What causes people to be good or evil?

[Lombardi4]

In my life, I've seen, met, and known, both good and bad people (harsh to say that, let's say 'people who have an inclination to unwholesome qualities and deeds'), and have also myself had periods where I've done good and other periods where I've done things I shouldn't have.

For example, last year I met a true angel. A beautiful young lady came out of nowhere and helped me in a very tough time in a multitude of ways, while we barely knew each other, without wanting anything from me. While my own mother was just aggressive all the time.


So, why? Why do people do these things (both the good and the bad)?

This is my proposition, and I want to know if it is true. Of course, I am not a teacher, I just have some insights that would like confirmed or critiqued.

I would say that people do good things because they care and they do bad things because they don't care.

By which I mean, if you care about something, you are likely to put forth effort to fulfill the original goal you had in mind when you started caring about the thing.

Say I care about you. If I care about you, then it is very likely that I am going to be kind to you, and respect your needs and wants. I am doing (effort) the good deed of kindness and thoughtfulness because I care, I give a damn. And the cause of care itself is probably wisdom or clear thinking.

So, wisdom -> caring -> effort/work -> goodness -> happiness (I hadn't mentioned happiness above but it is an obvious result of goodness)

On the other hand, if you don't care about something, then you are likely not to put forth skilful effort, and if you are not doing skilfulness then you are doing its opposite unskillfulness, which is itself bad/evil/wrong etc.

For example, and this is not necessarily evil, but it is bad. If you don't care about your home environment, you are not likely to clean, and thereby it would get dirty and messy all over the place. If someone doesn't care about you then they are not going to be thoughtful of your feelings and needs and will most likely disrespect you. Why because they just don't give a damn.

So, ignorance -> not caring -> wrong effort -> badness/evil -> suffering


But how are exceptional people like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, etc. made? They probably, out of wisdom, had lofty ideals and goals, cared about what they were doing, practiced according to their right views, consistently and persistently so, and so they filled themselves with goodness.

How are terrorists made? They could well have been good people in the past, if not in this life then in a previous life. Then it started with a single instance of carelessness -- "what's the big deal with doing this particular [bad] deed?"... then they did a deed that was a bit more gross than that, and so on, the size and amount of evil gradually grew, and ultimately they became really 'bad' people. Just like a bushfire could start from a spark.



The above are my views, in as brief a manner as I could put them. I admit that I am a beginner in life, in Dhamma, in everything. Yes, I consider myself a beginner, so go easy on me. However, I have an incredibly strong desire to fix wrongs that I've done and return to the wholesome way that I was living just 2 years ago. I've made efforts and progress in the past several months, but more needs to be done. I need a firm foundation of awareness of right and wrong, good and evil, so as to gradually reduce suffering and unskillfulness and increase goodness and happiness. So as to then be able to make the lives of other people that bit lighter.



So, in your view, what do you think prompts people to do evil? What is it that makes them do good? Why are some people 'evil' and others 'good'? What are the causes of good and evil?

[jackson]

Hi Sumana,
I think there's no easy answer to this question, but the fact that you are considering it is good for it can lead to a more empathetic mind. One thing I like to remind myself is that people doing evil actions are normally seeking happiness, just in unwholesome ways. Someone may murder their spouse because they think cashing in on a life insurance policy will make them happy, or someone may cheat on their partner because they are seeking happiness through pleasure. Some people are born in poor conditions where the example set may make their mind naturally incline towards the unwholesome, or they are born as sociopaths or narcissists which leads to a great disadvantage in the empathy department.
Goodness can be cultivated though, and it can happen that through the weight of one's evil actions they begin to reflect on the cause of their current predicament and begin to develop wholesome qualities through simply observing cause and effect, observing that actions of loving-kindness and generosity birth pleasant memories and a sense of satisfaction whereas breaking the precepts leads to painful memories and worries about being found out, facing consequences, etc. So while one's mind may have inclined towards evil in the past it begins to gravitate towards good simply because goodness is a pure happiness, untainted by worry and remorse, whereas evil actions leads one down a dark and dangerous path.
Anyway, the point I'm trying to get across is that good and evil is not as black and white an issue as society, and especially the media, portray it to be. Everyone's mind, except the saints, has unwholesome desires from time to time but the difference between someone labeled evil and someone labeled good is the ability to pause, take a step back, and consider the results of following through on that unwholesome desire and then abandon it. This is an ability that can, and should, be cultivated because otherwise we fall victim to the poison created by unskillful action. I could be wrong on this, but I believe this ability is determined by the size of one's prefrontal cortex, so if you're a teenager and it's not fully developed, or an adult and it's small then biology is working to one's disadvantage. Anyway, I hope this post was somewhat helpful, it's just my take on things, but I always find it a little sad how quick we are to condemn people and brush them off as simply evil or monstrous without taking the time to try to understand how conditions led to them being that way, or to acknowledge how painful their lives must be to live with the weight of their actions. I think people who do evil deserve compassion as well.
Metta