The sleeping monster
It is always good to remember where we come from. Science tells us that we are the product of a long process of biological evolution.
Until not so long ago most of our behavior was similar to that of other animals. Our basic instincts have not completely disappeared; we retain almost involuntary responses to situations of fear, attack or defense. And although the process of civilization has made us "tame" many behaviors, somewhere in our being there are still those instincts that sometimes make us behave as if we were animals.
That is why people considered "normal" sometimes do amazing things that may go against their moral values.
Sometimes we forget that just as we have a luminous part that allows us to coexist healthily with others, and use reason to guide our behaviors, we also have a dark part, that little do we know, that can be almost buried inside us, but that can come to the surface in certain circumstances...
Friend @galenkp in the challenge corresponding to week 155, asks us if good people can do bad things and if bad people can do good things.
My answer is yes on both counts.
It is not easy to determine what is good and what is bad and each society has created moral codes to establish the differences.
In order not to make things too complicated, I will take as an example two behaviors censored by most societies, theft and murder. Almost all of us agree in placing these two behaviors on the bad side.
But can a good person engage in theft and murder...? I am convinced that under certain circumstances any of us can commit these acts.
Let's say, for example, that you are in an extreme situation such as a war, where food is scarce. You are a person with strong moral convictions, you know that stealing is a serious offense and you have never stolen in your life.
Suppose you have small children and every day you see them suffering because you cannot give them the food they need. In a momento You are in a position where you can get food for your children, but the only way to have them is to steal from them. Would you steal to satisfy your children's hunger...? Would you let them starve to death to be true to your moral codes...?
Another slightly more difficult example. You are driving with your wife in your car. Suddenly a criminal intercepts you, cuts you off, and by force of a gun kidnaps you both and ties your hands...
At one point the man stops the car, gets out with his wife. His intentions are not good. Suddenly you manage to free yourself and see that the man has left his pistol on the seat. You take it. You get out. You walk over to the man who has started groping your wife and yell at him to leave her alone. The man lunges at you... You would shoot him...even if it means you might kill him...?
I have never been in extreme situations like the ones I have given as examples. But sometimes in my youth I had to defend my children and my wife, and in those cases a part of me that I didn't know about took control of my actions. Suddenly I found myself doing things I never imagined...
Faults are faults, and laws do not make exceptions. There are no good thefts and bad thefts. However, in legislation such as that of my country, there is talk of extenuating circumstances. Judges study the circumstances and can soften the penalties when they consider that the person acted forced by extreme situations.
Sometimes I read in the news about cases of "normal" people who commit bad acts. In those cases I always try to think what things would happen in those people's lives to lead them to act the way they did.
In each of us there may be a little monster sleeping, which may wake up in extreme situations, when life gets tough...
Ideally, we go through life without knowing it's been there. But when you find out that someone else's woke up, don't be quick to judge it...Think that yours may also wake up at some point...
Thank you for your time...
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Logo creado por @themanualbot
Interesting how you mention this. In psychology they would call this the Id. We have the ego id and superego. I also did this post but I left out this psychology part haha causes it would've been too long.
I did the same topic and I like your take on this. I think we have similar thoughts on this topic. You have a nice title as well :). Have a good weekend!
I'm glad you liked the publication. It's a topic that opens many reflections, the good and the bad are always in our thoughts. Thank you very much for stopping by and commenting dear @shawnnft . A big hug from Maracay.
Yes I did. Very true :P I even wrote mine to the extremes lol did you know ted bundy a serial killer worked at a suicide hotline XD. He's killing people but also tellling people not to kill themselves. That's how crazy it can get with this topic! Your welcome man !
Hello friend @irvinc, happy and blessed day. Wuao, no doubt what you raise is a reality to which we are all exposed. And under those circumstances we would not know how to respond, but of we will respond that will be so. The human mind is an endless well. Let's pray to our God that the monster we all carry inside us remains asleep. I enjoyed reading you. Greetings.
That is how you put it my dear friend @dorytagil2022 . The human mind is an endless well, from there the most unexpected answers can emerge. Thank you very much for stopping by and commenting. A big hug from Maracay.
Once, many years ago, I was asked:“If you come home and an antisocial person is abusing your mother, what do you do?”
And I burst out laughing. Of course not, I retorted… I go after that guy, and after I beat him up and pin him down, only after that, I call a neighbour and the police. And he would be saved if I didn't send him to the next world.
Evil by definition is “not good”, referring to everything that man has orchestrated to preserve human integrity, coexistence…
One of the great questions of philosophy is whether human beings are born good and then become evil, or whether some evil is already born with us. And there are different, somewhat opposing positions, but first we should ask ourselves what human nature is. Has anyone seen it? We know very little about it, or rather, nothing. Sometimes we hear that something is “unnatural”, homosexuality, for example. But in order to know what true human nature is, we would have to meet a human being in a state of nature, a pre-civilised being, and that is not possible because human beings are social beings. It is true that in the history of philosophy, some people have formulated hypotheses about what this savage or uncivilised human being was like. There are two opposing positions.
We are unique beings, no one is the same as his neighbour, nor do we think alike, we may come to similar conclusions. Three people seeing a fact can argue differently, one can support and two can recriminate; it all depends on the lens through which we see it.
I remembered the anecdote of the little fish, when a child brings a fish to his father and says, -Look dad, I saved it from drowning…
At the legal level, legislation was made to control human coexistence, if you deviate from these imposed norms you are labelled as “anti-social” and everything you do is “bad”. Now, to conclude, we know that if you do 99 good things and only one bad thing, however insignificant it may be, the bad thing overshadows the 99 good things. It will never, ever happen the other way around.
You're right, for some reason we tend to give more preponderance to the bad. The person is remembered for how bad they were. Something in "our nature" leans towards evil, hahaha.
I don't know if all people would have a response similar to what you propose if they assaulted your mother. I would act just like you.
Thank you very much for enriching the publication with your comment, dear @amigoponc . A big hug from Maracay.
I totally agree with this wonderful writing, we have good and bad parts and no one knows when the monster inside us may wake up. Congratulations for such a good analysis.
I'm glad you liked the publication. We all make the effort to control negative behaviors, but at some point they can take over. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting dear @yolimarag . Best regards.
We all have lights and shadows, we certainly do not always know what we might be able to do in certain situations.
A hug from Caracas!
It is important to be aware that each one of us has all the possibilities, both good and bad. Thank you very much for stopping by and commenting, dear @verdesmeralda . A big hug from Maracay.