There is constantly a fight between good and evil. For some, being good is to be virtuous, pure, untainted by any bad motives, always thinking of the good way. This is the stuff we read in myths, in religious scriptures and this is what is taught to be to children by most parents.
But we soon find out that the world is not black and white. That we are all in different shades of grey. And when a child realizes this, there is a sense of betrayal (atleast I felt it for the first time). It seems as your parents and the society were lying to you, as if they were being patronizing by thinking that you would not be able to understand such a complex thing.
But gradually you realize that it is only for the good. You realize your weaknesses and realize the importance of that initial perfidy. Eventhough it is a high standard that you are given at the begining, it ensures that even if you fall a little below, you are only becoming a normal human(whatever that means).
But a person is really good who, inspite of having the ability to do great harm, still does good. For what is good, if it is done only because you didnt have any other option. It maybe because you are weak, or are too afraid. You are good out of circumstance rather than choice.
When you have all the temptations of doing something wrong but you refuse and resist, and still do good. Not to show off. But only because you have atlast realized that there is pleasure even in delayed gratification.
But we soon find out that the world is not black and white. That we are all in different shades of grey. And when a child realizes this, there is a sense of betrayal (atleast I felt it for the first time). It seems as your parents and the society were lying to you, as if they were being patronizing by thinking that you would not be able to understand such a complex thing.
But gradually you realize that it is only for the good. You realize your weaknesses and realize the importance of that initial perfidy. Eventhough it is a high standard that you are given at the begining, it ensures that even if you fall a little below, you are only becoming a normal human(whatever that means).
But a person is really good who, inspite of having the ability to do great harm, still does good. For what is good, if it is done only because you didnt have any other option. It maybe because you are weak, or are too afraid. You are good out of circumstance rather than choice.
When you have all the temptations of doing something wrong but you refuse and resist, and still do good. Not to show off. But only because you have atlast realized that there is pleasure even in delayed gratification.
5 comments:
interesting topic SreeK...
but then again there are other issues like ....how do you define what is good and bad, is it what society dictates? and who has the right to define such things...there may be rituals in one culture that may be 'wrong' to another culture and so on....
-sid
Yeah..Sid...but I was only thinking of an individual here. Ofcourse our perceptions of good and bad are shaped a lot by the society at the formative stages but I guess after some time...we think we can get over it...we think that we can decide for ourselves. I dont know how much of it is true.
So this is once you think you are free of the initial prejudices, and then you have the "free will" to decide what is good or bad for the individual...
Sometimes, doing good means doing very little harm...
True but only sometimes...thanx for the comment
I wrote a book called "What is Good?" that goes into this subject that you all are talking about. One of the things that I read the comments were, "how do you define good and bad?" The book that I wrote deals with that. You can it from Barnes and Noble or PublishAmerica.com.
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