Good Deeds Of Kane Of Old Guy - Chapter 55

This is a clear presentation of one of the fundamental divides in humankind. On one side is the belief that everyone is basically good until they are hurt by the world, and that if you give them enough chances or the right opportunity, everyone would embrace goodness. On the other side is the belief that some people are just bad, and there really isn’t a way to reform the bad ones because goodness doesn’t appeal to them. If your personality is dominated by a love of empathy, you tend towards the first. If your personality is dominated by a love of justice, you tend towards the second.

Most people don’t believe purely one side or the other. People tend to believe that humans are mixed, that goodness has more appeal for some people and less for others, but that true villains are rare. They also tend to think that some people can’t be saved, but it’s hard to say how hard we should try before we give up.

But most people also feel like one side has the right values and the other side is just heartless. The empathy people are appalled that justice people can just write off a big chunk of humanity as evil and not see their own flaws. The justice people are appalled that the empathy people watch innocent people get hurt or killed and only feel sympathy for the perpetrators. Neither perception is fair, but both contain a seed of truth, and in every situation, one side is more right than the other. Will people ever be able to understand this about each other and negotiate it in a mature way? Rarely and briefly, yes, but maybe the internet will finally put an end to it.