Sometimes, I'm having a hard time dealing with people who claim to be good, moral persons. Let me explain. I'm 31 years old now and for what I know I, too, claimed myself to be a good person for maybe the first 28-29 years. Looking back at what I did, it was a false statement. My intentions were good though. No, not really. The right way to put it is to say that I thought I had good intentions so I thought I was good.
Please don't get me wrong, I didn't do anything awful or really out of the ordinary. What I mean is that until I realized all the evil behind my actions, I was pretty normal. My understanding of life changed and the more I come to know someone now, the more I see all the excuses, all the reasons they tell themselves to justify their actions. That way they keep a good opinion of themselves. They always see their actions from the inside.
Let me use an image. Your driving your car and someone honks his horn at you. You don't know what you did to offense or endanger the other driver. You curse him and you go on. To him, your a bad driver, but you don't think you're a bad driver. In fact, you think you're a good driver and that guy lacks judgement. The truth is, You will never drive accordingly to all others. You will drive your way and others will drive their ways and because there can't be total harmony. As a result, you're going to be honked at once in a while.
That's what it is all about. You may think you're doing good, but in fact someone thinks you're doing bad because your actions may have negatives effects on him. That's why nobody's really good. Why does it bug me? Because the way people justify themselves often end up to worst behaviors than the initial offense, in my example, it was the cursing. It's especially during a conflict because of the tension escalation.
Are we good persons ? No I don't think we are. So we're evil then? No we're not. What are we then? Persistant to stay unaware of the fact that it's impossible to be good even if you feel you're most of the time good. It prevents you to be less stubborn, more compassionate of those you may have offended, less selfish and ultimately and ironically a better person.
You should check out THIS IS WATER by DFW, Mitch. Adresses this issue. Taking responsibility for making our actions good outside of our own interest is a very difficult thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI read it when you blogged and liked it. It was an inspirationnal read I'd say.
ReplyDeleteTrue, I remember now. It reminded me of that, your post.
ReplyDeleteGood post , glad to see i'm not alone in my ponders.
ReplyDeleteI think a person , sane or insane , will always justify their own actions to themselves . I guess it can be a good thing or a bad thing . Encouraging yourself / lying to yourself.
But truth be told ; there really are evil people on this planet. Thankfully not that many.
Thanks Charlie !
ReplyDeleteGood/evil is mostly a perspective. Even Brievik thought he was a patriot when he killed all these people on the island of Utoya. For most people his action were evil but he thought he was doing it for a greater good/purpose.
My point is. "Small" or "big" evil are most of the time pretty much similar. It begins with someone thinking is doing it for a "good" reason. Delusional or not.