Thursday, December 12, 2013
Is humanity inherently evil?
Thomas Hobbes had a philosophy that man was inherently evil and governments existed to protect man from itself. The existence of movies, such as "The Purge", in recent years shows that this idea is far from dead. This belief is easy to maintain when one reads the news and finds articles detailing the absolute worst that mankind has to offer. Admittedly, I have sometimes wondered what the true ratio of decent human beings to murderers actually is. As a small child, my mother would always assure me that the ratio was tipped more in the favor of those that were good. However, in my early teenage years, I started to have my doubts. When I would read about the atrocities committed in the Middle East by both extremists and the occasional traumatized soldier, I lost hope in my mother's words.
Of course, I do not deny the good of man as a whole. I believe that absolutist terms are childish. After all, if man was inherently evil, as Hobbes believed, I do not believe that an institution such as the government would be able to stop mankind from destroying itself. After all, what is it that separates members of a government from civilians? If man is inherently evil, should it not be the case that governments, which are run by humans, are inherently evil as well?
It is important to not let the media distort the image of humanity. As humans, we are simply attracted to more negative news stories. This can be attributed to the average individual having to life in a constant rut, looking for any form of change, with negative change garnering more of an emotional response.This is why the media profits off of stories involving murder, assault, and/or theft. Of course, we cannot change human nature.
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It's important to never get caught up in all the horrible things on the news. For every murderer, there's someone who gives everything to charity and helping. For every rapist, there are people who love and respect their lovers and treat them with utmost kindness. To every corrupt corporate executive there's the boss who provides jobs and benefits and a healthy work environment and helps the community. To the greedy pastor stealing from donations, there's a kind minister preaching and living love and compassion. To the government that leads genocide there's the government that advances and frees the slaves, ends segregation, welcomes those in need, and protects it's people. To the Stalins and Hitlers we have the MLKs and the Gandhis. Even amongst the bad in life, black and white is hard to find. The thief who steals because he is starving, the prostitute who must raise a family, what makes them bad? People aren't just black and white, they come in every shade of grey. And while the bad actions are always there, and always noticeable, the good are there too if you look. For every bad thing that's happened throughout history, we're still here. We're still here and we still try to do what's right.
ReplyDeleteThat is a logical point. To clarify, I was not making a case for Hobbes's philosophy. It is true, people are complicated. In terms of those that I identified as "evil", I was not referring to people that were merely thieves or prostitutes just trying to get by. I was referring to people such as cold-blooded murderers, rapists, etc. that commit heinous acts not out of a sense of self preservation like the ones you listed, but instead as a means of pleasure. I never denied that decent humans existed. I just said in my last sentence that we just happen to hear less about them, not because they are fewer in number, but because their stories do not attract as much attention. I probably could have worded the post better admittedly.
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