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| Yes | 62% | 1135 votes | Total: 1837 votes | |
| No | 38% | 702 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesYes, I believe people are inherently good. I also believe that the individual is not given credit for that goodness on an overall scale. Life's ups and downs tend to condition an innocent. The environment one is raised in and the stimulus sociologically create the deviations that detract from the individual goodness.
Changes in behavior to the negative take place when an individual is abused, subject to negativity or worse. It would be such a sweeter world if man could just remember to simply "pay it forward" or one good act begets another.
Understanding is not the long suit for most, followed closely by compassion. Although the reasons may seem just, there is not just reason for bad behavior and abuse. So many reasons not to accept the goodness in each of us and to few reasons to look for it first. Then added to the brew come things like greed, broken trust, avarice, etc. Once those stimulus come into play inherent goodness becomes tarnished and depleted. It is a courageous individual who overcomes these sociological wrongs to become demonstratively good consistantly.
But, I still look for the good in everything. Call me niave but I believe that good exists in everyone and everything. If given an honest chance, without judgement and preconceived notions, I think every individual is capable within themselves of goodness.
Learn more about this author, lori W..
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No
The question is an over simplification,as it assumes that people are all the same and does not allow the possibility that some people are completely good while others are rotten to the core.Since this would mean that not all people are inherently good I chose the no side.
There is overwhelming evidence that a lot of people are simply hopeless cases.Everybody knows what a jerk is and no amount of pseudointellectual word play can change that simple fact.Some people need to face reality.
While it is true that some people are inherently good,some people does not mean people.Assuming that it does would magically transform evil people into decent people.That would be just lovely but it is a fool's paradise.It is madness that decent people should choose to blind themselves to the reality that some people are simply evil.That's asking for trouble.
Some people get emotionally carried away by the fact that all cute little babies look the same,so given the right environment they assume that any one of them could be as good as any other.That simply assumes that environment is everything and heredity is of no consequence.Well!
In fact there have been countless examples of people rising from humble beginnings to great achievements.While liars and other scoundrels readily make their upbringing an excuse for their behaviour,worthwhile people just get on with doing the best they can. Scoundrels do the worst they can get away with and too many people are all too ready to take their excuses seriously and listen to their sob stories.They always concoct these after getting caught.
There have also been numerous cases of people from wealthy backgrounds committing atrocities.A lot of scoundrels are wealthy,so that also exposes the misconception that environment is of any consequence.
By contrast,heredity has repeatedly shown itself as a powerful factor.Siblings have the same parents,so they would all have inherited the same nature.The result is that all brothers and sisters will either be good or bad.This is evidenced by the fact that families are invariably happy or disfunctional.
The last whining resort of scoundrels who have been exposed is always that they didn't ask to be born.That's so,but so what?Neither did anybody else.Life's what you make it.Good people make it good for themselves and everybody they know and scoundrels could have committed suicide as soon as they were old enough.That would have saved them and everybody else a lot of bother.
Learn more about this author, Michael Johnson.
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