Ma’s Inherent Goodness

Man's Inherent Goodness

By Sarah

Is man inherently evil? It is one of those controversial questions that cause the great thinkers of our world to engage in hot-tempered disputes and quarrels. The side that is often favored by the religious-minded and the optimists, the view that man is inherently good, is the stance that I will be defending in this narrative.

After all, is not man the creature that laughs at himself? Although there are those who would argue to the contrary, laughter is not evil, it is an expression of the joy and humor that permeates human life. Yes, man's humor is often cruel, and I cannot think of a joke that does not lay the brunt on some unfortunate soul who has suffered, at the very least, acute embarrassment; but this does not mean that man himself is always cruel. Man is the creature that *laughs at himself* this meaning that he laughs with everyone else when he falls, and does man not also laugh in joy at his daughter's wedding? Do his grandchildren not giggle at funny-shaped clouds? Yes, man's humor is often cold and cruel, but his joys and his laughter are warm.

There are those who say that it is man's ability to dissimilate at will that makes him evil, and Adolph Hitler is an oft used example of this mindset. This theory runs that it is because of Hitler's evil actions that the man himself was evil and it is a base trait that every man's actions render him evil. But I do not agree with this assessment. Yes, Adolph Hitler did many an evil thing, but this does not necessarily make the man himself evil. As one who has read, studied, and analyzed his autobiography "Mein Kampf"(1), I feel that I can safely argue that his actions stemmed from an acute insanity, severe anxiety, and an ingrained feeling of prejudice against the Jewish faith. Prejudice, in my opinion, does not make for an evil man. If I said that, I would also have to taint every confederate soldier who fought to keep the South's slave rights, every Founding Father who ever shot or authorized the shooting of an Indian in order to gain land, with the same brush. Everyone is prejudiced against something, even those who are sitting within this classroom, whether they have an inbred distaste for smokers, or blacks, or Muslims; THEY ALL HAVE IT. We cannot fault someone for the ideals they were raised with, if we did, we would have to fault people for believing in God, or Buddha, or Gaea, Diana, Pan, Aphrael, or any other deity.

As for the stance that evil is inherent, I laugh at that. Am I truly to believe that infants newborn into this world are evil? That they came out of the womb with some dreadful future to destroy the fate of the world? I'd just as soon believe that my dog is a Communist spy helping to plan a hostile takeover! Is the toddler playing dolls next door evil? Is she perhaps acting out a conspiracy to overthrow the government? If so, no wonder kids love Barbie! Or is the elderly woman on the next block, the one who takes in all the stray animals and who will live on tuna for the next week because she donated her food money to the victims of Katrina, is she secretly cloning those kittens into super-assassins? Please, you'd have to be