by Jimmy Ettele

Created on: October 30, 2008

What is good? Is it being morally excellent? Pious and righteous? Can it mean being honorable or worthy? Could it be cheerful or amiable? No matter how you define the word 'good', there is no genetic predisposition towards the idea of being good. Hitler youth were considered honorable and worthy. Suicide bombers are considered honorable and worthy. Does that make them 'good' or inherently 'good'? Being good or bad has all to do with your environment, background of your parents or caregivers, and society than it does with being fooled into believing you are good or bad before all the ambionic fluid is sucked from your nose.

First and foremost, infants are, if we excuse the obvious physical features gained inherently from parents and family, curious. More than any other age group, an infant is literally seeing the world for the first time. After being forced to enter this alien new world either by Mother Nature or with forsips, babies have no concept of any concept, good bad or indifferent. They are just discovering what their fingers are and what they can do. Babies are in a constant state of "what's this?". Curious of toes, and who is in the mirror looking back at them, and what cry will get them food the fastest, and who are those people who bring the food. Infants don't, nor could they at this age, understand the differences between right and wrong or good and bad. If they were able to distinguish between them, parents wouldn't have to tell them not to kick the dog, bite their cousin, or drink out of the toilet. We, the parents, teach our children right from wrong. Has anyone known a child to voluntarily share their toys with their brothers or sisters? Usually we need to teach them and reinforce the 'good' idea of sharing. As parents, it is our responsibility to teach, according to our environment, societal rules and laws, and our own backgrounds, what is good and bad for our children hopefully shaping them into what society would think is 'good'.

How can one be 'inherently good' to the laws and rules of the land, if the rules and laws were made up prior to your birth and you had no insight nor understanding of the rules? How can an infant or child know about complex civic issues, ones needed to be considered a 'good citizen' of town, directly from birth? Even Neanterthal Man knew better. In order to have a society that can thrive and ultimately survive generations, the society, no matter how large, needs to understand and conform to 'good' behavior for the

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