by Kimberly Foster

Created on: February 11, 2008

People are inherently social, which in turn requires inherently good behavior. A fundamental fact of humanity is that we are selfish but our selfishness is tempered by our need to be accepted by society. If it were socially acceptable to rob banks and kill the people that are annoying or in our way, it would happen on a much larger scale. We wage a constant battle between our needs and wants versus what is socially acceptable. An employee might want to tell their boss to go jump in the lake, or better yet punch her in the mouth but the consequences of that action would be negative to the employee therefore the employee abandons the impulse. This is not out of some moral fortitude but out of the sheer selfish need to survive in a world that finds these actions unacceptable.

This is not to say that one's personal morality doesn't play a part in the decisions one makes. Certainly in a larger sense we do not behave immorally because it would hurt someone else. You wouldn't mug an old man to get their social security check because it would be wrong and you have no desire to hurt anyone else to have your needs met. But does it follow that we are inherently good? Plenty of people get mugged so it seems that not everyone feels a personal morality not to hurt others. Now in order to explain this discrepancy you could argue that those who do mug old men to get their social security checks are on drugs or are so personally disturbed from childhood that their moral compass has been broken. So it seems to follow that we are inherently good unless drugs or bad childhood experiences derail us. If something, anything can derail us then we aren't inherently anything.

It seems rather than inherently good we are inherently well-meaning. We certainly want to live our lives morally. We do not want to hurt or see anyone hurt. We are challenged when our wants or needs are not met and we cannot get them met. This is when all our good intentions go right out the window. You look at your life and how hard you work and still can't do the simplest of things for yourself or your family. You're working 12 hours a day and can't take your kids to the amusement park. You've worked for that company for 10 years and can't get a lousy promotion so why shouldn't you take that computer home? Your ego comes up with these rationalizations to justify why you should have that flat screen TV despite what you have to do to get it. Still even though you are working your fingers to the bone and not seeing

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