Grappling with Total Inability

Since my previous class concluded about two weeks ago, I have been given a total of a little of a month to speak and camp and dive into various theological discussions. I have always been intrigued with the topic of God's sovereignty and human responsibility; it is a most central doctrine. Thus, I have been reading Loraine Boettner's book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. His comments on Total Inability, often referred to as Total Depravity, assisted me in better understanding its full meaning. He begins by saying negatively:

This doctrine of Total Inability, which declares that men are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as baad as he could be, nor that any one is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit is inactive, and much less does it mean that the body is dead.

When one considers the doctrine of Total Inability, one must remember that God has given common grace to all. Why my heart, prior to being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, did not manifest itself in such sinful acts as Adolf Hitler is no testimony to my own goodness. We were both born equally depraved; however, God, in his infinite wisdom deemed it most wise that I would be born in a Christian family that emphasized the importance of godly character and good morals. These structures restrained me from acting out in as much evil as I would have been capable of, given the right circumstances. In my estimation, the argument that Total Depravity is inconsistent, and therefore wrong-headed, simply because it is plainly evident that unsaved men are not equally evil--this argument does not serious consider God's common grace.