- Adolf Hitler once proclaimed he was "100% Christian."
- Charles Manson once described himself as "under appreciated"
- Harry Truman said he would drop nuclear bombs on Japanese citizens again, if he had the choice.
What do these statements sound like to you?
On the surface these statements seem almost outrageous, at least on some level.
How is it okay to harm other people in such horrific ways, and then justify it to one's self?
This post examines how humans do not tend to think of themselves as "bad", regardless of what they do.Yes, it is human nature. It is human nature to pass the blame to someone else when you do something less than perfect. Didn't Adam pass the blame all the way back in the Garden of Eden?
But humans don't want to think of themselves as the "bad guy."
If you look at the 3 examples at the beginning of the post, the individuals justified their own actions, even if just to themselves.
- Adolf Hitler blamed his problems on the Jews.
- Charles Manson claimed he didn't kill anyone.
- Truman said he saved a lot of lives by not invading Japan.
Even though people were harmed because of these 3, they try to pass the "bad guy" label to someone else.
This is despite the fact that many on the outside look at these 3 individuals as "evil" to some extent.
If you look at other examples, what do you find? Take those in jails or prisons. While a small minority take responsibility for what they have done, the majority justify what they did because of something else. It might be racism, poverty, being oppressed, or even self-defense.
People just don't like to think they did something wrong,
As this is a spiritual blog, perhaps there is a simple answer. That answer is that humans were created in the Image of God ( Genesis 1:26), ultimately out of love.
What does this mean?
It means if you go against the love you were created in, it causes psychological problems.In other words, people don't just want to be evil, deep down. Some might tell you otherwise externally, but it is how they feel deep down that this post is referring to.
No one thinks of themselves as evil deep down. There is justification somewhere, even if it is blaming other people for what they did.
If you asked Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson or Harry Truman, they probably would say they were evil, even if others disagree.
Or, how about this? When a crime is committed, one of the first things that is discussed is a motive. What human would just harm another, without a reason? Humans were not created that way.
In fact, as these posts have discussed, a lot of societal ills are rooted in things like a lack of appreciation. A lack of love causes a lot of human problems.
Love is what humans want deep down. It is built in. Humans just don't want to be viewed as the "bad guy." In fact, being labelled as a "bad guy" can also lead to a lot of sociological problems.
And that person who constantly demeans and criticizes other people. Those are usually people who lack self esteem deep down somewhere, whether they admit it or not. They might need love a little more than other people.
So, when you label someone as "bad", you might want to expect that they won't like that label. They probably won't accept it, and they will resist it.
It is not human nature.
