What are the consequences of believing people are generally evil?
You’ll find yourself noticing things you don’t like more than you like, and not just about people, but about everything in the universe. That may not seem like a lot at first, but when you remember the things you don’t like and continually add to them, over time that accumulates into a totally pessimistic worldview that is an obstacle to progress and generally unenjoyable. Also, your own self perceived limitations as an obstacle which you likely won’t be willing to recognize as your own cause and will be blaming on external sources, will result in self-loathing and depression. It’s needless suffering.
One of the more problematic consequences of such an idea is how it affects others, because with such unhealthy pessimism, you will likely be willing to tolerate all sorts of bad behavior, crime, lawlessness, and general evil as if it were naturally expected of people, when it isn’t. People are naturally good and will instinctually cooperate and help each other with self-sacrifice of varying degrees, otherwise we never would have ascended from the darkness of beasthood and evolved into human beings capable of what we are.
A basic example being a skilled tribe of hunters sharing some of the scant meat from a kill with a less than skilled group of hunters who find ways to repay the kindness, perhaps by foraging new materials that they are unfamiliar with or crafting new items and inventions that are helpful and ingenius on a hunt. That way the survival of the fittest isn’t about putting each other down, but about helping each other more and more. Whatever the fuck is going on now with the heads of the nations where they think superiority is about dominating each other with brute force is an abomination that needs to be laid to rest to never wake again, because it is wholly evil and will destroy all life sooner than you may expect.
When you tolerate evil from others, and don’t at least take an internal position in opposition of it by belief and opinion, you encourage more of it to happen, because it needs to face opposition otherwise it will only get worse and worse and worse until total destruction of all life happens. Knowing that is what evil leads to is more than enough to not let humanity get any closer to that point and only move in the other direction, where life flourishes and prospers in a good way.
When you take an internal stance opposed to wrongful action and evil, you will then find yourself compelled to say something or do something when you can via a natural instinct better known as a conscience. You should follow that instinct, even if there is no immediate reward or reason visible or actually your own self-suffering is at stake. A similar concept is said as “pay it forward”. Therefore, even people who spend minimal time learning, thinking critically, and studying knowledge will naturally gravitate towards good where they should be led by people they trust who know the way to get there.
The USA is in a perilous state with how the general public was misled and betrayed in recent years by its leaders, and if nothing is done to restore that trust, all national power of the USA will fail. That’s because all governments everywhere rely entirely on the trust of their people, which is why they are allowed to do what ordinary citizens cannot do to each other.
If a person does want to advance their ability to discern good from evil intellectually, they need to become more acutely aware of their personal conscience which they alone are privy to. Most importantly, they must understand the *reason* why such a thing is good or evil. The more one fortifies a good conscience with good reason, the more good fruit one will harvest in wisdom. Such wisdom is the honey yum yum of the highest divine, so to speak. The best good there is. Long ago this was taught via a monotheistic creation myth to be a feminine persona known as Sophia in relation to a male creator of all existence. That concept may be a bit archaic now, but that may help one understand the scale of good I am referring to.
On a darker note, some people fortify the evil disinclination of their conscience by attempting to justify it with false or bad reason and they cultivate nothing but destruction for themselves. Should the time come for them to reap what they’ve been spending their life doing, they will likely be very miserable and possibly even have to face justice to determine what they did wrong, what needs to be done to make it right, whether or not they will do something else evil, as well as discourage any other people from committing similar crimes in the future. That may be a cold, hard cell for some criminals who didn’t think it could happen to them or that they would never be caught.
In short, it’s better to believe people are generally good, and apply that belief to yourself first and foremost. Life will be much easier and happier that way. That’s because at the very least you won’t feel the need to justify every little thing you do and then string together a convoluted and ridiculous explanation in a foolish attempt to make it all seem coherent. You don’t need a reason to do good and your conscious will rest at ease for it, but should you ever be demanded by force of authority to explain yourself for doing good in the event of the most evil situation possible, there is a reason waiting for you even if you don’t already know it.
Evil deeds weigh heavily on the conscience however, and applying reasons to them, even bad ones, help lessen the burden. That is why an evil way of life is much more burdensome and undesirable. It requires extensive amounts of energy to maintain the evil for a miserable harvest of suffering, rather than provide that energy as much needed sustenance to all the goods which provide a necessary and enjoyable harvest.