People ask why do people cheat?

[Anonymous]

What separates us from animals is the fact that we have minds, which means we can track our thoughts and control our reactions. Having minds means that we have self control and will to do things despite our selfish desires.

Now this mind we humans have isn't with the same capability for all of us, some grow to be mentally tougher than others, which means they have more will and ability of self control than others, which means they are more capable of resisting temptations, not committing crimes, not cheating on their partners and so on.

Although humans are complex and their mental competencies are varied across a variety of spectrums, generally committing any crime or any sort of betrayal to the human morality is done when the temptation beats the will to resist. So it's a battle between temptation and will and that's why I believe any person can commit any crime in a hypothetical situation if the temptation was strong and persistent enough to break their will, no matter how strong they are. The word persistent is key here, cuz it takes a consistent pace of solid temptation for a mentally competent person's will to be broken eventually.

The problem is after the betrayal or crime is committed we barely no the struggle a person went through to avoid this crime but couldn't. We just judge them for being criminals thinking that if we were in their position we wouldn't have done what they did, but really how could we know that? We just can't know. And that doesn't mean we should forgive any criminal, absolutely not, punishment has to take place so that the lack of will that would lead to chaos don't corrupt us.

This is why I believe temptation is wrong on it's own, and there's a fine line between living freely and being a source of temptation to any person. People should be considerate of others, as consideration is also a form of self control and is powered by will power.

We live in a society and we can't just behave however we like, cuz even if we don't tempt a strong willed person with our actions we still would have slowed them down a bit.

This was my explanation to my previous take about rape and how sexual provocation can be a part of it. And I'm not saying that people who get raped are the ones who present the temptation to rapists, people always get that wrong. I'm saying sexual temptation generally could frustrate a mentally weak person enough to let them rape someone else out there who really is purely innocent.

Now I'm not talking about serial criminals who are psychopaths, they don't feel empathy, it's a different story for them. I'm talking about people who feel real guilt after committing a crime, people who wish they had more control over themselves or that the temptation wasn't strong enough to break them.

I hope this take finds you all well.

[J2ohhhhh]

There is some statistics that faithful women usually cut off male friends once they're married. It's like if I don't buy weed, I'm less likely to smoke. Resisting temptation is the hard work, managing it is smart work. But they are all based in self-interest. Not resisting temptation is driven by short term self-interest, resisting it is long term self-interest while avoiding it can be either ones or an opportunity to function differently. I think most people function as animals but with more sophisticated tools.

[myTake Owner]

You're right. It's the same thing tho, without mental competency we wouldn't be able to avoid temptations because we wouldn't even know how they can be temptations on the long run.