A not very timely note

This was a blog I once wrote during my high school and early college years. I keep it around for nostalgic purposes, but it is quite obviously no longer updated. I am looking to make a more professional blog presence in the future, but I still like to look at where I was mentally at certain points in time.

- G. Jan 2013

Sunday, December 13, 2009

The Ambiguity of Good and Evil

Yep; I'm back. It's been awhile, but hopefully I have a brief, concentrated figment of thought for the pleasure of your superego. Hopefully, I haven't hemorrhaged too many readers from my long absence, from the small amount of people who care about the existence of this minuscule part of the internet. But I digress. Lets move on.

It's a struggle that never ends; a mental tangle of great passion and excruciating hopelessness. When one pulls off the black and white shade that makes life easy, we stumble into a world that has too many possibilities to make sense of. Good and Evil. Concepts unique to Man. Primarily based off perception, but defended to the bone by the hardcore of both sides. We draw the lines in the sand, secretly knowing that we ourselves could easily have been the person on the other side of the moral chasm. The death, destruction, and acts that boggle the kind hearted soul; reported without fail by the news media. One starts to wonder. Why?

We think we can define something as complex as good and evil. Anyone who brings harm to others is evil. Deception always has fiendish intentions. Lying rips a imaginary halo right off a person's head. But it is never that simple. It will never be that simple. Why do people do bad things? Can we honestly say that they just "are" bad people? I'm a big believer in nuture; the sum of our experiences creates the whole; ourselves. Our jails and prisons have their fair share of drug addicts and the mentally ill. Does this make them "evil"? Abuse, humiliation, and mental suffering during those critical childhood years causes unspeakable damage to occur; some of these victims become the very people they detest. Of course I cannot discount nature. Abnormalities in the neuroanatomy of one's brain and neurological diseases can adversely affect certain aspects of a person. If that person were to commit an "evil" act, what does one do? Many mental illnesses cannot be effectively treated, yet we also cannot allow crimes and criminal acts to occur. Where do we draw the line?

This is the first part of my look into this tantalizing debate. I would love to hear your opinions and thoughts on this matter. To those who regularly read this blog; I thank you, and apologize for my long absence. Adios!