For many years it has been debated whether mankind is good or bad. Although there are a lot of reasons why humanity is good, evil overrules. Acts of kindness have never overpowered an act of Evil. It’s often seen on the news of all the bad happening while on the other hand, acts of kindness are often never good enough to make this world a better place. “You see, if you look back at this amazing capability and how it has evolved, and include the results, it is not a pretty sight. We like to claim that we are so smart, our cultures celebrate ‘smartness’ and promotes it, but if you take a step back and look at things from a grand perspective, all that our magic ability has brought us is doom” (Schrama). Humanity is evil because of the presence of consciousness while acting, causing harm to their own species, and destroying the environment.
Mankind has the moral understanding from what is right and what is wrong. Knowing what is wrong, mankind continues to cause harm and break restrictions. As seen on the news, crime happens all around the world every day. By doing wrong, it can bring a sense of satisfaction, superior pride to a person. “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it” (Twain).
Nations fight at war against each other leading thousands of people to death just to gain superior power (Lebow). Even if it’s known that it is not right to kill others, it still happens for numerous reasons. It could easily be changed however mankind finds these acts of evil as the only way. Simply because it has always been that way in today’s society. Situations occur the evil way because there just isn’t enough kind people in the world to make a difference. So mankind lives knowing what they do is wrong but still continues to do it. An experiment conducted by Milgram showed how people will harm other because they are obeying authority.
“They raise the possibility that human nature, or more specifically, the kind of character produced in American democratic society, cannot be counted on to insulate its citizens from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act and without limitations of conscience” (Milgram). Mankind even hurts their own species knowing that it is wrong.
Mankind is its own strongest predator. Throughout centuries they have killed each other for many different reasons; one being for no reason at all. People torturing other people because of the color of their own skin. Even today mankind continues to not accept each other because of the amount of differences they have in appearance. An experiment performed by the University of Toronto tested infants between 6-9 months to see if racism/ bias occurred at a young age. “The researchers say their findings show that babies may develop racial biases not because of negative experiences, but rather because of a lack of experience with people of other races” (Shea).
For centuries mankind has been brought up to have preferences to certain colors of their own species. Genocides, war, murder, torture and abuse all occurring within one species. In 1941-1945 the Nazis of Germany invaded countries capturing as many Jews they could and sending them away to concentration camps where they would be tortured then murdered. All because their ruler, Adolf Hitler, believed the Jews lived wealthier lives than the Germans. Because of The Holocaust, the lives of 6 million people were lost; taken by their own species (Berenbaum). “They say that when you fail to appreciate the humanity of other people, that’s where genocide and slavery and all sorts of evils come from. I don’t think that’s entirely wrong. I think a lot of real awful things we do to other people arise from the fact that we don’t see them as people” (Bloom). Mankind isn’t only a predator to itself but to the entire world.
The world is meant to be a beautiful place consisting of over ten billion different species. At a rapid pace, the world is coming to a point of total destruction. According to McCarthy, humans only make up 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of the world’s wild mammals. The extinction rate for animals have increased a thousand times faster because of humans. Many animals have already been hunted to extinction. According to Jen Viegas, a total of 322 animals extinct in the past 500 years because of various reasons caused by people. One reason being pollution and destroying animal natural habitats.
Pollution isn’t only damaging wild life but the environment also. The air we breathe is from plant life all over the world. Plants are continuously being cut down or polluted through the water; Water that has been polluted due to mankind. All the trash being thrown on the earth and all the pollution created by the inventions of humanity is damaging the world that’s walked on by billions (Denchak). Eventually making it an unlivable planet. “Despite being such a small part of the planet, humans have been steadily destroying everything else for the past few millennia. And it’s not just that humans are wiping out wildlife — they’re also determining the animals and plants that remain” (McCarthy).
If mankind was kind then why they do wrong knowing its wrong, why do they cause harm to each other and why do they destroy a world made to be beautiful. The answer is that mankind isn’t kind at all. From the times of man kind’s existence, there has been evil. One of the only species responsible for so many lives lost and so much damage done. In this world of over 10 billion species, mankind is the most dangerous threat to all life. Mankind kills their own species and millions of other species. Not only species but the world’s environment. Even when knowing what they do is wrong, it still continues. Mankind is evil. “If there is true evil in this world it lies in the hearts of mankind” (Morrison).
