It reminds me of a story I heard about Abe Lincoln once who was arguing that basic point with a preacher while riding on a train. The train stops to take on water and Lincoln noticed some piglets struggling to get out of a mud hole made deeper by the dripping water from the rail siding tank. Without hesitation, Lincoln gets out, extracts the piglets from the mud and saves them from a probable death by drowning or suffocation.
His traveling companion exclaims "You just proved my point. You had nothing to gain, yet your innate goodness caused you to save those piglets!"
"On the contrary," responded Lincoln, "it was not my innate goodness at all. Just my experience as a farmer knowing what would happen to those piglets had I failed to act."
Never heard the story before and it really appears to be without logic on the part of Lincoln.
Nice story!
That is not the quote...It reads more like...if he didn’t do anything, it would bother him....it’s called conscience
The most destructive, pernicious lie since the garden has been “people are basically good”.
Your assertion that they are corrupted by their environment leads to the liberal conclusion that if we just made the proper environment through empowering elites, everyone would act in a “good” way.