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“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” —Anne Frank, born 12 June 1929.
If this sentiment — and many others like it in her writings — is tragically naïve, we must first remember hers was an extraordinarily gentle and innocent spirit. Though demonstrably wise beyond her years, she was still but a child. Such words should be read not as a mirror of reality, but as an aspiration.
The stark reality? Bloody hell no, people are most certainly not inherently good. ‘Goodness’ is not innate in humans, it must be taught — arguably the central aim of child-rearing — and one person’s ‘good’ often clashes with another’s. It is why laws are necessary, and prisons equally so. At heart, humans are wicked, but reason compels us to suppress those baser instincts for society to function. When these restraints fail, the social contract is broken and all manners of tyranny and depravity are allowed to play out. This is what happened in Nazi Germany, and is playing out today in the former United States.
One thing, however, is beyond dispute: the Nazis were pure evil, and their modern ideological heirs are no less so. Somewhere in this world right now is an Anne Frank, and the cycle of senseless death and suffering continues without mercy. —Arthur Newhook, 12 June 2025.
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