The difference between Lee Boyd Malvo and Nate Phelps.
Both held under the sway of a powerful villain. One chose to become a monster. One chose to become human.
The difference between Lee Boyd Malvo and Nate Phelps.
Both held under the sway of a powerful villain. One chose to become a monster. One chose to become human.
At least Malvo isn’t trying to justify what he did. He seems to accept responsibility and the consequences that come with it. Ironically, he’s probably a more decent human being now than Nate’s dad ever was or will ever be.
But that’s after the fact, Kent. What makes a man – no, a boy; it started early in both these cases – incapable of thinking for himself… of allowing himself to be dragged along on somebody else’s sense of life, on somebody else’s value system?
The same situation holds for Nate Phelps vs his siblings: why did one disbelieve in what was happening to him and leave home, while another believed and remain?
Surely a sense of self-worth had something to do with it. Does self-worth rear its head from self-preservation, or is it motivated by something in (I can think of no other way to say it), something in the genes?