We have an extraordinary keen sense of detecting faults on other people while we are equally prompt to find ourselves utterly flawless. What are the roots of such obvious contradiction? What is really wrong with others... and us?
We often wonder what is wrong with people, easily forgetting the plank in our own eyes—the only person we can change is ourselves. An insight into the most common inner struggles has been discovered and utilized for hundreds of years, proving its validation. Popularly known as the seven deadly sins, but technically proposed as eight capital vices, this list provides us with an invaluable tool to examine ourselves sincerely and familiarize ourselves with the enemy within.
A careful examination of the list will yield insightful realizations of the human condition, contrary to the simplistic platitudes that the list of seven deadly sins has become. Gluttony has been reduced to simply eating too much, envy to desiring others' possessions or fortune, sloth to laziness, and vanity is celebrated as the banal proclamation of oneself. If we aspire to become better individuals, urgent correction of these errors is necessary. If we seek a better world, the best place to start is not simply asking which of these vices we fall into most frequently, but rather, assessing how much control all eight of these vices have over us.