I was given an impromptu task somewhere sometime to support and oppose this statement: ‘humans are not born bad or evil, but they become evil because their environment’. So, in the heat of the moment, I penned and penned. I felt rather than thought. I felt too much but it released some feel-good hormones in my brain. Below are my rants, some incredibly intelligent, some just plain stupid. But I guess that’s your judgment to pass.

SUPPORTING THE STATEMENT

Humans are not born bad or evil but they become bad because of their environment.

            What constitute being bad? Why do we call a person evil? Truth be told, sometimes it is because we are envious of the person or we just hate them. But more often than not, people we call evil have done nothing directly to harm us, but they are the same people who had seemingly failed the tests of character, morals, ethnics and even politics. They are the ones that go down in history as the great antagonists of everything good we had learnt at home and in the society. They are the ones that would stop at nothing to achieve the diabolical desires of their hearts. They are the ones, we think, hell made for.

            It is usually said that there is nothing new under the sun but we cringe anytime the offspring of a ‘good’ person turns out evil or we are suspicious when a relative of the infamous gangster preaches to be good. This debunks the argument that being bad or evil is inherited. It is never in the DNA. Therefore, we are not born evil. We choose evil or in the context of this debate, we are modeled by our environment to be evil (of course, this cannot be without our permission).

            Come to think of it, it has never happened – at least in the real world – that during the christening of a child, he or she is proclaimed irreversibly evil. Such a baby, if there is, would be put to death immediately. And yet, that baby may grow up to become a hoodlum or a political fanatic stealing, killing and destroying thousands of lives and properties. In short, the child might grow up to be a devil and people start to wonder where it all went wrong.

            Where did it all go wrong? With a little investigation, we arrive at the conclusion that somebody or something must have affected his or her psyche. And the last time I checked, environment comprises of somebodies and somethings. So, mathematically; if a bad person is affected by other bad people and things that shape their life, and, if environment is made up of people and things, therefore evil persons are influenced by their environment.

            When evil people tell us their life stories and put out reasons why they are bad, we tend to sympathize with them even if it is for the shortest possible time. This means that like evil people, we can also be evil. All that is needed is for the environment to affect us wrongly.

OPPOSING THE STATEMENT

Humans are not born bad or evil but they become bad because of their environment. Lies! Fallacies!

            Ever heard the names Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin? What about Al-Queda and Boko Haram? If your answer is a resounding NO for the two questions and four names, you may likewise have never heard about Google or the alphabet. Adolf Hitler sanctioned the killing of millions of Jews and Joseph Stalin terrorized his own Russian Citizens – both lead revolutions to overthrow the previous ‘evil’ governments in Germany and Russia respectively. Al-Queda and Boko Haram are extremist groups concerned with wiping out everyone else.

            Imagine Hitler was not born. I make bold to say that the Second World War wouldn’t have taken place. Imagine Sani Abacha never existed. For starters, we would not have been banned for the 1996 and 1998 editions of the African Cup of Nations (a football/ soccer tournament) or Nigeria would not have pulled out of the United Nations due to the crimes against humanity Abacha committed. Wickedness and evil are in the blood and the environment has nothing to do with it.

            Looking back into the annals of history, we normally discover that those who we regard as evil, as Satan-sent, had always been perpetually their bad deeds. Their deeds become infamous or unpopular when they have enough power to showcase them without being punished. Granted, there are some cases where power is not needed. We have all heard and read stories of how a seemingly young person with a bright future would turn into a thief and a killer with no regard for anything or anybody. We pray we should not have children or relatives like that. Why? Because we know that once we have such, they can’t be changed. It is in the blood.

            We should never be forced into thinking that all things are possible (except with God, if you are religious) and that evil people can eventually come around to be wonderfully good. The truth of the matter is that this world needs evil to be displayed so that good would be appreciated when it arrives. And who better manifest evil than the people born with it, as it. This has been mentioned before – and it can not be stated enough – that: it is in the blood.