There is a little bit of evil in us.

There is this friend, an animal lover who has again and again shown herself to be someone who loves animals to the extent of going out of her way to care for them, treat them or give assistance where and when necessary.

We were having lunch eating a kind of steamed flat noodles with fish, eggs and mushroom in a light sauce when she asked me whether it was true that a child is born good and it is only later that we learn to be bad.

My reply was: That is what has always been said. What do you think?

She told me about a guy who caught a rat in a trap one day. The guy told his friends how he got hold of some cooking oil, poured it over the rat and set fire to it before letting the rat run out of the trap. She told me that was really cruel for that rat was burnt to death, suffering from extreme pain before death came to its rescue.

But then, she added it is not that she herself was all that good either. Once, just the guy in the first story, she caught a rat in a trap and thought of her cats. She attracted the cats to the trap and had them waiting to pounce on the rat as soon as she opened the trap-door. Of course, her cats got the rat for their food. She told me that although in nature the rat is possible food for the cat, it could have escaped death if those cats were not placed ready to catch it. She said she enjoyed the sight of the rat being caught by the cat. She admitted that she had that little bit of sadistic streak in her.

When she had finished her story, I realised I too had at one time or another been guilty of demostrating such sadism. Sadism in humans is in fact very common. How many of us get pleasure from saying words that make others feel uncomfortable or hurt others. How many of us have instigated another to some undesirable or healthy activity. How many of us have challenged others knowing full well that that person would certainly end up the loser or the sufferer. Even as youngsters, how often has the stronger squeezed the hands of the weaker that little bit harder to have the other person grimace with pain or discomfort? A very common occurrence during those egoistic youthful period of our lives. Yes, it has a lot to do with ego, the show of superiority over somebody or something. Bullying, for example, is one clear cut indication of sadism among children.

Could it be that adults inadvertently cultivated such sadism? At this point I remembered a scene where a child hit an adult on his hand. Although not painful, just to entertain the little child, the adult pretends to cry. That first surprised the child. Getting over the surprise, the child laughed at the adult. The child did the sme act again, hitting the adult with the adult reacting in a similar manner which gives the child pleasure. Apparently without any harm to anybody, is such a play an unintentional lesson for the development of sadism? What do you think?

If it is the fault of the ego inherent in each and every one of us, then she is right in claiming that a child is not born totally good for every child is born with an ego. No? If sadism had been taught or acquired through actions or some other means that take place while the child is developing, then the saying that a child is born innocent or good is true.

Well, whatever it is, as long as our ego is our master, we will find it difficult to rid our world of a lot of problems caused by humans. And most, if not all, of our problems come from the deeds of Man.