What are your Basic Instincts?

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This question is: What are your instincts? Your basic values? What made sense to you, even as a little kid? What seems obvious, like it should need no explanation?

(Questions for some other time: What do you believe as a grown-up, and why don’t some people grow up? These are not questions for this thread.)

Value #1: Compassion. When you were a kid and saw someone who was hurt in a way that was easy to understand, did you care? Did you want to help? Or did you immediately start calculating how to exploit? Did you enjoy kicking someone who was down, just for the fun of it?

Value #2: Honesty. Truth. To me, it seems so simple. Like math or logic. This is true, that is not, which part don’t ya get? If you invent a story that you know is incorrect and present it as a fact, that is called “lying.” There are no “white lies.” (Childish insensitivity is something you can work on and learn to evade. Insensitivity is not at all the same as brutal honesty, which is not really honesty at all, but an excuse for aggressive behavior. Saying “you’re ugly” is not true.) Teaching an Aspie child to lie is not helpful. It’s only going to add to the confusion and get him into more trouble. Teaching him to be sensitive would be helpful. If the people in positions of authority are reasonable, he shouldn’t have to lie at all. (From what I’ve seen, if a kid lies to you, you or someone important is probably doing something wrong.)

Value #3: Herd instinct. This basic instinct is foreign to me. Loyalty or tribalism or identity politics. “Stick together, right or wrong.” The “innocent soldier.” Blind obedience. Authority. The pecking order. To some people, it seems to feel like morality. When you think about it, half the time it’s bad. I need to stop and think when people get mad at me for being disloyal to something I disagree with or someone who is simply wrong. It makes so little sense to me that my first impulse is that this person is simply insane. As an adult, I can see why sticking with the herd would sometimes be a good thing. On those occasions I can make a conscious choice to tag along. But I reserve the right to pick and chose. It drives ‘em crazy.

Value #4: Obligations and relationships. Instinct makes a mother want to take care of her baby, not because she needs more help in the fields or as an insurance policy for her old age, but just because it’s her baby. It needs no explanation. If you mess with my little brother, you’re messing with me – not because he’ll ever repay me in any tangible way, but just because he’s my brother. (This feels totally separate from herd instinct, which is demanding and abusive.)

Value #5: Reciprocity, justice, equal pay for equal work. As an adult, I see the value, but my instincts are not strong and don’t push me to demand it for myself.

Value #6: Self preservation. One can extend this in any direction via Rational Selfishness, but that’s for grown-ups. The savage wants what’s good for the self and doesn’t genuinely care about anyone else.

I am aware of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physical, safety, social, esteem, self-actualization. I get it, but I don’t feel that way. I haven’t figured out how to explain it.

So, on a scale of strong/medium/weak, how are your instincts in these areas?
And what have I missed? The world still seems crazy, so I’ve probably missed a bunch.

My answers are:

Compassion -- strong
Honesty -- strong
Herd instinct -- weak
Obligations -- medium
Reciprocity -- weak
Self-preservation -- medium
Other -- ??

Edit: See post #12, below.
Value #7, some kind of desire for Peace. It's a half-baked concept.

Last edited by Tahitiii on 17 Mar 2009, 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

Kill, eat, sleep; repeat. People...can either help with that or they get in the way of that; they usually get in the way because they're so different. That's pretty much it. Solitary savage, I guess.

Survival of self at this moment in time = strong
everything else = not so strong

no i did not feel anyone's pain. i watched it. if no one else was present and they were really hurt, i would go and find a person and alert them to deal with it.

of course not. i would never contribute to anyone's bad experiences.



i can not pretend except to imagine as i drift to sleep.
i can not contrive in my mind a reality that does not exist.
i can not assert or even venture anything i can not back up with prior establishment.


the "herd" instinct is the most "heard" instinct in most people.

the alpha male sheep decides to make a break through the fence of barbed wire, and the rest of the flock all follow blindly. their skins are ripped off their backs as they they try to jump through what they do not believe, but are too paranoid not to follow.

very few sheep remain calm and realize that the pasture they are in will be much more productive after the exodus of those blind pellet sh*tters.


i will protect my animals from harm. it is not an obligation or a relationship. it is that i must protect their passage to success.



i have no concept much of reciprocity. i just live how i live and i get what i need to live from the companies i work for, and i do not agonize over whether it is fair to them or me. it is stable and no one is complaining.


i will spend my last calorie in my effort not to perish.

eatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilleatfuckilletc, etcl

Logic and the reality of death.

Compassion high
Honesty medium
Herd instinct low
Obligations high
Reciprocity medium
Self-preservation high

Value #1: Compassion.

I care when other people hurt, and I always try to help. Most people say it's my downfall because I'm overly helpful and sometimes people abuse my kindness. I've been that way since the beginning of time, and no matter how hard I try to change that about myself, I can't seem to. The main reason why I do that is because it's the right thing to do, and I place more value on spiritual things than earthly things, instinctively at least.

Value #2: Honesty.

I'm too honest, to a fault. Always been that way too. I always volunteer too much information because I feel like hiding the truth is the same as lying. I've told lies before, but it is generally something I do not do because I try to not do things that I would feel I need to lie about later. I figure if I think I need to lie about it, then I probably shouldn't be doing it. I'm also brutally honest, but I don't call people ugly. Things like ugly/pretty are all subject to opinion. But I will tell people if I think something looks good or bad on them, and usually if it looks bad, I will make recommendations before saying why. Like if my sister asks how she looks and the shirt is too tight on her, I'd say, "Do you have another shirt to change into because it doesn't look comfortable?"

Value #3: Herd instinct.

Now what screws me up on this concept is workplace. I'm loyal to the company, not the people I work with. I guess it's normal to be loyal to your co-workers before the company. Oops.

But on the herd thing, I'm the alpha male, well alpha female which is more than male. If the other animals don't realize it, then that's their problem, not mine.

Value #4: Obligations and relationships.

I'm big on loyalty to friends and family. Also the military because I'm a veteran. Like if my friend is in a fight, right or wrong, I will have her back, but if she's wrong, i will tell her to her face she was in the wrong, and then I get mad because I had to fight about it, so her wrong affected more than just herself. As for the military, I do things people would think as stupid because of it. Like one day, I'm driving my friend to her man's house at like 1 AM. He doesn't live in the nicest part of town. Small town though, so not like the dangerous streets of D.C. Anyway, i see a young man walking in uniform. I asked him where he was going, and he stood in attention to answer. I figure he was recently basic training or still in for him to stand to attention like that. Every other word was mam. He was walking home from a funeral of a lost soldier friend, so he says, I figure it didn't matter, it was too late for him to be walking by himself and I gave him a ride home. Nothing bad happened. And, I would have taken him down if he tried. It worked out. Another time, I was at a bar and an army guy was pretty drunk, by himself, and it was his last night in the states before deploying to Iraq. So, I was his designated driver for the evening, even when he wanted to go to the strip joint.

I'm very instinctive of the mother part. Now that I'm a mom, I'm more about my kids than any other family. The rest of the family doesn't matter to me as much as my kids. They come first. I'm also over protective, and I think I worry too much. If anything or anyone threatened the safety of my children, man I'd be in court facing psychotic murder charges/manslaughter. It would be one of those moments where if I accidentally killed the threat, I'd probably recucitate it back to life just so I could kill it again. I probably screwed up by writing this because now they'll add conspiracy charges. They can even without me committing the crime. But, if it's self defense...hah.

Value #5: Reciprocity, justice, equal pay for equal work.

I instinctively like to see justice and things be fair. I will stand up for what's right, and I will make sacrifices for it. I was really big about that growing up. But I'm a little weird about it interfering with basic survival now because I have my children, but I surely don't want to raise them to think it's okay to bend over and take it.

Value #6: Self preservation.

I'm not really selfish to even rationalize it. But then again, caring about other people is actually a big deal for your inner self. I must of been brain washed by the care bears at a young age. I instinctively kinda suck at self preservation. Now I am awesome at the whole growth thing and improving myself thing, but I still do many self destructive things naturally. Actually, when depressed, I don't get suicidal, I get self destructive. I really think my Aspergers interferes with that instinct. Plus I think social skills play a major role in that since human survival includes a social heirarchy. It's like the humans domesticated themselves to a point where they depend on each other to survive, generally speaking. Then Aspergers people really are quite the opposite where we really don't need other people to survive. It's more of a luxury to us than a necessity. I don't know if in my case if it's natural Aspieness (can I make that a new word?) or if it's a learned behavior. The one thing I do have going for me is I'm naturally stubborn. So I preserve out of sheer stubborness.

Compassion -- strong for animals, weak for humans
Honesty -- strong
Herd instinct -- none
Obligations -- depends, I guess moderate on average, strong towards some people; I have a strong sense of loyalty but only towards 3 people
Reciprocity -- weak
Self-preservation -- strong most of the time, but I have no desire to pass my genes on so I guess it's not as strong as it should
Other -- someone mentioned Logic -- very strong
maybe also Justice -- very strong

Compassion, honesty and self-preservation are definitely dominant in me.

To b9, MONKEY, Tantybi, anna-banana: Thanks. Those answers were loud and clear.

I'll put that down as “Honesty.” I take that to mean that your loyalty is to the truth, and nothing else.

(Edit: On second thought... I took the "reality of death" as an honesty thing. But you weren't born knowing about that. Is it something else? Can something related to pessimism be a basic instinct?)

OoooKaaay... And you feel no other instincts at all? Maybe something that's not on my menu?

I'm not sure what that means.

So what have I missed? What other basic instincts could come in varying degrees and cause people to misunderstand each other?

Last edited by Tahitiii on 16 Mar 2009, 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Danielismyname, that would go under self-preservation.

Ana54 and MissConstrue, you have nothing to add?

====================

Another thought:

I also have a strong desire for peace, but I'm not sure how to fit it in. I want to get away from the insanity and the need to fight all day, every day, for every stupid little thing. Some people have no desire for peace. As soon as they pass one hurtle, they're on to the next. They are never satisfied and will always push for more, more, more.

I respond to punishment for a while, because I want to avoid more punishment. But if you
keep it up, eventually I'll figure out that it's a carrot on a stick; that you will never be satisfied, no matter what I do, and that appeasing you is impossible. So eventually, your punishment becomes counter-productive. I might be eternally miserable, but I'm not going to feed the beast when there's no payoff -- no hope for peace. I guess that's a seventh category, unless someone can think of another way to frame it.

Peace vs. Power? Peace vs greed in general?

And I suppose sex is an eighth factor. I can't think of how to combine it with something else. It's not the same as self-preservation.

#1. yes I have a medium-high sense of compassion and try to be nice to people and can actually feel bad if I see people jumped on/treated badly; even off the internet (and it happgning to OHERS)
#2. try to be honest and not pull manipulative mind/social games.
#3. hmm. Depends. I've heard people call me racist for getting into arguments over black nationalism, AAVE/Ebonics, Slavery Reparations, Malcolm X and all sorts of related things. OTOH I hate the BS in the Afro-American community (beating your kids, 'family values' BS and social meetings and actign soem way, extreme religiousness (which ties into beating your kids lololol use the bible as an excuse for your brutality). Also I forgot. I'm a chanfag and /b/tard. I wonder how that fits in under 'herd instinct' . Granted I don't follow through most /i/ raids due to them being racist/douchebaggery/bullying/etc and would rather raid a target I feel morally justified in or against a group of people who are doucjebags (like Operation Freenet ).. I hated that Kenny Glenn moralfaggotry though.
#4. Weak. Not going to lie, it's Weak.
#5. Strong. Strong believer in equality and no hierachy.
#6. Moderate. Strong self-preservation in some cases, weak in others. It depends.