Think about it — you are the only creature who can. What distinguishes a creature from a plant is its ability to do. It can move about to find food and water. It can fight off attacks, and it can go to a place of shelter. Man is a creature but with difference; other creatures only do what they are programmed to do in order to survive. If they “do” anything other than that it is by accident, (a distracted lion knocking over a termite mound). Only man can think about what he will do, which opens up choices. Amongst these, there are two: do something constructive, or do something destructive. (That is): do something that aids in mankind’s wellbeing, or do something that is detrimental to his wellbeing.
Man alone can think of things to do which are not a part of his instinct to survive, and can imagine and foresee whether the consequences of his doing will be constructive or destructive. Think on it: are you an Aristotle or a Nero; a Michelangelo or an Attila; a Galileo or Torquemada?
Do you accept and entertain thoughts that paint in your mind scenes of you creating, or pictures of you destroying? Is your interest in being creative, or do you want to tear down what others have created? Do you willfully nourish in your mind thoughts of writing Bach’s Mass, or do you wallow in spiteful nightmares of being his most biting critic — impotent and talentless, but at least, perhaps, noticeably annoying.
Being a human creature is a social affair with its own structure, and within it, everyone wants to be noticed. Even those at the lower levels, and with the least creative talents. If you cannot create to be noticed – you can destroy to gain attention. Society claims to be at a loss to explain most criminal behavior, in that the risks and penalties far outweigh what is usually gained. But truth is, much such activity is a perpetrator’s insistence on being noticed.
When captured, a robber can offer no coherent explanation why, even after he had the money, he shot the store clerk who was face down in the floor. It was to be noticed. Killing another human is the ultimate destructive “doing”– everyone takes notice of such an act. It offers no benefit to mankind’s wellbeing. It is purely destructive – but it always gets noticed.
J.