I have encountered opinions such as that free will is a canard and that all we are is our nature. The biggest problem with that kind of thinking is that it stands to lead to a holocaust. People will decide that some people’s nature is bad and that they can only be bad whatever they do. This logically would lead to these people being targeted for extermination. As we are seeing right now with sociopaths and narcissists.
Another problem with that opinion is that it is blatantly false. I am someone who went from being someone whom most people saw as a bad person to someone who most people see as a good one. I did it the way anyone does anything: by putting my mind to it. I know for a fact that it is possible to rise above nature and practice wilful conduct. I also know for a fact that people can both get better and get worse as function of their decisions and their beliefs.
When I was visiting my now-ex wife while she was living with her previous boyfriend, he said things to aggravate her and told her, “Here is the real Mel.” He decided that he knew the real Mel and that she was bad and could only be bad. I did not share that opinion.
Who is the real Mel? Real Mel is whoever Mel wants to be. Real Mel is whatever qualities real Mel wants to have that she is willing to work in developing. This reflects the most profound reality of human existence – that of choice and will.
A choice and will that trumps nature and makes goodness accessible to everyone, including even the sociopaths and the narcissists.
The thought on this matter needs to be reworked. People’s nature is influential in their lives; but more influential is choice and will. These being owned up to, it becomes possible for man to regain his humanity. And then anyone can be a good person, whatever his nature or psychology happens to be.