18Feb10 The Good of the People #2Posted By: Barry Belmont

Consider every murder, every rape, every insult, every spit in the eye, every driver cutting off another, every theft, every kid’s ice cream that knocked out of their hands irrecoverably to the ground, every instance of playground bullying, every ass grabbed at work, every act of blackmail, vandalism, slander, libel, in sum, consider every human evil that occurred today.

Add them all together.

I am willing it’s not half the number of doors held open for other people.
It’s not a quarter of the number of kisses shared between lovers.
Not a tenth of the number of hugs shared between family members.

Thesis:
Consider every evil act. Now consider every non-evil act. Which is there more of?

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Comments Posted by Barry Belmont in The Good of the People
  • The Great Saiyaman
    Your argument fails.

    If you met someone who commits one murder a week, you wouldn't think "well for the rest of the week he does all kinds of non-evil acts," you would say "this is a bad person." You can't compare the sheer number of good vs evil acts, you have to weigh how powerful a single evil act can be. a hug doesn't cancel out a murder. The inflation adjusted amount of evil in the world is considerably higher than you give credit for.

    When I look at people and all the evil in the world, I strongly believe that people are bad.
  • Your argument fails.

    If you counted the number of murderers in the world (go ahead, count every single one of them up), I doubt you would find even a million of them. But let's say there are something like 10 million cold blooded murderers in the world. Now that just leaves something on the order of...I don't know...about 6.8 BILLION other non-murderers.

    Count all the rapists and you'll get the same thing.

    There are more people in a Wal-Mart here in Reno than there have been serial killers in the entirety of humanity. The sheer number of people who do not do evil on a daily basis (for instance, you and I) trump -- overwhelmingly -- that minority that does.
  • Someone Who Knows
    Didn't know typewriters suddenly got internet access.
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