#weekfourthoughts

What stood out to me the most about the Xunzi reading this week was the thesis statement that we see at the beginning; “People’s nature is bad. Their goodness is a matter of deliberate effort.” While I do not necessarily subscribe to these beliefs, I do agree that it takes more effort to go out of your way to be kind and forgiving of others around you rather than continue to see the world from only a first-person perspective. If you are out driving your car, and someone cuts you off at an intersection where you had the right of way, your first instinct is likely to be pretty ticked off at the other driver. It takes more effort to understand that humans make mistakes sometimes, and forgive the other person, than to flip them off as you drive away. Kindness is a conscious choice that we can make in our lives, and whether or not you choose to act on your first instinct or your revised one can show a lot about the kind of person that you are, or want to be. Regardless of whether or not human nature is inherently “good” or “bad”, what matters the most in my opinion is the choice to defy your nature in favour for what is objectively right and just.