ARE HUMANS INHERENTLY GOOD?

One of the main hallmarks of Trump’s second term has been a devotion to cruelty. I’ve watched in horror as prominent Republicans sing the virtues of Alligator Alcatraz and countless MAGA celebrate kicking millions of people off their health insurance. It seems like every one of their policies and ideals is designed to hurt someone they don’t like or find unworthy of basic support. The near daily updates aren’t just heartbreaking but confounding. I find myself trying to understand how we got here. Is this dramatic swing toward barbarism fear-based? Is it the media’s fault? Did the massive death toll of the pandemic and the appalling actions of the genocide in Gaza prime people to stop caring about each other? Or is something else at play here. Is humanity simply showing its true colors?

The age-old debate of whether humans are inherently good or bad has always made me uncomfortable. I know what someone with my politics and general outlook is supposed to think. But for some reason, I’ve always had a hard time fully believing that our goodness is inherent. I feel more comfortable believing that we are born neutral and our environment and experience shape which way we sway. The question then becomes do some people sway so far in the negative direction they become lost causes if there isn’t some intrinsic sense of goodness to tap into? Can you ever get through to your Trump-loving, hate-fueled grandpa or has his current nature become his true nature by default?

Thinking about people’s character in such black and white terms is at odds with how I try to navigate the rest of the world. Outside of politics, I am constantly considering people’s greater context and why they might think the way they think. How did their parents shape them? What did they internalize from societal messaging? Are their pain points clouding their judgments? My ability to do this, however, shuts down when I see someone imply that all Palestinians deserve to die or immigrants should be sent to modern day concentration camps because they didn’t happen to be born in the US. A part of me still fights to see how they got here without assuming the worst (pure evil). Zionism is a hell of a drug and not everyone has the critical thinking skills to challenge their presidents claims that immigrants are to blame for all their problems. And yet…these are human beings who are being torn from their lives and getting shot while in line for food. How can you condone this blatant cruelty and not have a piece of your heart missing?

I suppose the main difference between a totally unfeeling serial killer and anyone who supports Kristi Noem’s crusade is that the hypothetical serial killer probably doesn’t care about anyone’s life, while those cheering on Alligator Alcatraz do care about some people just not all people. They do not view all human life as equal and that is the part I have a really hard time getting over.

Does it matter if you are kind to your neighbors and a wonderful member of your local community if you want to strip transpeople of their rights and vehemently hate Muslims? When weighing someone’s humanity, do their actions matter more or less than their belief system? These people who claim to be good people but want bad things to happen terrify me. I would rather someone say, “I’m a selfish piece of shit and that’s why I love racist policies and police brutality” rather than hear people claim their good Christian values are why they want women to die in childbirth.

HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT I want to scream but I know their answer won’t satisfy me. Because there is no satisfying answer. At least not one that will make sense to me and my understanding of compassion and goodness.

The growing number of these types of people, whether there are genuinely more than before or it’s just become acceptable to come out of the shadows, has altered my relationship toward humanity. I am finding it harder to envision a future where we pull ourselves out of this mess. Where total destruction—either through climate change, nuclear weapons or artificial intelligence—isn’t the inevitable end to our species. I believe there will always be good people in the world, but my fear is that it is becoming easier and more appealing to become the bad kind. And if our true core is neutral, or even worse, self-protective, what hope do we have of evening the scales and getting people to care about one another?

I don’t have an answer, but I take solace in knowing it is not my job to solve alone. For all the people whose cruelty horrifies me, there are those who endless compassion motivates me. People who have managed to hold on to their goodness despite personal attacks, systemic opposition and unfair hardships. Whether or not that goodness was inherent in them from birth doesn’t matter because it is at the core of their being now.

I do not know who will ultimately prevail in the battle of good and evil. In many ways, I have to admit that it is easier to understand why people are drawn to tribalism and self-protection than it is to understand those who sacrifice their own lives for others. The first approach is animal nature—to protect yourself and your offspring no matter what. The second can’t fairly be called human nature, given how rare it is becoming—but it is something wonderful, nonetheless. I can only hope it finds a way to spread.

xoxo,

Allison

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