The Human Monster

Issue #46 Keith’s SciFi Musings August 6, 2023

There is a belief among some that no one is truly born evil, that evil is a quality that is learned by human beings over time as an infant is exposed to various life experiences that gradually mold what was an innocent blank slate into something fearsome and twisted. This, of course, implies that all human beings are good at their core, because we all started out that way, and that such innate goodness cannot be totally erased.

There is also a tendency among some of us to excuse the worst of us by considering that they are somehow different from the rest of us in an extreme way to a degree where they may not even be fully human but…other.

Perhaps their activities are governed by a Dark Lord, or Satan, or whoever is the opposite of light in any particular culture and/or religion. Because just as most religions and cultures have an almighty being that serves as some sort of savior, there is also the required counterbalancing opposite.

But what if we’re all just folks? No more, no less? Not governed by hazy outside forces, and not given a pass at birth simply because we’re humans created by a benevolent force?

And therein lies the terror…