Good and Evil

Let me begin by saying that I believe that every person is born with the possibility of being good. I am also of the belief that good and evil are vague terms. However, to deny the existence of good and evil is, in my mind, ignorant.

On December 13, 1937, the Japanese captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. In the following six weeks, Japanese soldiers proceeded to rape some twenty thousand women and murder upwards of a hundred thousand civilians. Some of the women who were raped had their bodies mutilated and defiled, both postmortem and not. Chinese prisoners of war were executed unjustly and publicly. In one case, a small boy had his head beat in with the butt of rifle because he refused to take his hat off when commanded to. These were your everyday men, they probably had families similar to the ones they butchered at home. I would assume that in their life, many of them were no great force of evil. However, in that six week period, they were a blemish upon the earth they walked upon. They were monsters. They were evil.

On the other hand, humans are just as capable being good. An example fresh in all our mind would be the men and women who risked, and some cases gave, their lives during 9-11. The selfless actions of those police, firefighters, and other emergency responders to attempt save those who had been trapped in the Towers. The bravery shown by the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93, attempting to overcome the hijackers. The people who carried out those actions were not saints. I assume some of them were probably just jerks. But when it mattered most they were capable of performing deeds beyond what was asked of them. In that moment they were good.

I won't link any of the atrocities of Nanking or the acts of heroism during 9/11 because it doesnt feel right, but they are what I believe to good examples of the far end of human nature.