The Evil In Us

            Do we all have the potential to be evil? Evil like Hitler or Kony? This is one of the topics that we have been discussing while talking about human nature. I think that the majority of our class seemed to agree that our human nature is often based upon our upbringing, and the things that our written on our “slate”. A couple times we thought about whether any us would have the potential to murder someone, and if any of us were one moment away from becoming a murderer. I honestly believe that we one moment away from doing that, because I would consider intentionally murdering someone as evil. I also believe that every one of us has at least some evil in us, but an act of that magnitude could not just occur because of one event. A long process takes place before a person is overcome by evil, and I think that it has everything to do with a person’s surroundings and influences. Kony raises young boys to be evil. Those boys do not murder people because it is how they were born; they do it because it is how they were influenced. At the beginning of Dorian Gray, Basil sees Dorian as pure and beautiful, but in the end Dorian is a monster who is full of evil. I think it is possible that Dorian was as pure as Basil saw him, but there was a process that led to the monster that he became.

Something interesting that I thought about during class was whether or not we are all born with equal human natures. If eighteen years ago a different baby was born into my family and situation, would that baby grow up to be just the way that I am? How much of our human nature stands unaffected by our outside influences? It is something that we honestly are not able to experiment on, and will never know for sure. I think that believing that our upbringing influences our human nature and who we are can help us solve the problems that plague our society because we will know that we need to raise children effectively into adulthood.