Examining this theme does not require us to assume that all people are bad, rather, it is an investigation into how certain characteristics or specific actions can brand a person as "bad."
After my initial post to this blog, I was able to reach out to my instructor for some much-needed guidance to get me back on the right track. I sat down that same evening and wrote out my knowledge inventory so that I was proceeding with a sturdy foundation for the remainder of the blog. The results were rather useful so as to provide a baseline set of existing knowledge:
Part of the challenge is dealing with how the theme of this course is quite subjective and very personal. One may come to believe that humans are generally bad in response to the plethora of unscrupulous events commonly depicted by the modern news media. It can be argued, however, that it is quite unfair to judge all people as being bad based solely on the actions of a few -- correlation does not imply causation (Blackmore 21).
As a general rule of thumb, the news media bolsters viewership by sensationalizing stories and showcasing only the most violent or shocking reports. Suppose, for example, a man had been cryogenically frozen throughout the course of several recent decades. Upon being revived, this man was told to sit down and watch the latest TV news reports on the current state of our nation and on the most newsworthy events of the larger global community. War, genocide, economic depression, and radical jihadism would no doubt be among the primary issues portrayed on the television screen; our recently defrosted friend may very well find himself believing wholeheartedly that the world today has simply gone to hell... and with good reason.
The bottom line -- people are the product of their environments. The line between good and bad is often quite hazy. There exists a dichotomy in this world between good and evil (Blackmore 9); one cannot exist without the other, for if there were nothing which could be described as "good" or "evil" then things would just simply "exist" in a state of moral neutrality.
Works Cited
Blackmore, Susan. Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
James, I love the wall paper you have for the blog and the title. It is intriguing and engaging. There are some analytical points here made in the theme but get lost in the stream of consciousness presentation. Blogs still have to be structured much like an essay, focused on a purpose or point to make. This post was for you to inventory what you think you know about the theme, not just what you think at the moment. You were absent from class the day we talked about how to think about the requirements of the post. See the grade and rubric on Blackboardfor how to improve this for the final version.
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