Common human natures of evil

Singapore
May 17, 2009 9:27am CST
It's awfully strange. The question many children and people sometimes ask. I wonder about it as well. "Why do people choose evil rather than good?" It really is a terrible puzzle. When we are receptive of good deeds, we feel gratitude (usually) and gladness. You'd think we would want to spread this good about, right? Yet people who are done good to, I find, are getting more and more exploitative and impertinent these days. Which leads me to a little pondering sometimes: Is this the nature of humans, their 'true' nature, or are humans really good, and these exploitative humans merely fallen from tendencies of goodwill to selfishness? I still favor the first notion, but I'm not certain. Please do share your thoughts!
1 person likes this
1 response
@ruperto (1552)
• Philippines
17 May 09
very interesting topic... I am not an expert on this ... Perhaps it is true that without any planning, evil is so easy to come by. Not because most people are evil, but because the probability of evil is way above the probability of good. For instance, unless people go out of their way to do good, good is seldom an outcome. As an example an intention to do good may even end up with no good result... Evil on the other hand has many allies: e.g. empathy, indifference, (all the deadly sins etc. :) ) Good on the other hand , seem to have less allies: e.g. (all the good virtues that seem to be very hard to practice) e.g. The world could be full of deception and unknowns... Finally, it seems it takes so little to promote evil... it takes so much effort to promote what is good ... Perhaps the biggest challenge in attempting to fight evil is the time, effort and resources to empower people. As we know, the opposite of empowerment is "to do whatever feels good." There is a saying:"Empowerment is about avoiding pitfalls of perception that lead to an artificial, and therefore dangerous, sense of security, superiority and well-being." May more of us be empowered. Cheers :)
• Singapore
4 Jun 09
Doing whatever feels good. Hmm. That's very significant to the matter at hand here. It seems that doing whatever feels good is evil. Whereas whatever is opposed to indulgence (whatever feels good) is good. Maybe that's my question in short: Are people indulgent or naturally upright? Thanks for helping me clarify that!
@ruperto (1552)
• Philippines
5 Jun 09
Perhaps everyone needs enough indulgence. There is a saying: "Too much of anything is not advisable." (I beg to view learning as an exception) Perhaps, there is the concept of "free will" that determines if a person would choose to be upright or otherwise. The good news is that it is clear that doing good is not only an option, but in the strictest sense, the only way to win.... Cheers
1 person likes this