[Jdanz]

I'm pretty convince that the world is a good place and getting better. There is a lot of crap, but for the most part if someone is struggling people are more likely to help than hinder.

I live in NYC and there are tourists around all the time. When they ask people for directions people usually oblidge. Why would they do this rather than walking away if there isn't an inherent motive towards altruism.

In general i think that people are too self-involved to worry about helping other people, but all things being equal if it was little or no effort to them they would help their fellow man.

You're average person is far more likely to help a stranger who dropped a grocery bag then to intentionally knock it over. I mean look at OOT there is pleanty of dickery here, but for the most part when people askquestions the entire community gives them what they at least believe to be good advice, and at what benefit to themselves?

People are basically good, and that in my mind proves the world is a pretty good place.

edit: as a pre-emptive defence, i realize that people will do incredibly terrible things in their self-interest and that can suck, but that's no different than any other animal or organism, what i think is heartening is the desire to do good. People might do evil to get what they want, but rarely desire to do evil for evil's sake whereas most people desire to do good at least to some degree for its own sake.