No victory in war, however, is complete. There is still the natural man within us all to contend with on a daily basis. This natural man is what can bring out the brutal nature, and this too plays out in varying degrees in everyone's lives. As I was reading my scriptures the other night I came across this scripture in Helaman 12:4, which reads, "O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men." This really struck me, because this completely contradicted my claim that people would be more inclined to be good than bad. If people are so slow to do good, and so evil and vain, then what causes people to do good in their lives? What is the determining factor in whether altruism or brutalism, good or bad, becomes dominant in someone's life?
Is it simply the pressures of society that determine our actions? Religion? Family? Is it even possible for someone to be totally altruistic or totally brutal? The more I thought about it the more I realized that the two ideas are nearly impossible to separate. Take Les Miserables for example. Stealing bread = bad. Feed Starving Family = good. Defending Country = good. Killing people = bad. Lying to daughter = bad. Protecting daughter from dangerous past = good. It is almost impossible to do anything that is completely altruistic, and more often than not people that do even the most brutal acts see the effects of those acts as good.
I do not know which is more natural to people; altruism or brutalism. I know that both have an effect. I know that both live in me. But I also know that I have agency. I have the power to choose which side I try to emphasize, although I may not be able to control all of the outcomes of my decisions. Perhaps this is what life is all about - living as altruistically as we can, recognizing when our actions bring negative consequences to others, and maybe someday through a process of elimination we will one day find ways in which we can be altruistic.