Brutality Vs. Altruism

Brutality vs. Altruism

Random acts of large and small service are apparent everywhere. This is made evident through the articles "Trapped on the Tracks," "After the Tornado," "Slasher Attack," and "Heroes: Close Call in a Hotel Fire". While these brave men all do such valiant things to help others, in world there are also the troubling sights of abuse and crime. While average people, like the people of these articles are rescuing others and helping the less fortunate, there are criminals all around the world that are exploiting and torturing. This proves the theory that every human being has a duality of nature. This duality is the split between the Sophic man and the Mantic man. The sophic man is one of structure and rational discipline while the Mantic man is one of spontaneity and religious intuition. This duality of men was displayed by Plato as "every man having 2 wings". Plato said it was the balance of these two sides of man that created the perfect person. When these two sides of a person start to become unbalanced that is when we see the brutality of man emerge. Evil is created where there is unrest. When things are not balanced, evil is more easily able to reside. Whether this evil becomes apparent within the soul or in outside influences that tempt the soul is the arguable question.

"People are inherently bad. They have a natural man that is inside them and the only thing that 'beats' this natural man is the good morals and characteristics and things like that that a person learns" says 20-year-old Emma Schultz, describing the brutality of men. The natural man is the influence that takes over a person's actions and thoughts when they have nothing to stand on. When a person has no morals or no strong standards, this natural man takes over and evil is the result. Emma went on to say that "it is the goodness in the world that teaches you what is right and wrong". Believers of the theory that all men are inherently evil think that if they let this natural man inside of them take over, evil will awaken and come to the surface.

On the flip side of this view, some people, like 18-year old Lauren Mcknight, believe that a person is born innocent and with a good nature, but it is the evils of the world of that push away that altruism. Lauren believes that people "want to be good, and know they need to be good, but are too easily influenced by the evils that prevail in the world around us". As human beings, people of this world have the ability to choose for themselves what they want in life and who they want to be. All people are built to be good people, but in the end, they decide what kind of person they are. Being a "good person" even varies extremely between people. While 18-year-old Alex Burton says a "good" person is generally one "who works hard in all they do and tries to do their best", 27-year-old Rachel Neeley says that a "good" person is one who "has a strong since of moral values and sticks to it". Rachel believes that "the test of goodness in a person is how well they stick to what they