In class we read two articles on human nature. One was Is Morality Natural? by Marc D. Hauser and the other was What Makes Us Moral by Jeffrey Kluger. Although we read these articles a while ago I can not get the questions asked out of my mind. Would I be able to push someone off a sinking lifeboat, even if they were already about to die? Could I divert a train to kill one man instead of five? Could I kill my crying baby to save the lives of others? Could I kill someone else's baby? All of these questions have been running through my head and have been making me think. For starters I do not think I could do any of things but I would not be opposed to let someone else do it. The thought of killing someone with my own hands made me already feel guilt but then the fact that i was letting someone else do it made me feel no guilt at all. Looking at the situation now though I realize I should feel just as guilty for encouraging someone else to do it. This is human nature. Humans see something going on and just because were not involved makes us feel as though its okay when really it is just as bad for us to not do anything about it. 

Love Is Never Forgotten

The battle of Iwo Jima was one of the deadliest and most horrific battle the United States had with Japan. Estimated that 7,000 U.S soldiers lost their lives, and 20,000 more were wounded, and for Japan, they lost about 21,000 men. War is a terrible thing. It changes the most well-mannered gentlemen, into raging monsters carrying items that are used to kill.

On Sunday September 20, 2009 there was an article in the "New York Times," titled "With Love, From Iwo Jima." In this article, a man by the name of Franklin W. Hobbs III was a man who was orphaned at ten and lived with his wealthy grandparents. While at Harvard, he was forced to drop out because he was enlisted in the army, where he fought in Iwo Jima. When he was in Iwo Jima, Hobbs was walking on the island with his partner Schnarr who was a school teacher. While walking with him, Hobbs stumbled across a dead Japanese soldier who was lying lifelessly by a cave. Interestingly, Hobbs noticed that the man had no wounds on his body. No bullet wounds no mortar wounds; NOTHING! What caught Hobbs' eye, was a white envelope sticking out of the dead soldiers chest pocket. In it contained a drawing of children, and a photograph of a little baby girl.

The Japanese soldier's name, was Matsuji Takegawa. Unfortunately, he was sent over seas and never got to meet the baby girl in the photograph. Matsuji told his wife to name the daughter Yoko, which means "ocean child." Growing up, Yoko never thought of her father as a honorable man, in fact she almost ignored his existence and only acknowledged "his government pension pain for her schooling." Yoko's dream was always to go to the United States, and when she was 28, she left Japan and settled in New York City where she got married and had a baby girl. Later though she divorced her husband and struggled financially.

Decades after the war, Hobbs never forgot about the envelope he had found in the soldiers pocket. It was all framed and hung up in his son's room. When one of Hobbs' Japanese friends was going to Japan, he gave her the envelope to take with her to see if the envelope and the picture could find the family it belonged to. Amazingly, the envelope managed to find the Takegawa household.

While in New Jersey, Yoko gets a phone call from older sister Chie. Chie told Yoko that the envelope of her father was sent to their house. Yoko was shocked and went to Japan. Before Yoko was united with the letter, she said, "'My daddy carried the letter with my picture in his body, in his bosom." Then she says, "I felt something, a spirit, come down in my body. This is treasure, a treasure carried so much love to me. Before, i go to school with his money. But no, he sends his love to me." If it was not for Franklin W. Hobbs III, Yoko would still have those inaccurate thoughts about her father.

In this article, human nature is shown as a loving uniting form. Hobbs did not have to take the time to find the family that the envelope belonged to, but his good nature invoked him to go out and do what was right. Yoko realized after meeting with Hobbs, that her father kept that envelope containing her picture, as close to his heart as possible. This showed Yoko that her father really loved her and she realized the true meaning of her father, not just the fact she was going to school. Before, Hobbs and Yoko's father would be pointing guns at one another, but today they would hug and socialize. Yoko represented her father when Hobbs met her for the first time.

Andrew Leffler

Religious Human Nature

Human Nature has been studied for centuries by the most influential people in the world. In class, we have looked at the teachings and philosophy of Confucius, Mencius, and Hsun Tzu. These three men lived in ancient China and they all had different views on the essence of Human Nature, though all three men were guided by the Confucian teachings. Last week a man of the Islamic faith plotted to blow up the Fountain Tower in Downtown Dallas. This was a terrible plot and thankfully it was thwarted by the FBI before anyone was killed. This man wanted to commit "violent jihad" for his God Allah. I am of the Christian Faith and some of my friends are Jewish and Islamic. I know this man was Islamic and in todays society we sadly associate all Islamic people as terrorist or people that could harm us. Is it our human nature that makes this association? The religion of Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world and most Islamic people are normal, moral, hard working people. I think our human nature is to associate all terrorists with the Islamic faith and this is sad to me. We lived through the terrible events of 9/11 and we were scared by that day. All religions have their own unique rules or laws to live by. I think that our Human Nature is to be evil because we are all sinners but I don't like when a society associates one persons' actions with that of an entire race or religion.

Solid as a Rock

After talking about Golding and his view on human nature, we students got to look at two contradicting views of human nature through Mencius and Hsun Tzu. We learned that Hsun Tzu believed human nature to be decidedly evil and that Mencius believed human nature to be inherently good. All of us were asked to write a paper on how we feel about human nature and whether we think it is good or evil, and I couldn't help but ponder deep into the back of my head to find to try to find something I had done to sum up how I felt about it. It came to me when we were paving our poolside a couple weeks ago. I had to lay a bunch of different stone slabs in order so that they would come together and form a walk-way. They were great looking stones; comprised of shiny minerals like those seen on tops of mountains. I was told to get off all the dirt and sand off of the stones so the other workers could lay down cement and seal everything. So I brushed off all the dirt from the stones but whenever I laid one stone down to brush up another the first one would get dirty all over again. I was never able to get all the dirt off of all these stones! I believe that at the core of human nature, we are all good, bright, and strong. However we get dirty from time to time because of the earth and how many chances it gives us to mess up. When we get dirty and commit sin we try to brush off all the dirt covering our true selves through forgiveness, then we get dirty again, and do it all over. Hsun Tzu makes a good point when he says good is done through conscious activity because sometimes we do get lazy and become hesitant to brush the dirt off ourselves. However, under all the dirt we are good, strong, shiny, and solid as a rock.

Good vs. Evil

The other day i was watching a show called Lockup: San Quentin and it reminded me of our discussions whether mans nature is good or evil. In this particular show a camera crew goes to various high security prisons, in this case to San Quentin, but in other shows they go all over the country interviewing inmates whether they are on death row or in the minimum scecurity for that facility. When the inmates are being interviewed at first you wonder why they got in prison because they seem to be good hearted people but throughout the show it becomes more and more evident that they may talk smooth but in reality they aren't telling the whole truth. It reminded me of class because when we were studing Mencius everyone believed that his philosophy was right and a person always wanted to do good but when we studied Hsun Tzu everybody changed their views. I find myself doing this in these shows becuase one wants to think that they are really good people but as the show goes on it becomes harder and harder to believe that they can be good. In addition, in one case an inmate got in trouble and they always tell the cameras they didn't do and try to make themselves look better than they really are but when the evidence is revieled by the officers it almost always ends up in the inmate getting in trouble. Also when the camera crew interviews people who all they want to do is hurt people it brings in a new element that most people would like to believe doesn't exist. In one episode this inmate called himself Macgyver because he could make weapons out of anything things that would originally be thought harmless. This guy made a ice pick weapon out of Jolly Ranchers, yes the candy, he melted them down to make an ice pick them when they harden they could easily kill a person. Also "Macgyver" is always trying to hurt or kill somebody else he treats life as if it were a game and the object is to kill as many people as possible. When I see things like it is really hard to believe in human nature being naturally good but like Hsun Tzu I like to believe humans can be good with strict training and rules.

Puppy Enforment 101

About two weeks ago, my cousin Lilly got a new labrador puppy. Lilly named the new puppy "Choco" because of his chocolate colored fur. Choco is a very energetic, happy-go-lucky pup with enough energy to wear both Lilly and me. "With a new puppy, comes responsibility and patience," my aunt warned Lilly. Playing with Choco is always fun, but training him is a slow tiresome process. Lilly and I began this "Puppy Enforment 101" course and the first lesson was: Potty Training. Training Choco not to go to the bathroon on the carpet floor was tough. Choco would pee anywhere and everywhere in the house. Lilly, being younger than me, did not like the idea of scolding Choco when he used the bathroom inside the house. She said that it's mean and it hurt Choco's feelings. I explained to her that the only way to teach Choco not to pee on the living room carpet was to first teach him that what he is doing is unacceptable. After Choco had another "accident", Lilly and I used the scolding tactic. Each time Choco had an "accident", we would scold the puppy. We taught Choco that it's ok to use that yard by giving him treats or by praising him when he would follow through. Choco learned that if he peed on the carpet or inside the house, he would get scolded. Obviously, neither human nor animal likes to get in trouble and therefore tries to avoid it. Gradually, Choco no longer used the house as a lawn. Now Choco is fully potty trained! After observing this training course and how Choco reacted to the teaching styles, I realized that rules can exist but they are worthless if no one enforces them. In the article, "What Makes Us Moral" it states, "a sense of right and wrong [is] useless until someone teaches you how to apply it" (Kluger p58). Choco did not know that what he was doing was wrong, until Lilly began scolding him. Through admonishment, Choco gradually learned that using the house as a lawn was not approved by Lilly. Choco must have linked Lilly's disapproval with his actions and began to take his bladder issues outside. In the article, "Is Morality Natural?", Hauser explains " We [humans as well as animals] generally do not commit wrongs acts because we recognize that they are wrong and because we do not want to pay the emotional price of doing something we perceive as wrong" (Hauser p.65). I assure you Choco didn't like to be scolded and didn't like to see Lilly upset, therefore he began to do as he was praised and stopped doing what he was scold. Now Choco is 100 percent potty trained and graduated from the "Puppy Enforcement 101" course! ^_________^

While I was going about my summer reading, I realized that I had unconsciously been making character comparisons from one book to another. The LOTF and The Kite Runner have no similiar plots but the characters in the book have a lot of similiarities. Assef, the protagonist in The Kite Runner, reminded me a lot of Ralph. Both have a lot of inner problems that they both need to address but neither one seems to be capable of doing so. Jack and Assef, who is one of the antagonists in The Kite Runner, also have many things in common. They are both extremely sadistic and like to be in control of others. The adult that Assef becomes is exactly what I would imagine Jack would have been would he have stayed on that island for much longer.