Voodoo, who do?

I once had a discussion with a colleague over the nature of man.

She sided with the Dalai Lama, bless him, who held the view that people are essential good in nature, however were occasionally capable of acts of extreme selfishness, barbarity and so on.

I counterpointed by proffering  the opposite opinion.

You see, the evidence just doesn't add up. We are, in essence, rotten to the core.

At times, when we have some paradigm shift, we may do something other than selfishly. It's our survival instinct. It has nothing to do with religion, spirituality or good versus evil myths. It is who we are. It is the rarity, rather than the norm that every so often we act out of care for others.

Altruism is as real as the tooth fairy.

It shouldn't surprise us then that a person is capable of getting a two year old child drunk, then sticking over thirty needles in his tiny body, in order to 'get back' at his wife. It shouldn't shock us when yet another shooting/suicide/house set on fire takes place.

It should however, always appal us