Good and Evil (and a dash of Morals) Chill, Mix Well, then Serve

The SHORT Post:
There is no 'good' and 'evil'. It's all relative. What's good for you, is bad for someone else. There is no 'good' without 'evil'. You apply for a job and you get it. Good for you. Everyone else who applied? Bad for them. Deal with it, it's all relative.


The LONG Post:
Good and Evil. We're always trying to do 'good', right? Do no wrong, nothing 'evil', because that's bad. But what is 'good', and what is 'evil'? Ok, let me paint you a scenario. And you tell me what's the right thing to do, what was good and what was bad, ok?

Situation A: You're walking down the street, on the way home from work. You happen to find a $20 on the floor. You pick it up, and look around. Nobody's around you. You don't really have anyone to turn it into, no way to report it. You decide, it's your lucky day. You slip it in your pocket and go about your day.

Verdict? That's a good one, right? You find some money! Sweet. You can save that money, or blow it on something. It doesn't matter, it was free. It was excess. It's an unexpected bonus. Right, so let's look at another situation now.

Situation a: You're rushing to get home, and you gotta find your keys. You reach into your pocket and pull out your keys, completely ignorant to the fact that the $20 that's suppose to get you through the day just slipped out of your pocket. You get in your car and go on your way. Hours later, you discover that it's missing, and you have no idea where you lost it.

Verdict? Shit. That sucks. You just lost some of your hard earned cash because you were a little careless. This is defiantely bad, right? But wait. How can the exact same situation be both "good" AND "bad" at the same time? Well, because good and bad, good and evil, it's all reletive. What's beneficial for you is 'good', and what's detrimental to you is 'evil'.

That's it. That's all there is to it. Don't think beyond that. No, don't pull religion into this! No, don't pull laws and morals into-dammit! How did I know you were gonna go there? How? *sigh* Ok, well, fine. Let's talk about that. I mean, 10 Commandments, Laws, morals, traditions, taboos, this, that, it's all fine and dandy. But it doesn't really determine what's 'right' and 'wrong'.

Well, it kind of does I guess but ultimately, it doesnt. Ok, I guess I need to elaborate. Let's start with a simple one. A man breaks into your house, he's wielding a knife, and intends on leaving no witnesses. You arm yourself with a handy firearm (that you legally own, of course) and remove the threat from your home. *bam*, a round goes off and it was quite a shot. The thug is taken down, dead. This is murder. And murder is wrong, right? Well, yeah. Sort of. Murder is ok, if the situation allows, right? Like, if we're going to war, or we're defending ourself, then it's ok. But outright murder is bad, right?

So that already shows that things are very situational, and relative to what the situation is. There is no 'absolute' right or wrong, good or evil in the case of murder. So, uh, yeah. I guess murder (the intentional and unlawful taking of another person's life) can be justified and allowed in civilized societies. Hurray! You hear that? It's OK to murder people! Well, if the situation is right.

And hey! In situation A and a, it already shows that 'good' and 'bad' can both come from the same thing. In fact, there will always be winners and losers for anything that happens. A lot of times, we (people) can agree that there are some 'bad' things that nobody wants. Wiping out humanity, for instance is bad. Or IS it? It's bad for us people, no doubt. But for everything else other than us, it should be pretty good, right? Insects will definately be taking over our old stomping grounds, along with some wild animals. So it's good for them... but damn, that's really bad for us.

[This is the "Big Paragraph"] Then again, we (as a religion) can agree that certain 'taboos' (sins) are bad and nobody should do them. And if someone does, they're wrong (until we change our minds, of course). Then again, we (as a ethnicity) can agree that certain things are good for us, and certain things are good for us, but bad for other ethnicities. Then again, we (as a Country) can agree that certain things are good for us, which may be bad for other Countries. Then again, we (as a city) can agree that certain things are good for us, which may be bad for other cities. Then again, we ( as a family unit) can agree that certain things are good for us, which may be bad for other families.

See how that works? There's lots of 'good' and 'bad' things to each of us. And in fact, there's tons of conflictions within each person because of all these different layers. There's no absolute 'good' or 'bad', but it all depends on (what, who, where, when, why). It may be good for our country, may be bad for our city. And that same thing can be good for our religion, but bad for our family unit. What a shame, huh? That one thing could be so good, good, and bad, bad, ALL at the same time?

"But Bitter old Anifanatic! We have MORALS to guide us!"

Hush you! Who let you back in here!? *KICK* Right, well, I'll still address your point. Morals. We invented morals, plain and simple. That does't mean they're good or bad, just that they can't tell us what really is good or bad. Only what's good or bad in relation to what these sets of morals come from. (Read the "Big Paragraph"). Because morals are relative also. I hope I don't have to go over that whole thing again, as I said (read the "Big Paragraph").

So, a lot of you are probably still wondering. "Well, if ALL this is true Mr. Fancy Pants, then how do we know what's good and bad?" Well, I'm glad you think I have Fancy Pants, and I'm glad you brought up that point. We, as people, decide what's right or wrong. Ok, this is gonna take a few steps of evolution so let' back it up a bit. So I think, murder is wrong. I don't like the idea of people running around killing whoever they like. I like not being in a place where my life is in danger. Then you come along. You feel the same way. We decide to live together, and work together. We have similar beliefs as to what we think is right and wrong, so we start a town, that grows as other likeminded people come to stay with us. These ideas become laws, for everyone to read because this is OUR town and we decided what we think is 'right' and 'wrong'.

Now adjust it a bit slightly different, and you can easily see how it works with other things. This is how countries are formed. This is how religions are formed. This is how clubs are formed, teams, companies, friendships, etc. I think _____ is good and ------ is bad. You agree. We join together to make one of the things I listed above. You know what, these things grow. My country might think something, and yours thinks the same. Our countries become freinds. We hang out and do stuff together. When we meet up with other countries, we're friends! We have each other's back, it's cool! It's the same as if we were individuals, and meeting on a school playground, right?

Right and wrong is taught to us by our parents because they believe something, and they want us to believe it too. We go to a school and we get taught what's right and wrong by them too, in their perspective. Then there's the government too. Well, then it gets complicated. Maybe our parents taught us something that school or the government disagrees with. Or I find a religion I like and it clashes with my parents because they disagree on what's 'right' and 'wrong'. Damn. For something that's suppose to be so easily distinguishable, it sure seems we've divided ourselves a hundred times over as to whats good and bad huh? See? There's no right and wrong. There's only what's right and wrong, for the individual. And from there, it can extend to other things like ethnicity, the family, city, governmnet, religion, etc. But it's ALL relative.

So when someone says "Hey, what the fuck are you doing? Don't you have any morals? That's so fucked up! Stop fucking that donkey!" Well, as much as I agree with no donkey sex, I have to say that there is no 'right' or 'wrong'. If he wants to fuck a donkey, who am I to tell him it's wrong? I think it's wrong, sure, but that's me. I'm not him. It's relative (but seriously people, don't go fucking donkeys). Now if you just switch "fucking donkeys" with "Abortion" then, the lines will be drawn and people will take sides because that's something more people are divided about (hopefully). Or if you switch "Abortion" with "Movie Ratings" and what people are allowed to see at what age.

People are different. What's right and wrong varies. If you think one way, and I think another. It doesn't really bother me. If it's that different, no hard feelings, but we're too different for my taste. We can part ways and you live your life according to you, and I'll live my life how I want to also. Don't take offense to it. Sure, we might be able to be friends if it's not that big of a deal, but if it is, we might not be able to be freinds anymore. This is where people get divided about things, and great relationships end because as great as the freindship, marrage, religion, government, etc has been in the past and might still be now, that one (or several) thing(s) that you're passionate about and really can't let slide... well that can break it up. You might be able to let "paper bags" and "plastic bags" slide, because it doesn't matter that much to either of you. But when it comes to critical topics (which I won't cover, but you know what they can be), it can be a 'deal breaker'.

No hard feelings, eh? We're still friends, hopefully. But if it's bad enough, hopefully not. Opinions, good and evil, and morals will divide people even further, with each passing day, with each generation. It's just how things are. There's no 'good', there's no 'evil'. There's only "Opinions".