Over spring break, Jon and I took the greyhound from Olympia to Bellingham. Good idea, right? Nope. While we were at the Olympia station, one woman was yelling (yes, really yelling) at the woman who worked at the ticket booth place, because her daughter (I think) wasn't allowed to bring an extra piece of luggage on the bus. Her rationale was that the girl has a service dog, and that dog was allowed to "have" one piece of luggage. This was a rational argument, but the woman was being totally unreasonable. She was being very mean to the employee, and her behavior was absolutely unacceptable.
But then I thought what makes people "bad." Here are a few reasons why someone would be a "bad" person:
-They were born with a mental illness that makes them angry and irrational.
-They were raised by parents who were angry, abusive, etc.
-They encountered a life-changing event that caused them to hate life and everything about it.
Why else would someone be like this nasty woman?
Furthermore, if she was subject to one of these reasons, it's not HER fault that she's a "bad" person. I'm convinced that behind everyone's terrible actions, there is a reason that is beyond their control. Okay, maybe not totally beyond their control, but enough to pre-dispose them to to have such behavior.
Just a thought.
--Elie
It's really sad that more people don't realize this, and never try to see the world from the perspective of anyone else.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, a quick look through your site has caused me to start rewatching Firefly. Thank you (or other you, since there seem to be two of you yous on here).