Evil is bad. No
matter how often this trope is reversed, almost every novel, TV show, movie and
Facebook video reminds us of this. That evil is bad. Just
in case we forgot.
Evil leads to bad things.
Bad things we want to avoid.
Things like prison, STDs and getting punched in the face by
Superman. We get that idea.
That doesn’t mean that some people don’t do bad things. There is still greed and hypocrisy and hatred
and selfishness. Partly because people
who do these things think that the real world isn’t like the fictional
world. And partly because in a quirk of
mental gymnastics people think the bad things they do are good. A thief I knew thought that since he was
stealing from a big corporation, they had insurance and so no one was hurt and
he was feeding people (as well as his drug habit). We like to be good. And if we can’t be good, then we can be a
Rebel Against the Evil Empire, which is Good.
We like to be considered good to such a degree that we
create structures to make us good when our actions are perhaps a bit
shady. Even Jesus did things that looked
evil to outsiders, but it was really good.
So we give ourselves narratives of our goodness, so that we can assure
ourselves that our actions are really good.
And if we ever doubt ourselves, or (God forbid!) someone attacks us as
evil, then we can assure ourselves and them that we are really good by rehearsing
our narrative of goodness. These
narratives are as old as history itself, and we repeat these stories because
they resonate with our moral beings.
Let’s take a look at a few of these stories of moral
highness:
1.
Good of Justice
Evil is out there.
There are bad guys and bad governments and bad corporations and bad
hamburgers. And bad deserves to be
punished. Evil shouldn’t be left on its
own to continue to exist. Evil should be
stopped. Or at least delayed while we
beat in its face for a little bit. Evil
left uncontrolled, unpunished leaves a hole in our soul. If Scar isn’t beaten up by Simba, then he
must be eaten by the Hyenas. It’s a rule
of the universe. So if a cop shoots
someone, that’s okay because he’s shooting a bad guy and bad guys must be
stopped. If Obama allows drones to be
released, that’s okay because he’s taking out the terrorists. And if I beat up my brother in law because my
sister tells me that he hit her, well, he had it coming.
 |
| In that moment I am Batman. I can do no wrong. |
Of course, the problem is we are human so we don’t know
everything. The cop might not be
shooting a bad guy. Maybe he’s shooting
a mentally ill guy who is scared of cops and runs when he sees them. Obama might be taking out a bad guy. Or he might have missed and hit a wedding
instead. Or he might have taken out the
bad guy and his kids and the kids’ friends who were having a BBQ in the
terrorist’s back yard (Some terrorists belong to families. It’s true.)
And I didn’t really check out my sister’s story, so it might be possible
she might have stretched the truth. And
since I didn’t ask my brother-in-law’s side, it might be possible I was
wrong.
 |
| I'm still Batman. Just maybe the Adam West variety. |
The other thing is maybe punishment isn’t the best thing I
could do. If I kill the bad guy, even if
he really is bad, then he won’t do bad any more. And he can’t change his mind to do good,
either. How many of us have done bad
things? Maybe every single one of
us. Just maybe. And if Karma was as quick as a John Lennon
song, then how many of us would still be around to raise children to not do
what we did when we were young?
2.
Good of Truth
I like it when people tell me the truth. It makes me feel good. When people lie to me, I don’t feel
good. I turn into a dark storm, ready to
strike lightning. Kinda like Thor. But let’s go back to truth. Truth is good. Let’s stick with what I like.
And if we know big Truths, then they are even better. If we know, for instance, that the earth
revolves around the sun, it’s good for people to know. If we learn that illnesses are caused by
small animals in our bodies, it should be published. And if we learn that Tesla was actually a
racist and kind of a jerk, we should tell everyone. And they will appreciate us all the more for
letting them know. And if they don’t,
well, at least we told the Truth. And
the Truth will be affirmed by future generations even if our peers don’t
understand or appreciate it.
 |
| Three members on my "Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is the Antichrist" site! |
Of course, we can get carried away with our
Truth-telling. Some of us might yell at
people because they are not accepting our Truth. Or we might call them names like “imbecile”
or “rampallian” (if feeling particularly Shakespearean). We might consider that they are worthy only
of damnation in the lowest circle of hell.
We might very well want them out of our sight and possibly out of our
existence for not believing in an instant the Truth that took us 20 years to
discover.
You might think that I’m talking about
religious fanatics. Well, yes, that’s
the case. I’m a religious fanatic, so I
know how they think. But I’m also
talking about political fanatics, conspiracy theorists, science nuts, and
people who have a theory about the new Avengers movie.
Let’s face it, we can get pretty irrational about our Truth
and we can treat an unbeliever somewhat similar to the person who raped our dog
and carved his initials in our favorite block of cheese. And we feel completely justified because
Truth is more important than being kind or caring.
 |
| Isn't it? |
3.
Good of Community
Almost all of us belong to some kind of community and we
love that community. It’s our real home,
the basket in which all our eggs rest. Our community could be our nation, our
religious group, our internet movie discussion group, or our chess club. Any place that we feel most comfortable in
and feel like we would be lost without.
Then the Enemies come.
These are the ones who attack our community, and destroy all we hold
dear. They could be terrorists, but they
are just as likely to be insiders who climb up the ranks with the real
intention of undermining all we find good in our home. Criminals are bad, but the worst are those
who take our comfort zone and destroy it with their different ideas of how
reality works.
 |
| Officer, arrest that vandal! |
So we must do what we can and protect our community. We might protect it with guns, or with words
or with viral videos that show just how bad these Enemies are. We are not scared of these Enemies. Rather, these bad guys should be scared of
us, because we aren’t here to play games.
We are Bruce Willis, Bruce Lee and Bruce Campbell all rolled up into
one. In other words, we are Chuck Norris
with a light saber. No one can stop us. We are here to protect our own.
More often than not, however, we are not attacking bad guys
at all, but just some other guys who are trying to protect their home, their
comfort zone. It just so happens that
they have a different idea of what that home should look like than we do. And maybe they have better resources to make
our home (because the community is really all of us) the way they want it than
we do the way we want it. And when we
attack them, perhaps instead of protecting our home, what we are really doing
is destroying our home. When we freeze
the budget or insult our leaders or block up the streets with angry protesters
or spread unsubstantiated rumors about a neighbor or circulate flyers
announcing our hate, we are changing our home.
We have changed it from a safe place into a place of anger and
violence. And we might be able to say
that “they” started it, but we participated in it. We kept it going. And that’s not really good. Especially when lies are told and lives are
ruined. And our community will not be
our home. It will never be the same
again.
 |
| At last we'll have some peace and quiet... |
4.
Good of Grace
But what if we were just nice to each other? All the time?
What if, instead of having a good ethic or a good concept or a good
community we were just good? Instead of
acting FOR the good, what if we just acted like we WERE good?
What would that look like?
Well, we would have to look at the person in front of us, really think
about them. Not think of them as an
object or a sales person or a bad guy or a medical worker or an anonymous
internet person, but just a human being with thoughts and desires and hopes
just like we do. I don’t mean that they necessarily
have a fetish for donuts, but that they want respect just like we do. They want to connect to people. They want to eat good food and sleep in a
comfortable bed. They want to be nice to
children and puppies. They enjoy a great movie and great sex and that euphoric
feeling of awe we get when we look at a star-filled sky. They give love to those who love them and
they get angry when someone is mean to them. They sometimes say the wrong things and
sometimes they lose control. But they
try their best and want to be a good person.
Just like us.
 |
| Even this guy. Especially this guy. |
So why don’t we treat them like we would want to be
treated? With respect. With safety.
With grace. When someone is
hungry, why don’t we give them something to eat? When someone is sad, why can’t we sympathize
with them? Maybe even make them laugh
for a minute? When they are happy, why
can’t we be happy with them? Without
jealousy, without reminding them of the unfortunate circumstance that’s right
around the corner? Why can’t we help
someone live in the moment, making the moment as rewarding as possible?
We have a number of excuses:
- They did something bad to me, so I don’t want to reward them for it.
Perhaps if we teach them to reward bad behavior with good,
they’ll learn to do good? Or if that’s
too idealistic, at least we can be the person who always brings good out of
bad. We love those people. Can’t we be like them?
- They are bad people. I would only be enabling them.
You can’t enable someone by laughing with them. You can’t enable them by giving them a
hamburger. You can’t enable them by
forgiving them. You can’t enable them by
honestly benefiting and blessing their life.
All you can do is show them that there’s a different way to live.
- They belong to a bad system, and to do good to them is to do good to the system.
The person in front of you isn’t a system. She is a person, just like you. And I hate to tell you, we are all caught up
in bad systems. Us human beings haven’t
perfected the art of creating good ones yet.
In the meantime, doing good to the person in front of us can only
benefit us all.
 |
| You evil man! You grabbed my back! |
Being good, meeting needs, loving the unlovable, forgiving a
bad act, restoring the corrupt, enabling everyone to pay it forward. Yes, there might be short term
consequences. But there’s no loss in the
long term.
The real good is to always be generous, to always love, to
always give respect, to always be kind.
It’s the only thing that really counts.
 |
| And maybe Sherlock. Now THAT's good! |
No comments:
Post a Comment