A Commencement Address
A Commencement Address
Joseph Brodsky
It is unavoidably true that evil consumes the world we live in. We see the presence of evil in the masses whether it is through the news or with our own eyes. Encountering evil is inevitable, and that is a thought that both Joseph Brodsky and I share. Brodsky writes, “…for the most interesting thing about Evil is that it is wholly human”. He insinuates that’s the root of all Evil is innately human, which provoked me into questioning the validity of the statement. When thinking about it, I have come to realize that the basis of evil for the most part does derive from action that was provoked by human thought. It is because of these negative human actions that the consequence of evil exists. It is the thought of Adolf Hitler to initiate the mass murder of millions of people, just like it was the thought of a college student to drive while intoxicated and hit another car ending a life. If it is our thoughts that initiate evil, are all humans evil?
Philosopher John Locke theorized his “tabula rasa”, the blank slate. Locke said that people were neither born good or evil, they are instead born a blank slate. I use Locke’s philosophy to add to my point, people cannot be innately evil, or good for that matter, because at the very beginning of our existence we have no idea of what it means to be either good or evil. If we do not know what either side of the spectrum is, we cannot be determined one or the other.
In his “A Commencement Address”, Brodsky emphasizes the fact that avoiding the direct contact with Evil is ultimately impossible. There is no such thing as a life without experiencing some sort of evil, nor is it possible not to be the creator of a form of Evil. Evil exists in the masses, or as Brodsky stated, “Evil today may be regarded not as an ethical category but as a physical phenomenon no longer measured in particles but mapped geographically”. I know for a fact that this is true because insert some
Joseph Brodsky
It is unavoidably true that evil consumes the world we live in. We see the presence of evil in the masses whether it is through the news or with our own eyes. Encountering evil is inevitable, and that is a thought that both Joseph Brodsky and I share. Brodsky writes, “…for the most interesting thing about Evil is that it is wholly human”. He insinuates that’s the root of all Evil is innately human, which provoked me into questioning the validity of the statement. When thinking about it, I have come to realize that the basis of evil for the most part does derive from action that was provoked by human thought. It is because of these negative human actions that the consequence of evil exists. It is the thought of Adolf Hitler to initiate the mass murder of millions of people, just like it was the thought of a college student to drive while intoxicated and hit another car ending a life. If it is our thoughts that initiate evil, are all humans evil?
Philosopher John Locke theorized his “tabula rasa”, the blank slate. Locke said that people were neither born good or evil, they are instead born a blank slate. I use Locke’s philosophy to add to my point, people cannot be innately evil, or good for that matter, because at the very beginning of our existence we have no idea of what it means to be either good or evil. If we do not know what either side of the spectrum is, we cannot be determined one or the other.
In his “A Commencement Address”, Brodsky emphasizes the fact that avoiding the direct contact with Evil is ultimately impossible. There is no such thing as a life without experiencing some sort of evil, nor is it possible not to be the creator of a form of Evil. Evil exists in the masses, or as Brodsky stated, “Evil today may be regarded not as an ethical category but as a physical phenomenon no longer measured in particles but mapped geographically”. I know for a fact that this is true because insert some