Quote:
Originally Posted by driveway
Bull hooey.
If that were true we never would have been able to construct societies in the first place, we'd constantly be collapsing into chaos. The lessons of history are that humanity will always attempt to find and create some kind of stable order, the nature of that order will depend on the number of people and the environmental situation.
Humanity, at its core, is a reproductive engine. In a 'primitive' state we will do what is necessary to ensure our own survival. If you're going to declare that 'evil' then you have to call lions evil for eating their young, or female spiders evil for killing their mates.
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I think Plato's Myth of the Metals offers some answer to that.
Left to their own devices and without societal norms to hold them down, many, many people would revert to being, essentially savages like in Lord of the Flies. These people tend to lack the spark of leadership or protection, and require control to function as a proper member of society... the bronzes.
Some people are naturally enforcers of rule. They look to someone to hand down these rules and they devote themselves to enforcing them... the silvers.
Some people are born to lead. These people are society builders, and they hand down the rules for the silvers to enforce on the bronzes. These are the golds.
Its fairly simplistic and has its share of holes, but I think this explanation of human behavior is valid. Isolate a group of people... without leadership and control, chaos ensues. Humanity at is core is not "evil", it is erratic and self-serving, and with that chaos and "evil acts" are found.