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Do you think the world would be a better place if everyone operated under the assumption that we're all 'good' deep down? As opposed to thinking some are evil to the bone, or irredeemably evil? Why or why not?
Through history, much violence and evil has been motivated by so-called 'righteous anger' against an objection of fear or loathing. While I'm not denying evil exists, do we tend to personalise evil more than we should, instead of seeing it more like a disease? What if we saw evil people more as victims as well?
Criminals would not get enough punishments for breaking the law.
Offenders would get away with things more often rather than get disciplined for incidents.
We would end up forgiving people too easily, which might encourage bad behavior if people know they are more likely to get away with it or if it's less likely to result in harsh consequences.
Criminals would not get enough punishments for breaking the law.
Offenders would get away with things more often rather than get disciplined for incidents.
We would end up forgiving people too easily, which might encourage bad behavior if people know they are more likely to get away with it or if it's less likely to result in harsh consequences.
Well, so you think that someone who is treated with nothing but kindness will still do all of this? Maybe some would, but I don't think most would. It would be an interesting experiment. If we treated even the worst with nothing but goodness and kindness, to see if things would improve. I wouldn't be surprised if they would. Practised a large scale 'turning the other cheek.'
Do you think the world would be a better place if everyone operated under the assumption that we're all 'good' deep down? As opposed to thinking some are evil to the bone, or irredeemably evil? Why or why not?
Through history, much violence and evil has been motivated by so-called 'righteous anger' against an objection of fear or loathing. While I'm not denying evil exists, do we tend to personalise evil more than we should, instead of seeing it more like a disease? What if we saw evil people more as victims as well?
I try and treat everyone with respect and trust until they give me a reason to not give them any respect or trust.
How far down do I have to dig to find the good? I would consider a good person some one that I can trust. I have only found 4 people in my life that I can trust. All four are long time friends.
Dr Greg House on the TV show House always says that "everybody lies". My experience is that this is true.
I always give people the benefit of the doubt, but if I see that I can not trust them, I permanently put them on my "have no respect for" list.
"Would the world be a better place if we treated every one as if they had good in them", NO. It would be a for worse place to live. I believe that there are souls with zero good in them and if we treated them as if they had good in them they would take advantage and ruin every ones life!
My current opinion is that a person does not start innately good or evil, we start neutral and that it's what we do most of, either good actions or evil actions, that determines our alignment, and what we do is influenced by what we know or believe.
So if a person had the right kind of knowledge, they would make the right kind of decisions that lead to the right kind of 'good' behavior and actions. a person lacking the right kind of knowledge would resort to beliefs, which can very often lead to making bad decisions that lead to wrong behavior and actions.
I think that if bad acting people were offered the right education and were shown good examples from others to follow, the world would be a much better place. but if all they were given was punishment and if all the examples they were shown from others were of hatred or disrespect, they would most likely continue to make bad decisions that affect the world around them.
The fact that humans are predators, is undeniable. It is in our very natural state that we lie, push, steal, kill, and do everything that humans find down right distasteful.
Everyone isn't good deep down, in fact it is the opposite. Deep down, we are all killers. Killing may be good or bad, depending on which side of the bullet you are on, but we are killers. For us to move beyond our impression of evil when we meet people, it would mean acceptance of some basic human behaviors which society has deemed inappropriate.
I like to think that all people are good and I give everyone equal respect that is until that trust/ respect is violated then that is it.
There are many good folk out there but in the end I think you will find that more and more of them don't give a toot about anyone else but themselves and they will do anything to get ahead.
In America I think the Obama bunch and his loyal Democrats like to think that everyone is good and will do the right thing but we don't live in a Star Trek world. For example the 20 million illegals given amnesty will start paying taxes and vote democrat. The same goes for the 5 terrorists let go but they promised they wouldn't go back to the fight...
It is a nice trait to see the good in people but the world is not a nice place.
OP, I have a book for you to read. Actually, it's one of my books of the lifetime.
Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov. It's 2 story lines. One is Satan's visit to Moscow and His ball to his cohorts there, given once every 100 years.
2nd story line is story of Yeshua Ga Notsri, aka Jesus. Very interesting point of view on Jesus and origins of Christianity.
Anyway. Even after he was hurt by centurion Mark, Yeshua calls him a "good man". Pilate, amuzed by this, asked Yeshua why he did so.
Yeshua responded: "There are no bad people. Centurion is simply very unhappy person".
Do you think the world would be a better place if everyone operated under the assumption that we're all 'good' deep down? As opposed to thinking some are evil to the bone, or irredeemably evil? Why or why not?
Through history, much violence and evil has been motivated by so-called 'righteous anger' against an objection of fear or loathing. While I'm not denying evil exists, do we tend to personalise evil more than we should, instead of seeing it more like a disease? What if we saw evil people more as victims as well?
We could be all good deep down, but what's the difference if we are inherently good if our behavior is bad?
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