1
2
Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Name
Institution
Date
Introduction
Some fifty years ago, the perpetrator of Holocaust, Adolph Eichmann was put on trial. The prosecutor referred to him as a new killer, but reporting about the same trial, Hannah Arendt made a different conclusion. She made a point that Eichmann was a bureaucrat, referring to him as a law binding citizen who performed his duties and subscribed to relevant orders. The main assertion was that when a good person in placed in a bad situation, then it is definite that bad things will happen Haidt 2012). Since then, numerous evidences have always emerged to support this claim. A psychologist at Yale, Stanley Migram revealed that men would always inflict
…show more content…
As a result, individuals are conditioned to perform evil acts or harm the perceived enemies without mercy. A typical example is the genocide in Burundi where the dominant Tutsi killed the Hutus, raped their women and mercilessly slaughtered their children since they were conditioned to believe that the Hutus were enemies and thus were meant to be eliminated from the society (Fischhoff & Chauvin 2011). The perpetrators moved across the country and killed Hutus from colleges, primary and secondary schools, churches, the army and other sectors that gave the picture or impression of status (Russell 2015). Another example is how military men are usually conditioned to kill the “enemy”, with the enemy representing groups such as terrorist, without mercy and the act is usually applauded by citizens since they are also conditioned to support the justified evil …show more content…
While some, like in the case of Lucifer and Adam turn evil as a result of disobedience and pride, a majority of good people always get themselves doing evil as a result of innovation and creativity. As illustrated in the paper, different perspectives have always been applied to explain how good people turn evil.
Work cited
Fischhoff, B., & Chauvin, C. 2011. Intelligence analysis : behavioral and social scientific foundations. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Gino, F., & Ariely, D. 2015. Dishonesty explained: What leads moral people to act immorally.
Haidt, J. 2012. The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Vintage.
Haslam, N., & Loughnan, S. 2014. Dehumanization and infrahumanization. Annual review of psychology, 399-423.
Russell, A. 2015. Obedience and selective genocide in Burundi. Africa, 437-456.
Zimbardo, P. G. 2011. The Lucifer effect : how good people turn evil. London: Ebury
The concept of good and evil is a popular dichotomy found in many fields such as religion, philosophy, and psychology. Philosophers continue to ask the question whether human beings are innately good or evil and often state that human nature is much greater in complexity on the scale of human behaviour. It is important to define what good and evil is, understanding the complexity of human behaviour and applying personal experiences relating to the topic. As to question whether humans are innately good or evil can be a misleading concept which can lead to conflicts.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said, “The line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” Every indivdual has the decision between good and evil. Not every person will choose the right side of the line. When an indivdual crosses over the line to the evil side this is known as The Lucifer Effect. Philip Zimbardo, the individual that coined the idea, presented the ideas behind why people change and turn evil even if though their whole life they were not known as an evil person. According to Zimbardo, people turn evil for one of two reasons; The Lucifer Effect and the seven social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil (TED Talks).
not like he could be accused of anything on a legal basis. He was “simply following orders,” is what the told the court. He was just following the orders of his higher ups (Hitler). In spite of the fact that Eichmann did not actually physically touch a person throughout the whole time he was working for Hitler, he would still be accused of sending thousands of Jews into concentration camps, essentially putting them to their deaths.
We begin to define the line between good and evil and the way in which it can corrupt human beings. The message portrayed that evil and the misuse of power is an ongoing matter, one in which could affect anyone and is partially an involuntary act – the evil animalistic behaviour becomes engraved into minds; like Goeth.
In our world, divine goodness and evil are present. As humans, we question what causes the evil in our lives. The answer is simple, ourselves and other humans. Individuals are constantly completing and pleasing one another. In our nature, we always want to be at the top but what we do not understand is evil is the outcome of our actions. Our actions of evil are tied to three main causes: peer pressure, decision making, and aggression.
Everyone displays acts that may never be shown, good or bad, but make no mistake, there's the devil within each and every human being. No one can change the upbringing they had to endure growing up, but change those who are affected by the presence of the Devil by doing great acts of
In your view, what is the most important factor that contributes to evil doing and why? What examples from the readings can you find to support your views? Use at least four of the following authors: Arendt, Brecht, Conrad, Engels, Foucault, Freud, Lewis, Orwell, or Sontag.
Adams and Balfour see “evil” as existing on a continuum that stretches out from ghastly mass ejections of savagery, for example, the Holocaust at one compelling, and the generally benevolent white lie on the other (Adams & Balfour, 2014). Some place along this continuum wrong gets to be evil– where there is genuine mischief to genuine individuals who may be totally undeserving of such a destiny. Contemplating wickedness along a continuum bodes well since we realize that great damaging tendency regularly comes after a progression of moderate steps; a slide down the famous elusive incline that incorporates the continuous acceleration of unsoundness.
Greatness exist everywhere, from something as important as the creating to cure for sick to something small as holding a door open for a stranger. Even the smallest good can have an influence on people. Although there is so much greatness in the word, people don’t take into account how much evil there is in the world. To get to where were as a civilization there has been so much war and death. Medicine and vaccines now maybe able to cure diseases such as the Spanish flu, but almost a century ago, hundreds of thousands of people died. These examples might be some of the worst cases of evil, but evil be as simple as bullying a kid at school. Some people don’t even recognize
The problems of evil existing in society are difficult to understand is because it questions God’s reasoning for allowing evil to exist. To challenge and better understand God’s motives are the objections to the moral or intrinsic evil actions created by man. An illustration presented in this paper of the immoral evil of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they broke their commitment to God in the Garden of Eden by eating the apple. Another instance of a moral evil was the act of murder committed by Cain that demonstrates that God allows moral evil to happen in society. Could it be that God permits man to commit moral evils by letting man make their own decisions; may they be good or evil? The sins of man are moral evils committed by man
In the world today, there have been many tragic occurrences that can be seen as evil, for example the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. On Wednesday February 14, 2018 Nikolas Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Cruz, a former student of Stoneman Douglas, opened fire killing 17 and wounded many others. When looking at the situation, Many people argue about Cruz’s motive. Authors like William Golding, would argue that Nikolas Cruz is a innately evil person, his true purpose was to hurt the kids. Whereas authors like, Gibran would argue that we, the people, failed Nikolas because all the signs showed that he wasn’t mentally stable, but no one acted on reflecting that it was our faults. Both of these authors, have strong views of what is good and evil, which are reflected through their writings. In Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, and “On Good and Evil”, written by Kahlil Gibran, the two authors come up with their own depictions of good and evil. Through Golding’s writing, he describes the evil within each person
Discuss epistemology and its relevance to intelligence analysis. Select at least two principal “ways of knowing,” and describe their respective characteristics/attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and potential for improving the quality of intelligence analysis.
The Lucifer Effect describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action. Such how Lucifer was once one of God’s Angels and he fell and became Satan. How he was once good and now is seen as bad. There are several different perspectives that can cause people to commit evil acts, such as: essentialist, incrementalist, dispositional/ situational, and the power systems approach. The majority of the population perceive evil as an entity, evil is in some people and not in others. The essentialist approach states that evil is concentrated in certain types of people. To help define evil, one may use examples such as Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein.
A prominent issue striking many individuals through the world today is the use of standardized test to calculate intelligence. According to Howard Gardner, a Harvard graduate and developmental psychologist: “IQ test have generally emphasized verbal and mathematical skills, to the exclusion of other important skills.” He went on to develop a list of eight human intelligences that include a variety of talents that are not assessed on traditional IQ tests. Many of Gardner’s arguments I find very valid while there are a few that I question. However, through his work, I was able to identify my personal strengths and weaknesses as well as input my ideas of what intelligence should be added. Alongside with Gardner I will touch on another notable psychologist that believes in the idea of multiple intelligences.
The thing that stood out the most to me was that the authors approached the concept of evil from many different angles. There was no one concise definition, cause, or kind of evil. Amongst all of these angles, an important point that almost all of the authors seem to touch on is the idea of evil and good being mutually exclusive. This idea proposes that there can be no evil without the opposing idea of good, and vice versa. The authors explored this idea in depth, and there were many different opinions on the matter. Some authors feel that humans are inherently good, while others believe we are inherently evil, and still others believe something entirely different. While all of the articles made important points and contributed to my general understanding of the concept of evil, I would like to focus on Eberts and Staub in this journal.