The Purge is Real - Cas Young

In the eighth grade, my english teacher, Ms. Bonzo, talked to us a little bit about psychology. She introduced to us Freud's three components of the subconscious, the id, the ego, and the superego, and various theories of the nature of man as an introduction to the book we were assigned to read, Lord of the Flies, which is now one of my favourite books. It was written by William Golding, who believed that men were evil, "savage," by nature, and I have to say I agree with him.

Lord of the Flies is a story of a group of schoolchildren who are stranded on an island, and, spoiler alert, they end up slaughtering pigs and killing one of their own. It's one giant extended metaphor, ending with a uniformed man rescuing them and the children all reverting back to their schoolchildren manner. As dark as it may seem, this theory of the nature of man is really valid to me. I think that if we took any group of people and put them on a stranded island with no cameras, no supplies, and no consequences, they would have a similar fate as our beloved schoolboys.

Every concept of what is good is defined and taught to us through the law and through religion, they are morals that have been passed down from the beginning of time. They've just become so engrained in our minds and in the minds of generations before us, it seems so innate, like it's a natural instinct. If we were to remove morals imposed by any god, then a lot of our law codes and concepts of "natural human rights," "inalienable rights," might not even exist. If we removed law codes (for more than just 24 hours), could you even imagine how many massacres, robberies, homicides, and arsons would happen? Don't lie to me and tell me you wouldn't walk up to the nearest retailer and snatch those sneakers you've been wanting for a while. I mean, this also give shop owners the right to shoot you on sight. The world would become a war zone.

Does this mean I don't believe there's good in this world? Absolutely not. It warms my heart to see news stories of firefighters who saved two people, a cat, and a squirrel (true story), and I think I, myself, am a genuinely good person. But I also think that I've been taught to be a good person all my life, and I've chosen to abide by that personal moral code. I think being good, just, moral, and all that fluffy stuff takes so much effort because being nefarious and dastardly is our nature. For lack of a better phrase, we were born to be bad.