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Perspectives - Scott vs Arie: Can People Change Their Nature? My Opinion
To read the whole “Perspectives” series click the tag link below…
Leopards can change their spots…
Yes - Scott (54%)
No - Arie (46%)
If I were on the jury, I would vote with Arie. A reprobate is a reprobate is a reprobate! And Arie would probably tell you he knows about reprobates because what do you think he is? He’s a reprobate, of course!
Arie was a little 14-year-old reprobate criminal when he got his ass kicked but good. Crafty and arrogant, Arie decided he was going to extort money from a grown-up big time drug dealing reprobate, which turned out to be a major mistake.
In lieu of the payday he anticipated, he found himself beaten half to death, and that was before he was tied up and stuffed in the trunk of some killer’s car and driven around half the night!
And when Arie survived that night, yes. He did decide to take another career path. 
And yes. He did spend roughly 35 years in service, and performed countless heroic acts. But please. Arie is still is a reprobate!
Like a sober alcoholic is still and alcoholic. Or like me.
I am a committed commitment-phobic! But I am still a commitment-phobe, are you kidding? I was born a commitment-phobic and how is that going to change? It’s not.
“Oh boy! I love this commitment stuff!”
Hah! That’ll never happen. You will never hear me say that.
Like the Aquarian who wakes up one day and wants to be smothered. You do what you want. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for something like that to happen. Arie is right. A reprobate is a reprobate is a reprobate. Scott is right. People have free will.
I have decided the consequences of acting on my commitment-phobia are not worth the candle. I have decided not to act in a way that is criminal; however I still have a criminal mind! I stole a truck when I was 10, for Godsakes! I moved into a male barracks without bothering to join the army. I went undercover as gay man! Let’s face it! If I think I can get away with it, I’m going to do it.
And now I am the very grown-up advice-giving mother of two. And one of the things I am committed to is writing this blog. But that does not mean I do not wish to escape it on a weekly basis because I do. And it does not mean I do not have another escapade planned, because I do.
And if a random opportunity for some other outrageous exploit crosses my path, I will be on that thing in 2 seconds. How could I not? This is what I do. It’is who I am. And meantime?
Well, just like reprobate, Arie when he is out there saving lives for three decades. my criminal mind is all over this blog. It’s in virtually every post.
So there you go. A reprobate is a reprobate is a reprobate. And Scott, a compassionate person, is a compassionate person, is a compassionate person.
This is my story…
6 Responses to “Perspectives - Scott vs Arie: Can People Change Their Nature? My Opinion”
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How is your criminal mind in every post?
Got that LIBRA thing goin’ again I see. You’re so definitively ambivalent! Though you did start off saying you’d vote with Arie. Your position became confusingly ambivalent to me the further I read into the post. Is this a satirical essay that I am reading too literally? (Blame that damned Aquarian messin’ with my head!)
It’s apples and oranges when you compare thoughts versus deeds. Anyone can experience immoral, illegal, compassionate, selfish and/or altruistic thoughts…it’s the ACTION one takes on those thoughts that truly defines the person.
Do past behavior(s) absolutely predict future behaviors? No.
There are all sorts of temptations in life. Can a saint sin? Can a sinner repent? It’s certainly possible. The question is, how probable is it?
In the end a leopard’s spots can and are changed by the scars of its existence.
Maire - “I would vote with Arie…”
Okay, I get it now…I would have to change my vote then, but I still have a bit in Scott in me. A person won’t change his/her very nature, but I can hope how they will channel or use that energy in a different manner. You, for instance, could use your criminal mind to scam people in Vegas, but instead you use it to help people. So if someone is an addict of sorts, isn’t possible that they could redirect some of that from cocaine to maybe volunteering..they get high off helping people and have to do that to live, instead of stealing from them to feed a drug. Can I have that much hope? I know I have certainly redirected and changed a lot of bad habits in the last 15 years. If I didn’t I would have most certainly have been dead, but if I try to kill off my essence, I am not successful. I’ve had to and am still working on being the positive version of me, redirecting energy into something that gives rather than takes.
Now that this discussion has sunk in a bit I have a question. Are we talking people’s basic nature or their behavior patterns or both? For example, you do mention that anyone can be inspired to violence even if their basic nature is passive and peace loving. Is that just an exception to the pattern? a deviance from the pattern of peaceful behavior or could they make a permanent switch? given a passive peacful nature person who’s country is attacked and who watches her parents murdered, does she then become “changed” to exact revenge, to take back her home, to protect her little brother?
Or in a less extreme example, a woman who is a dry alcoholic who makes decisions on a whim, decisions that hurt others, can she change her behavior pattern? Her basic nature is kind, generous, giving, loving, caring, but every so often (must be a transit of some sort) she cuts people off on a whim but expects love to continue from them? Can she change her behavior pattern?
How about a man who is consistent, kind, exacting, caring, responsible, but in aspect to one person or I should say one type of person or type of situation, becomes angry, agressive, etc? Can he change his behavior pattern?
I’m thinking you’d say that you can see the astrology of this and like your relationship with the special forces guy verus the AMF the way the charts interact demonstrate how that plays out - is there a way out of it. Can you overcome your “one time” or your “situational behavior” and be in better alignment with your inner nature.
Or is this just why there is good and bad in every person and every situation??
Elsa, I love this, especially since I’ve recently began to better understand my commitment phobia. I love identifying what’s *in my nature* and also exercising my free will and choice. I do not have to act on what’s in my nature. It doesn’t always bring me happiness or peace. I am a committment phobe who direly wants to be intimate and in a relationship, so if I keep acting on my very good technique of running, I ain’t getting what I want.
I’ve also been in relationships with cheaters, enraged people, selfish people, and liars. I’m not so sure if these qualities are in their nature? That I don’t know. I do know that they continue to act this way as though they don’t have a choice.
We all have choices to be “good” -