Are some people born evil?

Daily Mail ^ | 7 Feb 2007 | Brian Masters

[Gay State Conservative]

The notion that people are born evil is nonsense. Evil behavior stems from fear - and the only fears we are born with are the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises.Everything else is learned.

The human brain is an organ,just like the heart,lungs and liver.If one is born with a subtle (perhaps genetic) defect of the lungs then that person could certainly have very serious health/breathing problems.

If a person is born with just the right kind of subtle brain defect (which may or may not be genetic) then that person could develop serious behavior problems throughout life.

Have you ever seen the CT Scan or PET Scan of a chronic schizophrenic? I have.When comparing them to the CT and PET Scans of normal people the differences are so dramatic and obvious that even a hospital janitor can tell that there's a difference.

[Corin Stormhands]

This thread deserves a GRPL ping.

I was wondering when you guys would show up. ;-)

[dforest]

This would describe Keith Olberman.

[conejo99]

I agree with the others who say they believe environment to be the stronger influence, but the authors argument using brothers of famous murderers is weak. To be valid this argument would require identical twins of evil people.

[NonValueAdded]

yes

[PISANO]

We are all born sinners, which can be equated with 'bad'.

However, FREE WILL allows us to choose a righteous path for our lives OR the evil alternative.

[going hot]

Shoulda given him a passing grade in art....

Seriously, he convinced (how hard was it) a whole lot of people to do his bidding. The methodical coldhearted cruelty, and the sheer numbers boggles the minds of even the hard corps.

Was there that much evil to go around? were they brainwashed?

I think there inherantly is the capacity to do good and evil in the mind, and in some (weak minded? starved for power? ) the tipping point towards evil is close.

[Gay State Conservative]

Does the name Jack Henry Abbott ring a bell?

Yup.He was the scumbag that Mailer and a few of his friends "discovered" while he was doing a long prison stretch for some serious crime.

Mailer and his pals told the parole board that this clown was so talented that he must be allowed to "contribute" from outside a prison cell...and the parole board agreed.

And then....a couple of weeks after his release...he murdered a waiter in an argument over the use of a bathroom.

[Texas_shutterbug]

Babies who grow up unattached have a tendency to grow up to be sociopaths. As kids they have Reactive Attachment Disorder. As adults, we just call them sociopaths.

Not all sociopaths are violent, and commit crimes, however.

[aimhigh]

Forget about the soul. It's all to do with the ingredients that were thrown in by your parents, and by theirs, and so on ad infinitum.

This is the core of liberal bleeding hearts. This is the notion that someone else is always to blame, especially the parents. The liberal conclusion is that evil can't be condemned or judged.

[snarks_when_bored]

Yes. And it's unlikely that Mailer ever lost a minute's sleep over the incident. One wonders whether Mailer even remembers the murdered waiter's name...

[quadrant]

One may be born with a tendency to injure others, with a tendency toward insensitivity toward the pain of another, with a tendency toward having a sexual attraction toward the same sex, or with a dozen other destructive tendencies but we are moral creatures who are shaped by God. We have the choice as to how we will act on those destructive tendencies.
St Paul moans about a thorn in his flesh. He understood that without the power of the Holy Spirit we are unable to resist the power of evil.

[absolootezer0]

who else is there to blame for how a child is raised?
the difference is a conservative will try and fix the problem with love, understanding, support, and if necessary, punishment.
a liberal will ignore it and hope it'll go away, perscribe drugs to cover it up, or try to psycho-analyze it and call it a "mental disorder" that should be protected.

[xzins]

Did you see the snakes?

[Corin Stormhands]

heh...yeah

[Monterrosa-24]

According to Radzhinsky's bio, Stalin's mother told him he would have done better to be a priest.

[rollo tomasi]

Ditto.

[jude24]

Those of us with a Calvinistic/Puritan bent recognize that all men are born with evil inclinations, which is restrained to varying degrees by external factors such as civil government or society. Take, for example, the Milgrim experiments - given commands that "the experiment must proceed" by an erstwhile authority figure (scientists in lab coats), the majority of persons would commit tortures.

Turning the Nazis into cartoonish supervillians has obscured the lessons we should learn. Instead, we should remember that they were men like you and I, who loved their wives and kids and thought they were doing what was best for their country - and so justified the most astonishingly evil acts. The evil of the Nazis was disturbingly banal.

[ctdonath2]

"Methodical" is the key word. Couple that with "obey or die", plus a good dose of "everyone is doing it", and most people will do anything, with little remorse, just to do their job, collect a paycheck, and go home at the end of the day.

Evil behavior can be surprisingly mundane. When made methodical and commonplace, few people would _not_ do it.

Hence the axiom that humans are inherently evil - very little encouragement is needed for most people to cross the line.

[xzins]

I was hoping you'd save that picture for future reference.

It was a classic.

I don't know if it's totally depraved, but it's mentally depraved.