. That being said, goodness does shine through, often as a response to the damage inflicted by all the bad.
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I agree with you Sarah.
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I believe that approximately 5% of the world is evil or close to being evil. With guns being so readily available, it makes it easy for this 5% to wreak havoc on the world.
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Now that, is certainly true.
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In general I agree. Within each of us we desire peace and love. It is when one gets into different beliefs and faiths and how these teachings drive people to believe and act out toward those who do not subscribe to their doctrine, the percentages take a major shift. A small cult has little effect on the majority, but major religious followings do. A religion is anything you place your faith in, from evolution to no god, some god or God or somthing that you believe controls your destiny. This world is changing and not necessarily in a good way. One cannot kill and say they love you and want peace in the same sentence. If everyone truly loved and desired peace, the world would have peace and the 5% would not survive. Your post is very thought provoking. I like it. Thanks.
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Thoughtful (as always) Bill. I had similar reaction. Is 95% Good? Is it less than that? Do we all have moments of sin? Is some of this genetic, where wiring may be off a bit in those that struggle?
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I agree that there are those that suffer from genetics gone wrong. There are those who suffer from physical and mental abuse and of course those doing the abuse. There are those who use violance to intimidate and gain profits. Then we have todays acts of terrorism touching lives of thousands. One my argue that those doing the terrorizing is still a small percentage of the world population, but its growth is on the rise. If one takes 5% of the world population, it is approximately 325 million people. As the world population grows so does the potential for lage scale distruction. So much havoc, death and distruction has happened over the history of this world in the name of religion or ones belief that they are superior to others. The question comes down to why do not all religions teach love and forgiveness? If 325,000,000 people don’t belive in love and forgiveness then this 5% can influence much larger numbers to follow them and the 5% grows. This is such an important subject with so much at stake for everyone living in this world today, it deserves to be recognized by everone, even if it has not touch ones personal life. Many opinions will be stated, positions taken, but imbracement of love and forgiveness seems hard to find. Thanks again for your post. Sometimes just something simple as a statement about 5% can effect change. If I didn’t believe that one person can make a difference, I wouldn’t be blogging. Thanks for letting me speak my thoughts.
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That 5% is, according to Craig, “minor differences.” So what’s the percentage of the downright scary, off the wall, off the bell curve difference? Even if that’s 1% or 0.5%, it’s still a lot of folks doing a lot of ugliness.
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I totally agree.
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David, one more thought. Can you imagine what this world would be like if the remaining 95%, 6.275 billion people would preach, spread, talk, teach and live a life of love and forgiveness?
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again, you have provided me inspiration for my newspaper column this week–will be posting it in the next few days–thank you David!
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Great LouAnn. Glad it came to productive and commercial use! 🙂
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It brings to mind how the people we hear about connected with Craig’s list have different values from Craig and abuse the trust……
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I thought about that Val. I did.
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YES! I agree. 🙂
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Reblogged this on sherriemiranda1 and commented:
So true. But I also think that 5% of the world has evil ideas and those are the people we need to watch out for.
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Let’s get OUT of this military mentality, this Revenge mentality. Here in the U.S., a week doesn’t go by where some messed up guy doesn’t shoot up a bunch of people. This mentality is becoming more and more common as our political reps vote more and more for the Military/Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about.
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Reblogged this on THE STRATEGIC LEARNER.
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Thanks for sharing John.
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