The reason that we don't decide to shoot up a school -- that was an unexpectedly good question. When did I decide not to do that? Never can I remember wanting to hurt an innocent living creature. Granted, I was a creepy kid with violent fantasies, and a lot of other kids did not fall in the "innocent" category to me. But I never had an impulse to hurt a blameless child or an animal.* Why? My parents and family showed me love, kindness and empathy every single day of my life, and that primed the circuits, the inborn capacities for altruism and empathy that create a functioning human being. What are we to do about people whose inborn capacities are damaged or destroyed, or were never there?
----- * Okay I cut a housefly in half once when I was eight and I should have got a spanking but no one saw me. I didn't want to cause it pain, just to see if I could do it, and I never did it again. I FEEL BAD NAO
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-12-20 03:34 am (UTC)-----
* Okay I cut a housefly in half once when I was eight and I should have got a spanking but no one saw me. I didn't want to cause it pain, just to see if I could do it, and I never did it again. I FEEL BAD NAO