Human nature

[pbrower2a]

We can choose good or evil, but a wholesome environment will lead most people to good. That is the qualification. There's a big difference between a Quaker world and a Nazi world.

So what leads people to be good? Appropriate inculcation of values -- like empathy, a good work ethic, respect for human difference, a desire for justice, and a rejection of excess. Of course there have been some very sick societies that bring out the worst. But those sick societies have a tendency to self-destruct.

[pbrower2a]

Donald Trump is a walking indictment of human nature. Obviously, people need to be restrained (and by extension, governments).

Donald Trump is a walking indictment of the worst part of his class, people who believe that the rest of the world exists to enrich and indulge him. This is a man without empathy or scruples. At the low social end, one's upbringing brings about an Alton Coleman (serial killer) or Charles Manson (murderous cultist). In the social middle one might end up with sexual sadists (Ted Bundy, John Gacy) who end up killing people to hide their deviance for a while or a scammer like Bernie Madoff or Ken Lay. At the 'high' end the absolute worst were aristocrats of central Europe who perpetrated the Holocaust to destroy Jewish dissent with exploitative ideologies.

Unless sociopathic tendencies are genetic in nature, most people can learn some suitable values. A good society inculcates those values with active teaching and viable incentives.