Nature vs. Nurture.

Two words close in meaning but different meanings. Nature vs. Nurture. Was Moriarty the "bad seed" or made by his environment.

A friend who is a psychotherapist wrote the following:

"The question you leave your audience with was an age-old question of environment vs. genetics. It seems that it is now accepted by most psychologists and even philosophers that both genetics and environment impact the formation of personality. Given this, the question becomes moot. This means the reader is going to have to dig deeper if they want to attribute evil actions to something. What can you give them to do that? Think it might rest in an individual's spiritual evolution?"

In other words you, the reader are going to have to decide for yourself whether Moriarty would have been evil regardless, whether his experiences made him that way or a little of both.

The writer T.J. English just wrote Paddywhacked, a history of the Irish Mob in America. The last chapters describe the last major Irish American gangster, James (Whitey) Bulger. He described Bulger as the "bad seed" in an otherwise conservative, churchgoing family. So who knows where one ends and the other begins. For those who watch the Sopranos, in the story Tony Soprano is seeing a therapist because of what he is and does. In his mind, he was born into the mob life, he does not have a choice.

I am going to post some side notes about some folks I am going to be introduced to who should have become violent and have had experiences no one should have to deal with. More later.