Moral Limitations

Jeff the Baptist is on a roll today. Check it out:

So much of what is going on in New Orleans is human nature at its worst. Screw you, I'm in it for me and mine. The strong feeding on the weak. This is unbridled and unchecked human nature and it should scare us because it is within all of us. Geek with a .45 noted that being a decent human being isn't intellectually demanding. It does require a certain amount of restraint and moral fortitude. Some people just don't have that and honestly our society doesn't place a priority on instilling it anymore.

Call me a pessimist, but I suspect that about 10% of the population is held in check only by law enforcement -- or repercussions of some kind. I've met a lot of functional if not successful sociopaths that would steal, rape, and kill if given the opportunity. Martha Stout wrote a popular if alarmist book called The Sociopath Next Door, which expressed that moral vacuity is far more common than people think. I don't know if her conclusions have much scientific weight, but they make sense, if you spend enough time with enough people.

New Orleans has taught us a lot about human nature.

Notice the phrasing. New Orleans. No longer just a place -- a city. Now people will say 'New Orleans', and they will refer to an event. Let's keep it that way, lest we forget the monsters that we are under the skin.

UPDATE: Joel Thomas ties it all together theologically in the comments:

Excessive focus on human ability and goodness is naive. Excessive focus on the evil of humanity is grace-denying. There must be some balance.

Jeus [sic] said no one is "good" except the Father. He wasn't kidding. For us to think there is more than a hair and God's grace that separates us from depravity is merely wishful thinking.