When The Good Do Bad Analysis

"Evil". When most of us hear this word, we think of negatively influencing people such as Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. Without a doubt, these people are evil, although, it is a bit extreme to the way I’m here to portray it. Evil is a powerful force that can result in many destructive consequences within societies and around the world. Some people have the ability to perform such cruel and unacceptable things without experiencing a slight feeling of shame and compassion, yet, the majority of people continue to say, “All people are inherently good”. Sure, in our eyes, most people physically behave well and are generally good hearted, but we have all started with an evil state of mind. It is the morals and laws cultured into society that restrict us from doing evil, and lead us into doing good. Although we have many reputable people that have made a positive impact in our world, there is undeniable evidence that humans are naturally evil beings .

Ask yourselves, if you were given the opportunity to do whatever you want without any type

of punishment for one day, what would you do? Forget about being "moral and honest", we would all gladly take advantage of this option. I’m not sure about you, but I would definitely run off stealing any electronic device at my sight.

Without laws, rules and religious beliefs, humans simply would not have any idea on what is right and wrong. But, why do we have laws? Is it because humans are good and responsible to the earth and the laws are just there to keep it that way? Are we just naturally well behaved citizens who just use the law to remind us that we have always been following the rules? Clearly not! Without the government to establish and enforce laws, our society would strike into absolute chaos. If our laws did not prohibit robbing banks, rape, and murder, we would be doing exactly that!

Our society consists of moral rules that prevent us from doing the drastically evil things, so we do not do them. Although, laws and punishments are not justified upon all the minor evil actions, such as lying and cheating, so we tend to lie and cheat unconsciously, because we can easily get away with it. As long as humans are given the opportunity to be evil, we will continue to do harm. We can take this idea into a child's perspective. A parent does not need to teach his/her child to steal, lie, and be disrespectful. Every child naturally figures it out. Even in adulthood, the reason we often struggle to make the "ethical" decision is because it contradicts against our natural tendency to be evil and selfish. For example, you have a huge science exam coming up the next day, yet you haven't prepared. What would you be tempted to do? Writing down an answer on your hand won't hurt, its simple, you cheat.

Humans are bound to do evil things; even our evolutionary history strongly supports this idea. "Between a time span of 3500 BC to the current day of 2016, we have recorded only three hundred years of peace, or 8% of recorded history, as opposed to war."(Hedges 4). If violence is not the answer, we would’ve ended the massacre of wars long before we were born. Although, it’ll always be this way, because we thrive to create conflict and do evil things to resolve them.

An article by David Brooks published in The New York Times called “When the Good Do Bad” looks closely at how unassuming people we know within our society are capable of such repulsive and atrocious acts.

Brooks uses the example of Robert Bales, a former U.S. Army soldier, who gunned down 16 Afghan citizens. Bales claimed he lost his compassion for Afghans. David Buss of the University of Texas points out these thoughts and actions occur because “...we are descended from creatures who killed to thrive and survive. We’re natural-born killers” (Brooks 36). Brooks also refers to a quote by a famous author, C.S Lewis, “Each person you sit next to on the bus is capable of extraordinary horrors…even a formerly good man is capable of monstrous acts” (Brooks 48). We are all capable of unethical behavior when given the chance, although, it’s the moral code of rights and wrongs drilled into our heads that restrict us from this

behavior.

There is a thin line that separates the actions of Good and Evil, but we all start by leaning off to the evil side. Countless research studies have concluded that human beings are naturally born evil. While history has shown us through many generations, we continue to pass on our violent state of mind, the constant need to fight for the answer. No one is born “good”, all are born evil, it depends on what you do with that evil that changes you.