Billion Deranged Devils Part 2: On Having a Corrupted Mind

         The very idea of having a corrupted mind is present even before the first recorded act of political corruption is conceived. Nobody can escape the grasp and the possibility of having a corrupted mind, even children. In fact, children are the ones much prone to be influenced in having a corrupted mind. These days, with just a single click, nobody is certain what they’ll encounter on the internet, whether it is malicious contents or pornographic materials that can harm both your computers and your children. Even ‘toy channels’ that is supposed to be made for children on YouTube are bombarded with adult content.

         Then again we can’t just put all the blame on the internet. We should also point our fingers in the environment these children lived in. Their friends, parents, perhaps even strangers around them. I’m not promoting paranoia, however, I strongly advise to take a closer look on your children, bond with them, and teach them about the beauty of life and the utmost graciousness of being alive and doing good to other people instead of punishing them for merely knowing the very concept of evil.

         No matter how strict a parent's or teacher's regulations are and how virtuous their friends may be, someday, they will find out what these things are. And this should not cause us to panic, no matter what happens they need to leave the comfort of virtue and righteousness in order to mature and be better human beings. They need to experience life and learn how to decipher between right and wrong. Someone is not a psychopath for having an interest in knowing the world beyond his. A child will not become the next Nero solely because they turned a curious gaze upon the unknown. With proper regulations, they will understand that there are bad things they shouldn't do.

         The role of a parent and a teacher is to guide our young to become better than us, to know better than us, to not fall on the footsteps of those who burn their cities. We should be able to educate people instead of punishing and further isolating them for doing what we perceive as wrong. Our role as the adults are not to push them further into becoming tyrannical rulers, instead, we should encourage them to take full responsibility for their existence and to let them grow along with our guidance. Having a corrupted thinking is different from having an open mind. It just so happens that these days, people don't seem to understand the difference between the two. And as adults whom these children look up to, misunderstanding open-mindedness with licentiousness is a sign of our own incompetence.

         Perhaps the reason why rulers like Nero arises every now and then in different sections of our history is because of citizens like me who would further categorize him as a man with a corrupted mind instead of carefully analyzing him and concluding that he is a person with a deep and complex mind that someone like me could not possibly make a conclusion of his character solely for the words written about him. It is our role as adults to guide people like Nero who strayed the wrong path and tell him that it is indeed not too late for him to give up on life and start a better tomorrow. What would you have done if you were Nero's teacher and you can peek through the lens of history and witness his future?

         Imagine, there are billions of people thriving on our planet and I would not be surprised if almost all of us are already corrupted. I guess that was the point all along. We are all corrupted yet, amazingly, we manage to create a society that would stop us from acting according to our most corrupted desires. Yet, we still are like rusted iron waiting to be polished or broken. We are all currently living with billion deranged devils. This may be happening now, but that doesn’t mean it never happened before. In fact, it was even prominent in the days where kings and queens are still the ruling figures. But it's not foolish for us to hope for a better tomorrow, and its most certainly not foolish of us to work together in order to create one.

         I was about to doze off trying to ask my daughter when I heard knocking in the door. It’s our neighbors with their children, and oh! The poor kid’s hands are covered with bandages. I then get an idea where my daughter took those fingers she’s holding for dear life. They told me to pay their hospital bills for my daughter’s action. I tried to defend her but she happily shows her ‘collection’ of fingers to our now dismayed neighbors.

         Why did you do it, Princess? I cried. Why did you cut their fingers?

         Because it’s fun, mama! She said with a smile from ear to ear. She snickered with her eyes filled with glee. I must say she turned into a fine lady like her mother.