Antidote to Evil

satan.jpgI spend a lot of time wondering why people do evil things. Clearly, in some cases it’s brain chemistry gone bad. Evil people are sometimes just physically sick people. But sometimes evil people are normal people who turned bad. Or acted badly and then returned to normal. Everyone wants to know how could terrorists blow up innocent people and think they’re right? Or how did Nazis forget to disagree with Hitler? The reasons are complex and worth addressing because we all know 90-99% of humans are capable of great malice in exceptional circumstances. (Or maybe that’s just me if anyone messes with my kids. Or my ice cream…)

Well, if you’re like me and you feel disheartened by the glorification of violence in things like video games and (some) rap music, here’s something cool: The Hero Workshop.

The idea of the workshop is to respond to one of society’s great problems: if we as individuals don’t seek to correct evil who will? This is an awesome program that seeks to encourage kids to do the right thing. To be a whistleblower even though it can be tremendously difficult and come at a cost. I love this idea because it’s taught in a constructive way that reminds us all of our civic duty to preserve peace. This workshop doesn’t teach vigilantism, it teaches kids to feel good about respecting their sense of right and wrong. I’m assuming there’s probably a difference in religious schools, but this is not taught in public school. A moral compass, tempered with compassion and humanity, is a valuable thing to own.

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”
~Edmund Burke

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August 28, 2008 | Filed Under Historical Context 

Comments

2 Responses to “Antidote to Evil”

  1. Matt Langdon on August 29th, 2008 7:48 am

    Thanks for the mention. I’m glad to see you really understood the premise of the program. I must have done something right in the design of the website.

    You might be interested in Phil Zimbardo’s book, The Lucifer Effect, which describes why people do evil and how to combat it.

  2. Bobbie Wood on August 31st, 2008 6:50 am

    Matt, thanks for stopping by duhpookie! I’d love to see this workshop at every K-12 school throughout California. I think programs like the Hero Workshop are desperately needed to provide the moral scaffolding we lost by becoming so secular. Good luck. I hope the workshop takes off! :)

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