Today’s
post will be about the basic nature of humankind. To evaluate this I will be pulling examples
from Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. When it comes down to it, 99.9% of my
decisions are not intended to be good or evil.
They are merely intended to bring the best result to myself. If someone is done good by my decision, then
wonderful, but if someone is hurt by my decision, it simply leads to another
decision that I have to make. Huck Finn
needs to get away from his abusing father, but in the process he has to make
vital decisions. He doesn’t help Jim out
of the goodness of his heart. Huck helps
Jim because at the moment he met the man, it benefited himself best to help
him escape. The only things that can
change our decision to help ourselves are love and anger. If we are truly angry at someone we can be
pushed to extremes, sometimes risking our own well-being to do so. On the other hand, there is also love. Love compels us to act in a way that will
benefit someone else, even if the personal benefit to ourselves isn’t so
great. When Huck meets Mary Jane, it is
a combination of his affection for her along with his need to rid himself of
the “duke” and the “king” that leads him to attempt to help her. In the world at large, you see these actions
every day. Politicians never do a nice
thing simply out of the good of their hearts.
They do it because some adviser told them that it would be a good
idea. Even when they give a wonderful
speech in front of an adoring crowd, it’s only for the popularity. The American Revolution was mainly caused
because a group of men decided they didn’t like England’s policies, and it came
to be that the only solution was independence.
There were few people who simply wanted their own nation just to be able
to fly a new flag. Basic human nature is
neither good nor evil. Human nature is
to push for a better life.
I agree with most of your post, but what I get from the last sentence is that human nature is selfish--only wanting a better life for themselves. There are some instances in which people help others purely for the benefit of the other. For example, parents raising their children properly do not have a selfish motive in doing that.
ReplyDeleteYour post is still well developed and full of efficiently detailed examples.
Your post makes me reevaluate my decisions. I guess people never think about how their decisions affect people all the way. For example, if you go to a charity event, sure, you're doing good and helping somebody, but you also get the benefit of increased popular and that "intrinsic" feeling. I suppose every decision has the potential to be made selfishly, but it's what we have in mind when we choose that determines it.
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