Friday, April 19, 2013

MOST People Are Good


In her diary, Anne Frank wrote that she believed “most people are good.”  Do you agree with Anne?  If so, why, and if not, why not?   (Echoes and Reflections)

Anne Frank believed that MOST people are and were good, and I agree with her. Not all people are bad, but things in their past can make them ¨bad.¨ Hitler turned ¨bad¨ after he didn't get accepted to art school. He couldn't draw faces and people, that is how he didn't get in. Also his dad was abusive but Hitler's mom loved him so much and was his protection. Hitler was a decent boy growing up, he was in the church choir, and was studying to be a Priest. Hitler was a pretty nice boy growing up. Hitler wanted to be an artist, but his mother and father wanted him to go to college for something else. Once again, after he was rejected art school  and his mom died, something snapped in him and  he became “bad.” Hitler also was in WWI, and lived the battles of war. He thought he belonged in war. He tried to overthrow the government, but failed and was put in jail. While Hitler was in jail, he wrote a book called “Mein Kampf” a.k.a. the Nazi Bible, which was pretty much his step by step plan for power. Once he got what he wanted and came to power in 1933, Hitler’s actions led to WWII. But even in the rule of Hitler and his Nazis, people were still good and hopeful with one another.  People were still good, like people who weren’t Jews (and some Nazis) helped Jews and other people survive the Holocaust. A Nazi named Oscar Schindler helped and saved 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. And a nun named Eugenia Wasowska saved 13 Jews.  Jews were treated poorly but the people who were saving them treated them with kindness and respect. So to end with, “Most people are good.” They might “turn bad” because of their history, but there will always be good people.

“Most people are good.”
Hitler facts taken from the History Channel movie “Roots of Evil”

5 comments:

  1. Everyone has the potential for both good and bad, but I agree with you that I prefer to belive that everyone is born good. Do people develop from the environment around them? Even if most people are good and want to do the right thing, does fear or a need to belong override your natural instinct? Does everyone have that inner struggle?

    This brings to mind a quote: "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.” ― George Bernard Shaw

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    1. I love the quote you commented because it is true. Whichever "dog you feed the most" will reflect who you are. And yes, people do have true potential for both "good" and "bad."
      1) I believe mostly people are born the way they are, but I also believe their environment can change them a little as well, but that is my opinion.
      2) I think that fear and need to belong can get in their way of doing good.
      3) Lastly, I believe everyone has that inner struggle, but everyone deals with it differently. It is hard to tell with some people over others. I like to think people who knows me well knows my struggle, but that may not be true.
      What are your opinions on your questions you asked me?

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  2. I think you did a good job. Personally i find it interesting about how you said good people turn evil. Sometimes that does happen, most of the time because those "good" people are disappointed with themselves. they think that they are not good enough and no one cares for them. I think i read in another book that Hitler's mother was sick but the her doctor (who was a Jew) didn't help her on time and that's were Hitler started creating the "hate" he had against Jewish communities.

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    1. Hi Gabby, A lot of those stories about when and how Hitler developed his hatred for Jews is just that, stories. He's one of the most studied figures in the history of the world but there's not a lot we reliably know about him before he entered World War I. Once he became famous, a lot of people who could speak about his childhood would have been scared to say negative things and by the time he was dead, many of those people who could have given us the best picture of him as a young man were dead of old age. I could to on and on about this topic but this is not really the place. So I would conclude that what you heard about his mom and the doctor was probably incorrect, or at least not something that anyone could prove.

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  3. The movie about Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the major leagues, just opened. As late as the 1960s, black players in the South had to remain on team buses while their white teammates went inside restaurants to eat their meals. If lucky, the blacks were brought food out to the buses. Many communities, upon the teams leaving the South and spring training, held barbecues for the teams and their families. But only white players and white families were invited. Why didn't the white players stand up for their teammates? Now, if you were a white player on one of these teams, how would you have reacted? Would you have not gone into those whites-only restaurants? Would you have boycotted the barbecues? Remember, this was the 1960s, 15 and 20 years after Jackie Robinson became the first black player. How does the Holocaust help us to explain the racial segregation and treatment in the US at the time?

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