Friday, September 24, 2010

Reflection:the truth of right and wrong

There is a huge difference between right and wrong. A person, place or thing can only fall into one or the other. However, it is not that easy to determine if something is wrong. Many times our opinions and thoughts blind us from determining the true answer.

Vincent Liu had a very interesting question in his essay  "Right and Wrong" 
"Does growing up in a certain way determine a person's judgment on the difference between what is right and wrong?"
And the answer to his question is obviously yes. It all depends on the person's character, personality, and the society. We are all human and have the same abilities and similar characteristics. A person will judge what is right and wrong based on his/her experiences, particularly during their childhood since that is when their character forms. An example is the Jim Crow era. Many in the south thought it was right to segregate people based on their skin color. They thought that it would be best for the society if dark skinned people were excluded from the community. Of course, today we know that this was wrong and second off, pointless. We know that everyone deserves equal rights and respect. Another example is totalitarianism. Before world war two, many people were blinded by their leaders into believing into something that is not necessarily true. Many Germans were blinded to become a member of the Nazis by the leaders, making them think that they are the rulers of the world, superior over all man kind and making them think that all others are to be killed such as their bordering countries and theses from different religions. Obviously what they were fooled to believe was not true and wrong, and yet they still followed it believing what was tight to them to be true. Veterans from the Nazi party still agree with what Hitler told them. And why did all these people believe in nonsense like segregation and the holocaust? Because they where blind by their society into believing what was wrong to being true.

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