It seems to me that the majority of the population will betray the integrity of a fellow human being to get ahead.

Those who may not aggressively push another out of the way, or cheat someone, or behave dishonestly will do so passively.  Perhaps they’ll let another take the blame for their own mistake, or let their own poor workmanship slide.

Perhaps they’ll never, although they intend to, show up to finish the job they’ve been paid for.

I’ve heard of men who jump on hand grenades in battle to save their fellow soldiers.  Is that person inside each of us?

More and more I think that there is no hero inside each of us.

More and more I think there are trenches in which no one jumps on the grenade, but each soldier cowers, hoping that some miracle will save him alone.

More and more I don’t believe in the hero inside each of us.

It seems we’ve evolved into some state in which we enjoy the company of other human beings, but at the end of the day our survivalist instinct trumps all else.

Sure, most people try to behave decently.  We hope that the amount of passive good we do will outweigh our passive dishonesty.

But it doesn’t.  It seems that evil happens naturally, but good takes a little effort.  Good takes a little fortitude.

Even if there is no inherited condition of sin, I think we’ve got it pretty well covered.

More and more I doubt that the hero exists inside any of us, let alone each of us.

Perhaps there is no selfless man waiting to be awakened.  Perhaps it’s all just evil and then we die.

We die and then we hope it’s not too late to tip the scales.  We die and then we hope there’s a savior.