Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay

close vs. Evil has been a classic contrast used for centuries. It has been used in films, books, plays, and even childrens tales. But what constitutes safe(p) and evil? What determines if an act is good or evil? The things that we know, the things we believe, be not our own original beliefs. That is a known accompani live forcet. Everything we know and believe was influenced by our upbringing, our family and friends or lack of, our command basic in all toldy every thing that comes into contact with us. Even for the wad who would break apart I hated my p arnts and my education so they didnt influence my beliefs Well, Im sorry to be the champion to tell you, but they did.The subscribe to that you may have had to rebel caused you to believe in opposite things from your family or whoever you asked to rebel against. But thats another question for another chapter. In todays world, we trust our own beliefs as to what is good and what is evil. But what defines this? Most peopl e would tell you that the norm defines good and evil. Society tells you that helping an old peeress across the street is good and shooting a man in the head is evil. Dont get me incorrect though, I do believe in good and doing the honorable thing, I just want to portray a philosophical approach to this contrast.Back to the point, if everyone trusts the norm to make up what is good and what is evil then isnt that a form of close up mentality? Mob mentality is something that people ar constantly warned roughly in literature through out time, an example being intention Twains Huckleberry Finn. So I have reached a paradox. If the norm is decided by the volume of people, and the majority of people coming together to cr rune an idea is mob mentality, and mob mentality is con brassred bad and amiss(p) then arent our ideas of good and evil created by something that is not good in the first place?If you are at this point training and wondering what my conclude result be to thi s question, I want to tell you now not to get your hopes up because I tire outt have a difinitive answer to that. Lets bring this idea back in time to the early times of human creative activity. What are a humans basic lead? Food, water, clothing and shelter, duty? Ive heard this hundreds of times. Well if we humans are in feature animals, then we have a heap of instinctive needs. Just worry a new born cougar enters the world with instinct for hunting, dont we as well? If society wasnt here to set guidelines wouldnt we just be living in and amongst our instinctive needs?If one of our instinctive needs is to eat, and some of us choose to eat dogs or cats (as they do in some countries) then why do we have animal help groups breathing down peoples necks to make this stop? Because it is evil, right? But is it really? I myself could not stand the thought of me eating a dog or cat, and that is because I come from a society where these animals are pets, your friends. But why is it wrong for people from another society to do this, when they dont plan it the same way we do? Who is right here? Of course, each side thinks they are right but is there a real answer to this question?Lets give a scenario two men break into your house, they annihilate everyone in your family except you and your mother. They put a grinder to your mothers head and say We will kill her and you will get everything, the house, the car, the money, the only thing we require is that you join us and work for us. What would you do? Do you take their offer and watch them kill your mother, or do you tell them no and die for it. It is a lose-lose situation, there is no realistic decision you could make that would create a win. If you let them kill your mother, you will live out the rest of your life with that hanging everyplace your head.If you say no, then you both die. The people that are doing this are evil, right? Why? I would say because they are murdering innocent people, just wiping th eir existence away with the pull of a trigger. But do they think that? What if the soulfulness with the gun thought what he was doing was ok? What if he grew up on the streets and the only thing that he learned was violence. If violence was the norm for him, and it conflicts with our norm, which one is right? If you should always trust in your beliefs, what if your beliefs are wrong? Lets take an example from history.Martin Luther King Jr. vs. Hitler. in effect(p) vs. Evil, right? For arguments sake, lets classify the general population of the world into two groups. Group A are the people who idolize MLK Jr. and despise Hitler. Group B are the people who idolize Hitler and despise MLK Jr. Both sides are amongst a group that holds the same beliefs and ideals as themselves. They all believe they are right, and if the idea of wrong and right is determined by the norm, and the norm is what the majority of people decides, then arent they both right? Doesnt this awry(p) decision lead t o extreme conflict?Look at all the past wars in this world. They all boil down to the basic fact that each side had conflicting beliefs and each side believed that they were doing the right thing. So does that make each side wrong or right? Good or Evil? What do you do to fix this major mar in todays society? Be yourself. Individuality. Dont allow yourself to be too heavily influenced by the things around you. acknowledge everything you see and keep it, soak it all up, leave no stone pit unturned, and when you think you have everything, then decide for yourself.The truth is what we all sample in one form or another. Some are heart to leave things be and others arent. For those of us uncontent to settle for anything less than the truth, we are chip a losing battle. I leave you with this quote from Wilkie Collins Are there, ceaselessly varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of individual encouragement and mortal rep ression hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the lenience of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation?