The Nature of Man

People frequently question whether man is mostly, or fundamentally, good or evil. Intellectuals and philosophers especially discuss and debate this. But it may be that man is essentially neutral. Or quite possibly he’s both good and evil, with large elements of these opposites inside of him, as part of his nature. The classical Greeks and Romans often claimed man was "part god, part beast".

Mankind must be significantly good in some senses or he wouldn’t have achieved so much, or risen so far above the animals, over the millennia. Still, he must be considerably evil too given his obvious propensity to irrational thought, senseless behavior, self-destruction, and harm to those he lives with and loves. And we musn’t forget his tendency toward suicide and war.

Looking further, it may be that the massman is especially inherently corrupt and low, while the elite man is much less so. The vulgate may be naturally vulgar and despicable. Many powerful thinkers over the centuries have denounced the hoi polloi, mob, philistines, and rabble for their base intellectual, moral, and spiritual qualities. These seem to complement their naturally weak minds, poor educations, and bad upbringing, as well as their inferior philosophies, cultures, lifestyles, and attitudes.

So it may be the case that the superior man of interior loftiness is inherently inclined to work long, hard, and well at all that he does, while the inferior man of interior lowliness is inherently inclined to sloth, lack of focus, and incompetence on this. Elite men may naturally take pride in themselves and their learning, manners, polish, and personal honor, while the crude man in the street is slovenly, careless, and lackadaisical here. Plato looked down upon "the common herd" while Aristotle said the masses "preferred a life suitable to beasts".

Even so, the massman and the elite both seem to be massively, or even overwhelmingly, controlled by the intellectuals and their dominant theories. If the philosophers and deep thinkers of a given society are profoundly irrational and nonsensical in their beliefs – such as by being nihilist, religious, socialist, or sacrificial – then the destructiveness and wickedness of both the common man and the superior one seems to rise exponentially. Neither can resist thinking, saying, and doing some truly heinous things.

So if someone is serious about uplifting human beings, and their society and culture, he very probably needs to focus on improving philosophy, and not human nature. People are likely morally neutral, or mixed, or unpredictably heterogeneous. But they’re highly subject to intellectual manipulation and control. If someone wants the vulgar masses and lofty elite to think, live, and behave better, he needs to give them much more rational and liberal theories and ideas to work with.