首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
It’s always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he killed. They usually express complet
It’s always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he killed. They usually express complet
admin
2011-08-28
39
问题
It’s always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he killed. They usually express complete bafflement that a person who seemed so kind and normal could do something so horrific.
Friends of Robert Bales, who is accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians, have expressed similar thoughts. Friends and teachers describe him as caring, gregarious and self-confident before he—in the vague metaphor of common usage—apparently "snapped". As one childhood friend told The Times: "That’s not our Bobby. Something horrible, horrible had to happen to him."
Any of us would be shocked if someone we knew and admired killed children. But these days it’s especially hard to think through these situations because of the worldview that prevails in our culture.
According to this view, most people are naturally good, because nature is good. The monstrosities of the world are caused by the few people who are fundamentally warped and evil.
This worldview gives us an easy conscience, because we don’t have to contemplate the evil in ourselves. But when somebody who seems mostly good does something completely awful, we’re rendered mute or confused.
But of course it happens all the time. That’s because even people who contain reservoirs of compassion and neighborliness also possess a latent potential to commit murder.
David Buss of the University of Texas asked his students if they had ever thought seriously about killing someone, and if so, to write out their homicidal fantasies in an essay. He was astonished to find that 91 percent of the men and 84 percent of the women had detailed, vivid homicidal fantasies. He was even more astonished to learn how many steps some of his students had taken toward carrying them out.
One woman invited an abusive ex-boyfriend to dinner with thoughts of stabbing him in the chest. A young man in a fit of road rage pulled a baseball bat out of his trunk and would have pummeled his opponent if he hadn’t run away. Another young man planned the progression of his murder—crushing a former friend’s fingers, puncturing his lungs, then killing him.
These thoughts do not arise from playing violent video games, Buss argues. They occur because we are descended from creatures who killed to thrive and survive. We’re natural-born killers and the real question is not what makes people kill but what prevents them from doing so.
People who murder often live in situations that weaken sympathy and restraint. People who commit massacres, for example, often live with what the researchers call "forward panic." After having endured a long period of fear, they find their enemies in a moment of vulnerability. Their fear turns to rage, and, as Steven Pinker writes in "The Better Angels of Our Nature," they "explode in a savage frenzy."
Serial killers are often charming, but have a high opinion of themselves that is not shared by the wider world. They are often extremely conscious of class and status and they develop venomous feelings toward people who do not pay them sufficient respect. In centuries past most people would have been less shocked by the homicidal eruptions of formerly good men. That’s because people in those centuries grew up with a worldview that put sinfulness at the center of the human personality.
John Calvin believed that babies come out depraved. G. K. Chesterton wrote that the doctrine of original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can be proved.
This worldview held that people are a problem to themselves. The inner world is a battlefield between light and dark, and life is a struggle against the destructive forces inside. The worst thing you can do is, in a fit of pride, to imagine your insecurity comes from outside and to try to resolve it yourself. If you try to "fix" the other people who you think are responsible for your inner turmoil, you’ll end up trying to kill them, or maybe whole races of them.
This earlier worldview was both darker and brighter than the one prevailing today. It held, as C. S. Lewis put it, that there is no such thing as an ordinary person. Each person you sit next to on the bus is capable of extraordinary horrors and extraordinary heroism.
According to this older worldview, Robert Bales, like all of us, is a mixture of virtue and depravity. His job is to struggle daily to strengthen the good and resist the evil, policing small transgressions to prevent larger ones. If he didn’t do that, and if he was swept up in a whirlwind, then even a formerly good man is capable of monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain.
From The New York Times, March 19,2012
What are today’s world view and yesterday’s respectively?
选项
A、It’s human nature to be good; human beings are a complex.
B、Only few people in this world are cruel; human beings are sinful.
C、We have conscience in ourselves; human beings descended from savages.
D、We simply believe the faultless human nature; human beings are corrupted.
答案
A
解析
本题为推断题。从第三段because of the worldview that prevails in our culture 和第四段第一句According to this view,most people are naturally good,because nature is good可以看出,现代的人认为人性本质是好的,所以会对这种好人突然变成杀人犯的情况感到震惊。在最后一段的第一句According to this older worldview,Robert Bales,like all of us,is a mixture of virtue and depravity.看到过去的世界观认为人类是美德和堕落的综合体。综上所述,正确答案应为A。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/WeYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
TheOpenUniversitywasestablishedin1969toprovidedegreecoursesincorrespondenceforstudentsof21yearsandover,
TheOpenUniversitywasestablishedin1969toprovidedegreecoursesincorrespondenceforstudentsof21yearsandover,
A、displacementofpeopleB、transitstoppageC、seriousinjuriesD、airportdelaysC
EconomicconditionshaveimprovedduringthepastdecadeinmanyNorthAmericanandEuropeanCBDs,primarilybecauseofanunp
TheWrightbrothers,WilburandOrville,beganpublishingtheWestSideNewsfrom1889,asmallfour-pagenewspaper.Theirprint
TheWrightbrothers,WilburandOrville,beganpublishingtheWestSideNewsfrom1889,asmallfour-pagenewspaper.Theirprint
InthedaysbeforeDianabecameaccustomedtodailyhairdressers,highfashionandexpertlyappliedmakeup,shelookedherbest
InthedaysbeforeDianabecameaccustomedtodailyhairdressers,highfashionandexpertlyappliedmakeup,shelookedherbest
FashionWiththeprogressionofthehumansociety,peopleareincreasinglydemandingtheirclothestobebeautifulaswellas
随机试题
大雁在飞翔时的队形,有时是“一”字形,有时是“人”字形。影响它们飞翔时队形变化的主要因素是()。
国内某企业生产某种产品的固定总成本是50万元,单位变动成本为12元,市场售价为28元,若要达到12万元销售毛利目标,该产品销售量应为()
请将这份毛病甚多的草稿改写为符合行文规范的公文。不久前收到了你们公司送来的发文字号为“高茶司[2018]5号”的来信,标题是“B茶叶公司关于租借农用水泵的商洽函”。其中内容都知道了,你们是想租借5台农用水泵,现在经过我们C农资公司的领导研究,庄重
A.直腿抬高试验阳性B.拾物试验阳性C.两者皆有D.两者皆无脊柱结核可出现
大肠癌最好发的部位是
【背景资料】某公司承建城市主干道改造工程,其结构为二灰土底基层、水泥稳定碎石基层和沥青混凝土面层,工期要求当年5月份完成拆迁,11月底完成施工。由于城市道路施工干扰因素多,有较大的技术难度,项目部提前进行了施工技术准备工作。水泥稳定碎石基层施工
某大型购物中心地上6层,地下1层,建筑高度为24m,其总平面布局及周边民用建筑等的相关信息如下图所示。该购物中心地下一层的主要使用功能为设备用房、物业管理用房和商店营业厅。其中,设备用房、物业管理用房区域建筑面积为2000m2,按建筑面积不大于1
2015年9月,ABC会计师事务所首次接受委托审计甲公司2015年度财务报表,委派A注册会计师担任项目合伙人。甲公司为果汁生产企业,2015年期初、期末存货余额占资产总额比重较大。存货主要包括苹果和桶装果汁,其中苹果贮存在各采购地10个简易棚内,桶装果汁贮
中国人民解放军建立文职人员制度的标志是()。
根据以下资料,回答下列问题。2010年全国房地产开发资金来源中,个人按揭贷款约占()。
最新回复
(
0
)