A lot of people seem to think that there are evil people and good people. And the main problem I have with that is that it lets the evil people get away with being evil. They’re just evil. Can’t help it. It’s their nature.
But the true horror is that people are just people who decide to do good things, neutral things, bad things.
Hitler chose to do all those evil things.
And that’s important. Because anyone anywhere can turn out to be an “evil person”. The people who went to school with Hitler as kids probably played whatever games they all played, told each other jokes… and then he ended up choosing to do evil things.
People on your street or in your apartment complex right now have chosen to do evil things, from molesting children to killing people. They look normal, you probably say hello in passing, they might have held the door open for you at the store.
But the good news is that people can also choose to do good things. You always have that choice. You can always choose to do better. You can always choose to do what you can to make the world a better place.
I have ADHD, and I’m very vocal about it. For one, it is a big part of who I am. It has caused me so much difficulty in my life.
But after my amputation, they assigned a therapist to me for a couple of sessions to make sure I was handling it okay. I was, because I’d had to have a partial amputation behind my toes nine months before and that had not healed, so by the time we decided to amputate below the knee, I was ready for that all to be over.
So since I was doing fine[1], we took the chance to talk about some other things - just chat, for one. But he mentioned that as he walked the halls, he had heard me apologizing for things like being verbose and scattered, mentioning my ADHD. But he said he also noticed that I went out of my way to try and cheer up peoples’ days, greeting them, asking about them, joking with them, trying to make them laugh. And he said something that made me tear up then, and even now as I type this out: It’s not my ADHD that caused me to act that way. I chose to try and make people happy and brighten their day. That was my choice, and I should remember that.
And believe me, with all the failures I’ve had in my life, to hear someone say something positive hit me hard. I’ll never forget what he said.
But in the same way: You choose what you do. You can’t choose what happens to you, only how you react. You choose how to treat others. You choose whether you try and make the world a better place, or a worse place.
Which is not to say that you need to sell all your stuff, donate it to charity, and beg on the streets or something stupid like that. Take care of yourself and your family. It’s all about balance. But you choose how to find that balance. So choose better, where you can. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself. Make sure you’re taking care of others. Doesn’t mean don’t speak out against evil, that’s part of making the world a better place.
It’s something I need to constantly remind myself because someone is always wrong on the internet, but I need to treat everyone with respect and try to assume good faith. Although also not engage with trolls. It’s easy to be drawn into arguments.
But anyway. I think it’s just important to remember that all people are, in fact, people. And every single one of us chooses to do good things or evil things. And to me, that increases the horror of someone who constantly chooses to do horrific things.
I thought it was interesting that he said most people who didn’t lose it traumatically - like I hadn’t - similarly usually were doing fine like I was ↩︎
A lot of people seem to think that there are evil people and good people. And the main problem I have with that is that it lets the evil people get away with being evil. They’re just evil. Can’t help it. It’s their nature.
But the true horror is that people are just people who decide to do good things, neutral things, bad things.
Hitler chose to do all those evil things.
And that’s important. Because anyone anywhere can turn out to be an “evil person”. The people who went to school with Hitler as kids probably played whatever games they all played, told each other jokes… and then he ended up choosing to do evil things.
People on your street or in your apartment complex right now have chosen to do evil things, from molesting children to killing people. They look normal, you probably say hello in passing, they might have held the door open for you at the store.
But the good news is that people can also choose to do good things. You always have that choice. You can always choose to do better. You can always choose to do what you can to make the world a better place.
I have ADHD, and I’m very vocal about it. For one, it is a big part of who I am. It has caused me so much difficulty in my life.
But after my amputation, they assigned a therapist to me for a couple of sessions to make sure I was handling it okay. I was, because I’d had to have a partial amputation behind my toes nine months before and that had not healed, so by the time we decided to amputate below the knee, I was ready for that all to be over.
So since I was doing fine[1], we took the chance to talk about some other things - just chat, for one. But he mentioned that as he walked the halls, he had heard me apologizing for things like being verbose and scattered, mentioning my ADHD. But he said he also noticed that I went out of my way to try and cheer up peoples’ days, greeting them, asking about them, joking with them, trying to make them laugh. And he said something that made me tear up then, and even now as I type this out: It’s not my ADHD that caused me to act that way. I chose to try and make people happy and brighten their day. That was my choice, and I should remember that.
And believe me, with all the failures I’ve had in my life, to hear someone say something positive hit me hard. I’ll never forget what he said.
But in the same way: You choose what you do. You can’t choose what happens to you, only how you react. You choose how to treat others. You choose whether you try and make the world a better place, or a worse place.
Which is not to say that you need to sell all your stuff, donate it to charity, and beg on the streets or something stupid like that. Take care of yourself and your family. It’s all about balance. But you choose how to find that balance. So choose better, where you can. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself. Make sure you’re taking care of others. Doesn’t mean don’t speak out against evil, that’s part of making the world a better place.
It’s something I need to constantly remind myself because someone is always wrong on the internet, but I need to treat everyone with respect and try to assume good faith. Although also not engage with trolls. It’s easy to be drawn into arguments.
But anyway. I think it’s just important to remember that all people are, in fact, people. And every single one of us chooses to do good things or evil things. And to me, that increases the horror of someone who constantly chooses to do horrific things.
I thought it was interesting that he said most people who didn’t lose it traumatically - like I hadn’t - similarly usually were doing fine like I was ↩︎
Thanks, that’s great stuff and I tegular to must of what you say.
I suspect we’re both very idealistic people, which drives that outer behaviour?
I’ve often wondered where that came from - is hard to separate my gross Churchey upbringing in my case