Do You Try to See the Good Character in Everyone, That There is Something Good About Everyone (Morally)?

[Hesse]

I'm creating this thread because it stems from an argument with my mother, when she and my father were discussing a recent crime where there was a certain mother who killed her childe from, I think leaving it to die in the trunk of her car.


If I can recap this correctly, my dad, who I agree with (since when do I not), he says that she should be fried in the electric chair. My mom vehemetly disagrees (ok, first of all, she does believe that what this mother did was morally wrong, and doesn't think it's acceptable), who doesn't even give a straightforward answer but says "no, I don't think so...how do you know it wasn't an accident?" I was speechless, but in my head I was like "What"!!!??? How could my own mother think this way?? Does she have not a concept of justice?

Then I asked her: "why is it that you don't believe that she should be sentenced to death"

She says, "I think it's because I try to see the good, in everyone", that there is something good about everyone"....

She also contradicts herself, because she claims her basis for believing such junk is Christianity, but that's not even Biblical. There's no biblical support for her beliefs, contrairly the Bible says that all of us were born sinners.

I even made up a scenario where a nigger comes into town and rapes fourteen people, then I say "DO you see the good in him"? she was like "yes. I see the good in him" I was speechless. At that I couldn't reason with her no more. I couldn't believe my own mother, who I share half of my blood and ancestry with, be saying this? How could I possibly disagree so strongly with a biological parent????

I don't know what happened to the suspect.....



So anyway, back to the original question. Do you try to see that there is some good moral character that can be found in everyone, even when they do the wordst things such as rapists and serial killers or do you believe that some people are 100% wicked? If you agree with the former, do you believe that nobody, I mean nobody, deserves the worst kind of punishment comprehendable, since there is "something good about them"?


I couldn't disagree more with my mother's idea, that nobody deserves capital punishment since "everyone is good", and unlike her, who is against the death penalty, I am a strong believer in it, and strongly believe that some people are so wicked that they deserve (since many, many threads here about such cases are here to prove it) it since they are a danger to society. But only when appropriate and their crimes have clearly proven them to be a threat to society.

[Ælfrun]

So anyway, back to the original question. Do you try to see that there is some good moral character that can be found in everyone, even when they do the wordst things such as rapists and serial killers or do you believe that some people are 100% wicked? If you agree with the former, do you believe that nobody, I mean nobody, deserves the worst kind of punishment comprehendable, since there is "something good about them"?

I am all for Capital Punishment! Also, I do not see the good in everyone. Some people are pure evil and disguting.

[TXRog]

I have shared my personal opinion on the merits of capital punishment in previous thread topics and there are absolutely crimes for which capital punishment should be employed - murder, rape, torturing a person, child molestation.

I believe that if there is genuine goodness in the world there simply has to be genuine evil in the world as well. It is the "yin and yang" of the real world in which we all live.

When I was living in LA I met and became friends with a a wonderful lady whose best friend was actress Sharon Tate, the beautiful actress who with her unborn child was one of the victims of the Charles Manson cult group back in the late 1960's. . My friend was so affected by this horrible incident she had to undergo psychological counseling for several years and even then, never fully recovered. How could ANYONE?

While my friend and Sharon Tate's family's lives were completely changed (more correctly damaged) forever by this, the killer/culprit Charles Manson has been sitting in a jail cell in CA for now more than 40 years. He received a 60 year prison term which has been calculated to cost the taxpayers in CA (of which I was one for 16 years) approximately $4.5 million!! And if this were not enough insanity, Manson is eligible for parole in 2012!! How much better the monies could be spent on schools, shelters for the homeless, orphanages - any number of worthwhile services. Justice would have best been served by him "dancing at the end of a rope."

I challenge anyone who has at best rudimentary brain function to tell me this worthless piece of sxxt has some redeeming qualities or any other scum that takes the life of an innocent human being.

Yet another piece of scum is satanic serial killer Richard Ramirez, "the night stalker" who terrorized LA back in the 1980's and was found guilty of at least 13 murders. He too is alive and well, supported in prison by tax payer's money, and believe it or not, got MARRIED (!!) to some crazy bixch who wrote him some 75 letters after he was sentenced to prison (he had quite a devoted group of female admirers all trying to "win his heart" - I don't believe something as evil as this has no heart).

This is perhaps the single best description of just how evil this piece of garbage was/is:

"Of all the serial killers who have plagued the modern world, the Night Stalker was perhaps the most sensational in the way he committed his crimes. He was a living nightmare, a boogey man who invaded bedrooms and tore innocent people from their dreams."
(source:http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/s.../terror_1.html)

I myself would have absolutely no difficulty personally administering capital punishment to someone as truly evil as either Manson and/or Ramirez.

Just tell me what to do - shoot, hang, burn, decapitate, etc., and I will be more than happily oblige.

I would simply consider it providing a most worthy and worthwhile (needed and necessary) service to the community at large - like killing a rat, cockroach, pest, treating a disease, removing a cancer, nothing more.

In summary, I stated earlier there truly are good and decent people in the world and there are equally bad and evil scum in the world and the only way to make the world a better place for us all is to have harsh and swift punishments for those who would prey on the good and cause pain and suffering.

Society as a whole suffers when justice is not served accordingly.

Enough said.

[Thorolf]

I'm not sure that I can agree the woman should have been put to death. It may have been an accident that she left the kid in the car. If she loved her child imagine what she is going through right now? Though if it was purposeful than yes she deserves death. As for the scenario of a person raping 14 people. I don't see how someone like this wouldn't deserve death in a painful fashion.

Personally I think everyone has a good side. Everyone cares about something. Though just because people may have a good side doesn't mean they don't deserve death depending on their actions.

[Aeternitas]

I once saw an interview with a prison inmate who had been found guilty of murder. Crazed with jealousy, he shot two men whom his former girlfriend hung out with. While he was serving his sentence, he came to regret his act and got a tattoo with the initials of the people he killed and those of their mothers. He seemed to be aware that he had destroyed some lives and if he was honest regarding his intentions, he was probably capable of compassion.

When it comes to torturers and serial killers though I have serious doubts. So I don't really see everyone having some good in them but even assuming they did, there comes a time when the principle of the boy who cried wolf applies.

[OnePercent]

I reject the notion that everyone has some good in them. I believe that some "people" don't even have a soul and are basically just biological machines that follow whatever impulse that happens to come to them. They just learn to act like normal human beings for self-preservation purposes, otherwise they are utterly amoral and completely self-centered. I don't like calling them evil, because I think statements like that are too subjective, but I do believe that they are a menace to all society and should be put down unceremoniously just like a wild animal is when it attacks or threatens a human.

[Goomer]

On the most part, I consider myself a very compassionate person. However, there are places I draw the line:

Child killers/rapists
Rapists in general
Murderers in general
People who are horribly cruel to animals....like those who run the fur farms or kill people's pets for kicks...etc etc..

As far as I am concerned....every last one of these POS bastards needs to DIE. I'd GLADLY help assist in such a pursuit.

Pretty much everyone else....there's at least some good present. Of course, some people are better than others

[Hesse]

On the most part, I consider myself a very compassionate person. However, there are places I draw the line:

Child killers/rapists
Rapists in general
Murderers in general
People who are horribly cruel to animals....like those who run the fur farms or kill people's pets for kicks...etc etc..

I may be wrong, but my mother draws no boundaries according to the last time I spoke with her. I'm still not sure why in the bloody hell my mom thinks there's some good in these things? It's bloody embarrasing.

[Goomer]

I may be wrong, but my mother draws no boundaries according to the last time I spoke with her. I'm still not sure why in the bloody hell my mom thinks there's some good in these things? It's bloody embarrasing.

Most liberals I know do not believe in Capital Punishment. They believe in the potential for rehabilitation and reintroduction to the society at large. In fact, several European nations do not have the Death Penalty as a result of these lines of thinking.

It this area, I disagree with the liberal mindset. Though, I am liberal myself. The fact is, some people are just plain sick fucks. They should be treated accordingly.

[Albie]

I have always tried to see the good and bad in everyone, but not to the point that I have panglossian optimism or pessimism. Also, I believe in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. A person has to pay the price for the type of crime committed; a compensating measure of justice.

I do not see anything positive or good in that serial killer Richard Ramirez and all the other serial killers, thus they should be executed for the crimes committed. Plus, I believe in Capital punishment when the case is beyond a reasonable doubt.

Albie