Hey, you want to know a secret? I’m actually a pretty positive guy. I actually believe things are getting better and you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.
Whoa, what happened to Mr. Sarcastic? Has he been killed by aliens and replaced?
If you think about it, I haven’t changed. I still like to believe that the future will be a good one. I still like to believe that people will change for the better. And I still like to believe that we are put on this Earth to help others.
Yet, I am a realist. I know that some people will never change, they are evil, and something is wrong with them.
I’ve currently been reading about a serial killer in the 1890s, who went by the name of Henry. H. Holmes. The book is titled “Devil in the White City” written by Erik Larson. This is my second book I’m reading about Holmes. However, it comes with the added bonus of being a book about the creation of the 1893 World’s Fair called the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The book goes back and forth between the men and women who carried out the planning, and building of the World’s Fair, and the serial killer Henry H. Holmes.
Side note: The other book I read recently was “The Scarlet Mansion” written by Allan W. Eckert and where I first found out about Henry H. Holmes and his “castle” of murder in Chicago.
Honestly, this Henry H. Holmes killed people for fun and profit. Now, I really don’t think that this Holmes would ever change for the better. Am I a bad person for thinking this? Is being a realist going to make me less of a positive person?
Or am I really a positive person that knows that some people are capable of positive changes and others are incapable of changing for the better? Some people are evil and will never change. This reality does exist. For those of us that are good, this is sometimes a hard reality to accept. We want to believe people can change, that they have some good in them. However, there are psychopaths and sociopaths that make the world unsafe. There are people that can not help but lie. There is mental illness that can not be cured no matter what. There are people that are pure evil.
I would argue that with pure evil people you also have the opposite type of people that are pure goodness. They think only of others and put others before themselves. That makes them happy and fulfills their lives. I admire this trait and their ability to see the good in others. Does a person who believes only in the good in people know that there are pure evil individuals among us? Do they know that some people will never change?
Overall, I understand that most people tend to be honest and decent individuals. I want to trust and believe in others. I want to have faith that the world is moving towards being better for future generations.
Kevin Hellriegel's Blog of Worthless Advice 
Hmmmm am hoping people can and will change, signed Pollyanna.
I don’t believe in “throw away people” and know there are thousands of people who have truly inspirational stories of redemption. I also believe there are just some people who cannot and will not change and its futile to expect them to do so.
I agree. No “throwaway people”!
I saw a show on Henry Holmes the other day – very interesting (and scary). It was incredible the efforts he went through to build his hotel. The show also described the World’s Fair and many of the products we still use today that originated there – as well as what the city did to prepare for the event. Both sides of what man can produce when he puts his mind to it…
I enjoyed the post and will have to check out the books you are reading. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Gary! I enjoyed all the “new” things that were introduced at the 1893 World’s Fair as well. Pretty cool stuff!
Great questions about people. Here’s my two cents, and I guess with inflation, they are worth less than zero. No one is pure anything. Sure there’s an unbelievably wide spectrum — take these teenagers who claimed boredom and randomly shot a jogger, leaving him to die. Pure evil — probably not really, but certainly evil. Mother Theresa, for instance, definitely on the sainthood spectrum, but even she recognized that she wasn’t pure goodness. So, to the interesting point — your questions–
“Does a person who believes only in the good in people know that there are pure evil individuals among us?” If someone has chosen to believe that all people are good, with just misguided behaviors, there may not be room in their paradigm for “pure evil” — after all what is the standard for pure evil?
“Do they know that some people will never change?” Do they care that some people will never change? Do they only focus on their chosen belief paradigm that excludes historical factors, trends, and study results? Perhaps they don’t want to do the work that a pardoxical, difficult, and fallen world demands both intellectually, spiritually, and philosophically.
Disclaimer: I don’t necessarily want to do that work either.
Pure evil. Pure. Hmmm..pure: free of or without guilt. Pure: clean and unadulterated. Sounds like a job for Oxymoron Girl! Pure evil…HAR….just kidding. Sort of. I think some people are missing a part of their brain that allows empathy and compassion. Pure Evil? No. Sick, twisted, regular evil, insane…definitely.