At the time of trouble in Ireland, a priest said, ‘Man is half beast’, A diplomat replied, ‘Yes. And the beast is the half I like the best’. The priest meant that beasts behave as badly as man when man makes up his mind to behave badly. If you look at the folly and cruelty of today’s world, it is hard to disagree with the diplomat or the priest. But human nature can be changed. Anybody, if that is what they most want to do, can change the most difficult person they know. The art of changing people has been lost in the modern world. That is why the modern world has lost its way.
There are two ways of looking at human nature. One is to make the best of it and it is assume that it is the raw material of life which cannot be altered. That is what most people in the free world to today. In these circumstances, if you expect the worst, you are seldom disappointed. Faith today has become irrelevant to the everyday needs, of so many people in positions of responsibility because they do not expect faith to change men.
Another way of dealing with human nature is to exploit it. All materialistic s, whether of the right or the left, do this. All over the world vanity, fear, ambition, lust and greed are used to control the life of men; and if the control breaks down, man does not hesitate to use force, or to destroy life. The end, he says, justifies the means and men are only of value in so far as they are a means towards the achievement of his ambition. If they cannot be bribed or forced to play their part, then they must be liquidated.