Character And Conviction

Different people have different natures and temperaments; and that requires different approaches. A person with a good nature will not need to do that much work on themselves, whereas a person such as myself who does not have such a good nature will need to be tough with himself and demand of himself a lot of self-control. C.S. Lewis said something to the effect of that the better people are more likely to be inclined to work on themselves and the worse people are less inclined to work on themselves. One major problem is that many people do not know what it means to be a good person, and they are not likely to take the advice from people they see as hypocrites.

This brings me to a much more important subject. There are many people who do things that are wrong while thinking that they are right. These people would be likely to do things that are right when they figure out what the correct definition of right is. A person who has been a devout Communist would become a devout Christian if he realizes that Christianity is right.

Probably the best example toward that effect is Germany. There were many people who were Nazis who thought that they were doing the right thing. Then they figured out that Nazism was wrong, so they got to work building a great country. Many of these people have been equated with the crimes that they committed when they were Nazis and seen as evil for life. In fact many of them ended up working hard and peacefully to build a country that has done a lot for the world and that now is livable, peaceful and powerful in a right way rather than a wrong way.

With Communists, we see the same thing. There were any number of people who were attracted to Communism for right reasons. They did not like to see workers mistreated. They did not like to see women being treated like dirt. They did not like to see the planet ravaged and other races being colonized. Communism was a wrong solution. However many of these people are not bad people, and if they find out a correct solution then they will be just as dedicated to putting it into place as they did in putting into place Communism.

One thing that is said about people with Communist associations is that they are “pinkos.” Apparently the implication is that they are weak. The Russian people for one are not weak at all. Neither are many people in unionized labor or many people in inner city America. Some of these people come from wrongful reasons such as envy; others come from rightful reasons such as compassion. It is rightful to stand against envy; it is not rightful to stand against compassion. And people who do come from the place of compassion often make highly effective individuals. One such person is my boss, who is a successful businessman who in his retirement has created a political information website. He is not weak, and he is not envious. He has good values.

In my case, I spent the first 12 years of my life in the former Soviet Union. My grandmother was a Communist, and I bought into Communism. But then again I was a kid. When I came to America the Communist beliefs were deconstructed; at which point I went on a lifelong search for a workable concept of right and wrong. I did any number of things that were wrong that I thought at the time were right. Most concepts of right and wrong that were thrown at me - self-esteem psychology, personality psychology, Freud, Adler, political correctness – I ended up deconstructing. But one does not deconstruct God; and when I was faced with God I ended up finding a much more workable concept of right and wrong than either Communism or these others.

Someone on the Internet once said that the people from Eastern Europe have intelligent views on why it is necessary to be tough in international affairs. Many of these people make excellent Christians. They have a strength of conviction as well as lots of knowledge; and they can tell people quite well what they are dealing with. Once again, a person who is strong in conviction for things that are wrong is likely to become strong in conviction for things that are right when he figures out what is right. Both former Communists and former Nazis can in many cases become very strong forces for right when they figure out what right actually is.

The innate propensities do not change. Convictions do. Character does change if one works on it. Paul went from being a prosecutor of Christians to becoming one of the most effective moral teachers of all time. Christ took someone with valuable qualities and turned him from a force for evil to a force for good.

Anyone can become a force for good, even a “sociopath” or a “narcissist.” Anything capable of choice is capable of rightful choice. The correct solution is not psychological evisceration but giving the person a functional moral structure. At which point even the person with the worst natural inclinations can become a force for good.