Children are brats. If you've ever worked in a daycare center, volunteered at a nursery, or even if you have a younger brother or sister, you'll know what I mean when I say that children can be brats.
They seem to be born with a desire to make people's lives miserable. Sharing? Pfft no. They have no concept of making other people happy. All that matters is their own happiness. They throw fits in stores when mommy won't buy them the Lucky Charms. They turn red and scream their little lungs out when someone takes away their horribly annoying whistle.
Children are natural brats. There is no training for it; there are no books on how to 'Brattify Your Children' (and I would know, I work at the library. Ahah, yes, that piece of information was subtly inserted, was it not?), there are no seminars on helping your children find their inner demons.
No, children - everyone in this world - are born selfish turds, and goodness it something we learn. It is unnatural to us, foreign. It is something society gives us.
But before I go off on that tangent, let me take this point a bit further.
People are not only capable of brattiness, they are capable of extreme evil. To use a cliched example, look at Hitler. That man was one of us. He was born of our genes, our upbringing. He was a human. And he was so heartless, so entirely devoid of goodness, that he ordered the brutal slaughter of millions.
Everyone has a Hitler. Don't think you're exempt from it, don't think that for some magical reason you are free from being capable of cruelty. You've done it, before, on smaller scales; it is only due to social conditioning that you are not as bad as him.
Or are you, if being capable of evil demonstrates the true depths of your depravity?
Now, so far I've been entirely gloom and doom, but luckily there's a pretty wildfire to every exploded trailer park. Just hang on a bit longer.
My point is, by nature we are fundamentally evil. From birth we are selfish brats. Our parents teach us not to be selfish brats, but we always are selfish. We mock, we lie, we are arrogant, hurtful, selfish. I don't care who you are or how well you think you treat other people. At nature, at heart, you desire things that hurt others.
But wait, you shout, as I know you will in the BBS, so shush and listen to my defense.
There seems to be a problem with my theory. People are not only selfish, they are also loving. You've loved before, you've cared so much you've given freely of your own personal wealth, well-being, or comfort.
Love exists. Love is beautiful - the most gorgeous, blissful, amazing thing you'll ever see or experience (note I refer mainly to self-sacrificial love, the love that would do anything for someone, be they a daughter, father, or spouse).
This is in stark contrast to the inherent selfishness within all of us.
Thus the question is - is love inherent, or is it learned?
For the purposes of argument, let us assume that love is inherent. For love to be inherent and also fit the above descriptions, it must
A. Manifest later in life
B. Be a standard in which some have a deficiency
That means, basically, that if love is a natural thing for people to have, that it must somehow spontaneously reveal itself later in life, and that love must be the thing by which all is measured, and that those who are not as loving have somehow failed to be born with the perfect standard of love.
Yes, I realize this is a quick summary, feel free to pick it apart in the BBS.
If love is learned, then it
A. Manifest later in life
B. Be something apart from ourselves and society
C. Be absolute
This basically means that love is something we are taught, that we grow to comprehend and accept, that our natures are capable of molding to it instead of being naturally born with it.
It means that love is an absolute, transcendent thing, and that when we are loving we are partaking in a part of a massive, unchangeable, beautiful concept, and any deviation from that is fundamentally 'evil.'
A couple discussion questions that may or may not present problems with my theories. Remember, the point is to discuss and learn and be proven wrong, not to prove yourself right.
1. If our nature is fundamentally evil, how is it capable of shifting to accommodate love?
2. What is the definition of evil and good?
3. Do you believe love is relative? If so, how does that fit in to the thoughts provided here?
4. Do you believe morality is absolute - I.E., a crime is always a crime, a loving thing is always loving?
5. Do you believe love is something you are born with or something that exists outside of humanity?
6. Do you believe love is a chemical, social reaction, or something greater? Why?
7. Why do you believe Hitler was wrong?
8. Is morality always based on pain? Or is pain based on morality? Why?
-Antier
