Civiks.

Mankind is a unruly beast. Our actions allude to a great instability in our true nature. Are we good, or are we evil? Looking at a very recent event, the bombing of the Boston Marathon, it would be hard to say that we are good, but within the same devastating moments emerged heroes, men and women who sacrificed their own security to save people they didn't even know. The division between people's own perception of man's nature of good or evil is identifiable within our own media. What has been looked at? The devastation, the recklessness, the horror. Sure there are a few moments given to the heroes, but that doesn't sell as well as pain. Man isn't interested in his own saviors, but rather what could cause his demise. Consistently we are  drawn to discuss reasons for the bad as if there is a solution. It is a problem which is so unfathomable and unpreventable that it is rarely even considered. Man commits evil because there exists evil in all men . As is said about the Lutheran Church's belief in man's nature "You're born a sinner. You live a sinner. You die a sinner." The only solution to this fundamental nature of man, is to outline rules. The ten commandments bring forth proclamations telling God's people what they should and should not do. As the creators of the bible saw, and we see today, man needs to be told what to do. In the pre-school classroom, in high school, in adulthood, there exists overarching ideas of what one is supposed to do.  While our existence is completely individual, it has been thousands of years since man has lived completely on his own. Community is the way of life for us, and because of this we must lay down the law. Disobeying the ten commandments lead to death in biblical times, and I am glad to say that we have moved beyond killing for adultery. We have now, in  more intellectually understanding times, laid rules for which we should abide by just because it is for the betterment of all of us. Does this mean that there now exists a sense of community in every individual? No, but we have acknowledged, at least in this nation and other modern nations, the independence of our beings.  As with the bible we can punish, not by death of course, hurting one another, but no longer can we impose upon someone that they must be proactive in the betterment of their community. Civics is an illumination. An illumination of the way in which we should live with one another. Created over long periods of time, cultural and sociological changes, each community has created undocumented rules that provide a guideline to which every citizen can follow and better his community. Voting, for example, is a considered a civic duty. Citizens of the U.S.A do not need to vote, and there is no punishment if one does not, but voting is participation within our community. It empowers the citizen, giving them a say in the governing of themselves and their fellow man, and because of this participation it is beneficial. Civic duties exist within every community one exists, down to a Chicago block; keeping one's lawn clean and nice is beneficial to all that live on the block. Civics are a guideline for man, a lost and unruly beast. As humanitarians believe there exists good in all of us, it is just that we must tell ourselves how to be good to one another.