Humans...

[Sapphire Blue]

When little {LITTLE = PRE-SCHOOL AGED} kids gather together, they will play together. Doesn't matter who they are, where they come from, what they're wearing, how much money they have, what color their skin is, how or if they worship... none of this matters. They will play together.

Then they get older... they grow up. They no longer play together. This one won't have anything to do with that one... the rich one won't have anything to do with the poor one... the Christian won't have anything to do with the Muslim... the white one won't have anything to do with the black one... the straight one won't have anything to do with the gay one... the young one won't have anything to do with the old one... the Republican won't have anything to do with the Democrat... and on and on it goes.

*sigh*

What is wrong with us?

Why do we have to grow up?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Maybe some of us never do

in that we keep on interacting with people who are "different" from us. Personally, I have found more similarities than differences amongst people. I delight in meeting people from other cultures and who follow different lifestyles.

[SteppingRazor]

2. Conversely --

Humans... when they're little, they beat the crap out of the smallest among them and take his lunch money. They single out the "weird kids" and make them subjects of ridicule. They psychologically torture the weak and the different for years at a time.

Then, when they grow up, they learn to be polite and just talk shit behind people's backs.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. By 'little' kids I meant the very young... pre-schoolers.

The kids you're speaking of are already 'growing up". *sigh*

[checkmate1947]

3. It takes 10 Generations

to change attitudes, we were taught these things, we WILL
learn but it will take time for us to change if we survive as
a race that long

[bryant69]

5. Humans are assholes

It's their natural state.

Kids are assholes too, usually, but they are cuter so we generally look the other way.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Batgirl]

6. when I was a kid

We ganged up on/picked on, at various times:
Davy, because he was deathly afraid of sirens and would jump up and down screaming hysterically whenever one was audible in the distance, and who was also a "tattletale".
"Crazy Joe", an old guy who walked around the neighborhood mumbling to himself. We were convinced his cane was actually a weapon for shooting poson darts at innocent children such as ourselves, which is how we justified chanting an insulting rhyme at him from the safety of our bikes.

We had dirt clod fights amongst ourselves with the single-minded goal of inflicting pain and injury on whichever kids were flinging hard-as-rocks dirt clods at us from the opposing dirt pile.

We thought the only "bad kids" in the neighborhood were the Ross boys who would do things like lure us into the basement of one of the many houses that were being built in our 60s-era subdivision, then once we were trapped in the basement they'd throw lit matches down at us.

At school, the obviously poor kids -- like little Penny, wearing her grandmother's old winter coat and black rubber galoshes to stay warm on the playground during winter -- were the targets of ridicule, as was anyone who had something "wrong" with them, anything from walking with the aid of braces, to wearing braces on their teeth.

Then there were the charming names we made up for kids, or that we ourselves were anointed with. Based on things like having an unusual name or some kind of infirmity.

I'd like to think I was exempt from this kind of behavior. After all, I gave Penny my mittens when I saw her playing in the snow with bare hands, and as someone with a weird last name and braces and glasses, I was on the receiving end of my fair share of taunting. But I also entered into a plot with my friends to make a "poison" cake from a bar of Irish Spring soap with the idea of somehow enticing Davy the Squealer into eating it. Surely something bad would happen to him if we could get him to eat a bar of Irish Spring soap.

I understand the point you are making but I have to disagree that as a species we're inherently pure and innocent. Most of us have it in us to act like shits under certain circumstances, such as being alive.

[Sapphire Blue]

7. See post #4

[bobbolink]

8. You call that "growing up" ^_^

To me, it's more like growing old without the wisdom part.

"Suffer the little children......"

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

9. And They Also Bite, Kick, Throw Tantrums And Oft Times Crap In Their Pants