A question, and I think political ideology may directly correlate with how you answer...?

Question

Which would you agree with:

People are born good but society corrupts them

People are born bad but laws keep them in line

Answer 1

This is not so much a black and white question as it is a black box question.

People are neither all good or all evil.

Society neither completely corrupts them or perfects them.

Instead, there is just a big black box for each individual human born into this world of good and evil, and in that box go his/her genetics, and his/her collective environment, as influenced by society.

Your hypothetical question brings up an interesting dilemma in the self-contained world that is current American politics.

This is only my honest opinion, but I think that the traditional or at least the most recently developed liberal principle of this matter is that people are generally all born bad since we are mere humans, more animal than divine in nature, and the arbitrary rules and mores of society straighten most of us out as age, develop, and gain reason and knowledge.

For Conservatives and/or Republicans, there is much more coherence between traditional and newer (neocon) versions of human nature and how government should address it.

1st of all, conservatives believe that people are born with good and bad in them (bad usually from Original Sin and goodness from God), but the good wins out over the bad force in the majority of human beings, because of the work of God in the daily lives of all humans.

I must say that most if not all of the reason for my adherence to the Republican Party and conservatism is due to the reality in our world and most especially our country today that the 1st truth mentioned above is being proven more and more true every day, just if you turn on the evening news every day violence in the world (not just Iraq) is soaring to never before reached heights, so obviously society is at fault for much of this mayhem.

Secondly, there are almost no results in proof of the 2nd statement anywhere to be found in the world today, because laws of any kind - local, state, nation, even global, like how the U.N. or the Keoto Treaty are being largely ignored by corrupted or at least power-hungry leaders like Iran's Ahmahdinejad, N.K.'S Yong Ill, and the Middle Eastern myriad terrorist organizations.

This daily reality is at the heart of why I am a Republican and will likely remain one for all my days on this Earth.

People are born both good and bad, but it is only God through religion and faith that will keep people good and protect them from becoming bad; society and government at its best can only follow religion's moral lead.

Note: this was all my opinion and was not quoted or taken from any text, magazine, or Internet news article about this matter, so take it for what you will, but don't tell me I'm an idiot Neocon dunce, tell me my argument is flawed if you think so and prove me wrong with a counterargument.

Great question by the way and we need more Ph.D. level questions like this in the Politics section more often.


Hey, please answer this question for me, along with your continued reporting of KKK guy to get him outta here pronto!
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArFjC8AZqVvXphunhz.7jlLsy6IX?qid=20061203122809AAyYWQ3

Answer 2

Is really difficult to answer that question. I don' think people are born bad but laws keep us in place from time to time. People are born good or pure with no evil though, but as we grow we change because we discover our dark feelings. I think there is a truth in both of the statements.

Answer 3

I sort of agree with the first choice. I think people are corrupted by society, but then again people make up that society, so who else is there to blame but ourselves? Human nature is an interesting little combo of good and bad (hopefully in most cases more good than bad), but some people have more will and self-control than others.

There is no true original sin. Any religion that teaches you that you are born into sin is false and designed to keep you forever sorry.

Answer 4

People are born, I agree with, the other part is too black and white. Your environment, in my opinion, influences your life more than anything else beside your parents. After that it is your own free will that you use to make your choices in life. Laws and corruption do not trump free will. I guess what really matters is what's in a person's heart.

Answer 5

People are born, and how they are raised decides if they are good, criminal thinking is taught. There are also freaks of nature who are born bad like Ted Bundy. But I would have to say Society corrupts.

Answer 6

I'm slightly to the right of Benito Mussolini, and I believe that most people are born morally neutral and society shapes them. There are some pathological cases in which people are just plain ol' evil, regardless of how they were raised and the environment in which that takes place.

That being said, nothing keeps honest people honest more than the threat of enforcement.

Answer 7

I would say neither. People are born, raised, and then when they realize how life is lived in society, they make a choice of whether they will conform or will they rebel

Answer 8

Neither. People are mostly born ammoral. The biggest influences on most of us are our parents. We are also subject to many other influences. At some point we need to accept responsibility for our own actions.

Laws are needed because SOME people need to be kept in line.

Answer 9

People are born good, unless they suffer from a mental disease which screws with their brain(which does not mean that they are bad they just can make good judgments or control their emotions), and society corrupts them.

Answer 10

People are born GOOD, but society including their parents and/or their peers corrupt them .