What causes a bad person to become a good one?

What causes a bad person to become a good one?

credit : Roderick House, retired; Lila Mili

When one does some (or many or primarily) bad things they are not necessarily bad. It has been said often, it is the act that is bad not the person. After having done some bad things, one may notice feelings of guilt and/or shame. The guilt is from the breaking of society's rules, and there are often consequences involved. The shame is another matter entirely. I used to believe that shame was toxic and served no useful purpose. I tried to teach that to a group of domestic violence perpetrators. L. would have none of my "teaching" that shame was a negative thing. He insisted that he needed his shame and that it was valuable to him. We agreed to disagree. A few years later, as his points percolated through my being, I got it. I was guilty of lumping cast shame together with shame. The difference is profound. Cast shame is what our parents and teachers put upon us with the "You should be ashamed!" talk. It is toxic and wrong and one would be well served to try to put it aside. But what my "student" L. taught me was that shame is the emotion I feel when I break MY values. So back to the question: If when we do bad things we feel true shame, that is our signal to realize that what we thought we were ok doing really was not ok with some internal part of us. We had somehow been inculcated with a code of ethics involving that action that caused us shame. When that is the case be very grateful that you felt that shame; embrace it, and let it teach you that you do have a code of conduct. Then search out more conducts that might elicit the feeling. With perseverance and luck, you will be building your very own rules of YOUR life.

Some can change to become good if get a chance

• Some cannot get a chance so will not become good although have the clear concept of good and evil.
• Some have all the chance but don’t have the concept of good as good and evil and evil.
• Group 1 is about people who have to make a living in particular ways. Some of these people know they are doing what is bad but don’t have a chance to change everything. They are generally poor people.
• Group 2 is about leaders, such as political leaders, religious leaders…
• As political leaders, the duty can be sometimes good and sometimes bad.

As religious leaders, with wrong ideologies and beliefs, although come to realize they are in the wrong religions, they don’t have a chance or dare to take a chance to change themselves and others. They would be preaching everything wrong.