Case in point, although not a good one. 2 people - Zoe and Hannah's sister - came into my room just then and asked if I wanted to go to Richmond and act as a zombie in a film. You know, been dead in an attic for a while, back to life, not happy, moaning, arms, garbage bags. Now normally I would jump at a random event like this (these opportunities often lead to even bigger, better and more amazing things). But tonight I'm a little scared of failing a subject called Impressionism to Postmodernism which had an essay due last Monday. Naturally, I haven't finished it. So they left my room to look for other potential zombies, and I thought "that achieved nothing for me."
And then it was that I realised something amazing. I'm big on this karma thing, where items enter and items leave your life. If something leaves your life, something different will arrive to take its place. It's not really superstition (maybe) because it just means getting rid of the trash, which is useful advice for most of us. ;)
So my food stash is a good example of this. It never seems to diminish, because when one food item is all eaten, something else tasty has arrived in the meantime. I was thinking before that there's nothing in there which I really want to eat. Then I realised that Zoe and Hannah visiting had a point. It had taken me one step closer to finishing one of my food items, and therefore getting another one, because I gave Zoe a piece of chocolate while she was here. (That may not be the only outcome, but it is one.)
At this stage I imagine you're thinking "what a useless story!" Or maybe "why not just eat the chocolate up or throw it out, if you want something else?" Well, I'm not a huge chocolate eater and I'd obviously prefer someone else enjoyed it. It's brilliant chocolate.
On another note, I've been thinking a fair bit recently about the existence between good and bad, light and dark, yin and yang, whatever you want to call it. Do these polarities exist? Or is the world like Voldemort says it is?
"There is no good and evil, there is only power...and those too weak to seek it."I appreciate there is a mix of good and bad in everyone. Does this mean that there can never be an extreme 'good' or an extreme 'evil', because everyone is a mix of both? That would mean there was no such thing as either extreme, surely, because if you can't have pure good or pure evil they don't exist. They'd be always mixed in. (I'll think more about that one.) That would mean there were (was/is) no God and no Satan, because they are personifications of both extremes, and if the extremes don't exist, neither can they.
On the other hand - proof of the existence of these opposites comes in our generation, ie. our time. Recently bad rather than good has been a standout feature of our personalities and our actions. You don't have to look far to see what I mean here. If you're reading this, you're a part of what's happening. It's your fault. It's your dad's fault. It's our ancestors' fault, right back through time. It's history's fault. Maybe it's god's fault. What am I talking about? Morals. What's right. What should happen, and what we feel is right, as opposed to what we know/feel is wrong. There must be good and bad, because otherwise how do we describe things as 'feeling nice' and 'feeling bad', to give two examples?
"That feels great."
"Thanks, but you look terrible!"
"My friend gave me this jacket. Wasn't that nice of her?"
"Oh, that's awful!"
At the risk of taking this right back to basics, we feel 'good' when someone compliments us. We feel 'bad' when.... I don't know. This is where it starts to get hazy. I could say "when someone insults us", but often these days we insult each other without meaning it. There are other examples. Are these 'feelings' just random neurons firing in our brain? Can we really judge what is right and what is wrong from ... dare I say it... instinct? Do our natural instincts 'prove' the existence of good and bad, or are they not natural instincts after all, just history and religion forcing their values onto us?
Even night and day may once have been looked on as examples of polar opposites. These days we can look at the situation scientifically and say that it's just the result of the earth turning, resulting in an equal distribution of light and darkness over time. No big supernatural happening there. Still, night has typically been the time for 'dark deeds'.... when the absence of light allows one to conceal things more easily.
Technology in general has aided us in reaching this point, although it is by no means technology's fault. [Free and total exchange of information is what we are coming to.] For example, the more killings you see via the internet, films, documentaries, the more you will be desensitised to killing, possibly leading you to believe that it is just something unavoidable, the inevitable, manifesting itself everywhere; thereby leading you away from a 'good' or 'bad' judgement of killing in general. On the other hand, if someone you know dies and it has a huge impact on you, you may instead see death as a bad thing and nothing technology says will convince you otherwise. Every death you see on film will still make you cringe as you remember (subconsciously) your loved one and the effect their death had on you.
All I know is, I better post this now before I decide I don't like it and delete everything.
And if you seriously don't think there is more evil than good in society today (if evil exists, that is) take a look around. If I ever have to bring up children, I dread the world they will grow up in. I am not talking about politics. Political situations may work themselves out, given time. I am talking about the actions of my peers.
And I am such a loser, getting all worked up about this crap, but I am a human. That really explains most things.
6 comments:
Gawain, I hope you don't really think that it makes you a loser to question important issues like morality.
Agreed.
Don't worry, I don't. I was more worried that people would think I was pointing the finger at them or, or, I dunno. It was more like a disclaimer. What's that word where you don't believe in your own opinion? No really, the only lines which don't belong in that post are the last two.
* Warning *
Long, long comment.
I think there were some interesting points in there. Everyone has a measure of good and bad in them. The thing is whether one dominates their entire life or if there is a balance achieved. I don't believe that there is any person who can claim to be purely "good". Neither is there anyone essentially who is purely evil. Even the most sadistic killers have some measure of “good” at some point in their lives. Cannot Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein claim that they are good fathers to their children, could Hitler not claim to be a good son to his mother?
Morality is an interesting thing because each person has their own view on what is moral and what's immoral. Some of the things that people do may not be terribly moral when seen from our perspective but then who are we to judge? It could be that something I do may be seen as immoral by someone else. I generally try not to judge people on what they do, as far as I’m concerned, I leave that up to a higher power. We just have to try to live a life that doesn’t hurt those around us, that accepts people for who that are and doesn’t try to change them to fit the cultural and stereotypical images of society.
As for death, sometimes I feel as if the world is crumbling around us. All of the disasters around us are but a signal of the decline of the human race. On other occasions I see the positive things that are being achieved and realise that as long as there are people who are willing to fight (peacefully, I might add) for the basic freedoms and rights of people, then all is not lost. I’ve personally been affected by death on several occasions. I’ve comforted friends who’ve lost loved ones and seen the effects on their lives. I think to an extent we do become desensitised but then when something massive happens, and we see the devastation and destruction left behind we realise the human cost. For me when I see the images of children who were injured in Pakistan it makes me understand that life is so precious, that even though we may not know those that died, we should still grieve for them at some level.
I think Charles Dickens truly described our own age when he said: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.
That must have been an important essay if you passed up being a zombie for it.
Zombies come and go, but essays are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
Or... is that the other way around?
btw thanks Caroline, summed up nicely. Maybe that Dickens quote can be used to describe any age on earth, but it does seem especially appropriate for this one. But what are the 'cultural and stereotypical images of society' and how can one change someone else to fit them? You mean the whole thing about muslim headpieces, trying to make people fit that sort of mould?
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