Sociopaths And Good People
From
Ilya Shambat@21:1/5 to
All on Fri Oct 14 18:09:23 2022
One claim I’ve heard is that sociopaths by definition cannot be good people.
No, that is wrong. Anyone can be a good person if he puts his mind to it.
For me, figuring out what it means to be a good person has been a lifelong quest. I have known a number of good people, and I have studied them. What I have found in all of them are the following traits: Kindness, compassion, honesty, courage and
responsibility.
Some of them credit their personal accomplishments to following the Golden Rule. I have misgivings about the Golden Rule. It is as follows. I am not the next person. The way I want to be treated may be completely different from how the next person may
want to be treated. If I treat the next person the way I want to be treated, I project my own needs on them while not honoring what they are themselves.
These people know more about what it means to be a good person than I do; however I don’t think they have considered this argument.
I used to attend a school called St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes school. A few years ago I met up with their principal, and she told me that they were making it their policy to teach the students to be good people. I’ve been impressed with a number of
people from there. Even many of the ones who were jerks while in school have become thoughtful, compassionate, generous individuals.
Now there has been a lot of research into various psychological issues; but I have not seen enough research go into what it means to be a good person. There should be. It would provide guidance to people who want to be good but don’t know how to. And
it would be research that anyone, including sociopaths, could use to their betterment.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)