Are Human Evil?

After bombarded constantly by news about corruption, murder, tyranny, brutality, cruelty, and some other unspeakably immoral evil-attributes. I feel that I start losing my faith in humanity. I am neither an angel nor saint, yet, I am disappointed because we could have been better than this. I am disappointed by the corrupted politicians, drug dealers, extremists, thieves, pick-pockets, terrorists, plagiarizers, and all those cheaters.

Well, I am—and you are—actually not in the position to judge others since I am not experiencing what they are experiencing; and there is always a possibility that I may do what they do if I were on their shoes.

I remember reading a philosophy book—which I forget what the title is. There is this chapter—which I even forget—that discuses human nature. There, Thomas Hobbes claims that human are inherently evil. He supports his claim by explaining ancient pictorial symbols on a cave walls depicting people killing each other—which is supported by some anthropologists. Also, he corroborates his notion by mentioning wars. War is indeed a big theme that shapes human civilization, political stance, relations. It also creates states and their ideology. In some literary works that I encountered, I find that (some) people who go to war perceive it as a sort of transcendence and opium that keeps their adrenalin pumping; not to mention that there are also people who go to war because they intended to do legitimate killings. Hobbes concludes that human are inherently evil because there is this ancient savagery running in our blood.

On the other side, Rousseau (you may have heard his name in Civic Education course) theorizes otherwise. He claims that human are naturally peaceful until civilization comes along.

From the perspective of Social Psychology, however, it is quite complicated. In fact, we need to differentiate behavior between Dispositional (by nature/ personality) or Situational (determined by situation). For instance, when we saw Asep was a bully at school while also a loving brother at home; we cannot judge that he has personality disorder, multiple personality, or even as a psycho. As a matter of fact, we need to know whether his behavior is dispositional or situational.

I read a research on Social Psychology conducted by Zimbardo. Around 50 years ago, he conducted an experiment in Stanford Prison. There are 24 participants who are, by flipping a coin, divided into two groups: 12 prisoners and 12 guards (which they did not know of, and did not know each other). Few days later, the prisoners were arrested by real cops (Zimbardo wanted to create a very realistic setting for his experiment) under charges of robbery and then turned in to prison to the fake guards. The guards were told that it is the prisoner that is being experimented, while the prisoners did not know anything. The role play went really real when the guards—who can do anything they want except hurting the prisoners—turn cruel and hostile. The supposedly-fourteen-day experiment was stopped at the sixth day when the prisoners start breaking down, others rebel, and some others become passively resigned as if they deserved to be treated so badly. The prisoners were relieved when they were set free while, interestingly, leaving the fake guards feeling angry. A few weeks after the experiment, Zimbardo finds out that both the prisoners and the guards come back to their normal life.

The conclusion is that the aggressive behavior and hostility are situational—mostly, perhaps.

When a person was granted a certain power at a certain situation, therefore, his/ her personality is prone to be clouded and overridden.

Maybe, if I were a member of the house of representative, I would corrupt too; if I were given the opportunity, I would steal too; if I were a distressed Jedi, I would turn into Darth Vader too. 

I may say, ”I am not inherently evil. It is just the situation that forces me to.”

Still, I do not justify corruption, murder, thievery, terrorism, and all of those misconducts. 

We still have choices. What matters is the choice we make.

I do not believe in the assumption/ theory/ hypothesis that human are inherently evil—deceitful, bad, corrupted. I still can find some who stop under a red traffic light at 4 in the morning; or those who return a wallet when they could have taken it.