Evil Nature of Man

The nature of man is basically evil. The desire for power and personal gain, illustrate this evil nature. Philosophers, the novel The Lord of the Flies, and current events all support that human nature is basically evil.

Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher, agrees that it is human nature to seek power. “Men are addicted to power because its acquisition is the only guarantee of living well” (Thomas Hobbes). Even if people had everything they need they will still want extra. People are selfish and they seek power to get these extra things that they don’t need. In the past few years the terrorist attacks that stunned the world were conducted by groups that seize power so that they can control other people’s ability to survive, instead of worrying about their own survival. The Lord of the Flies had a similar situation of someone trying to control another’s ability to survive. Roger and the tribe was hunting Ralph and he had, “a stick sharpened at both ends” (LOTF). This was so that when they found him and killed him they could follow suit of what they did to the pig and put his head on a stick.

The large natural gas, electric, and communications company, Enron, went bankrupt. This was because the people inside the company were trying to make more of a profit at the expense of the company. "The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals" (Adam Smith). The motivation to trade with others is to get more out of them than they can get out of you. “Men live in "a state of perpetual war" driven by competition and desire for the same goods” (Thomas Hobbes). Humans are so competitive that they have taken over the Earth and continue to exist as the dominate species. The population has grown so much because humans have been able to survive in almost every land environment on Earth.

Human nature is basically evil. Man’s desire for power and personal gain has made humans the dominate species on land. Man tries so hard to interfere with others that they don’t focus on how to survive without killing off all other forms of life. Man’s nature is to be competitive and this causes man to do evil things like kill others and take away the ability to survive.