Beyond Good and Evil pt1

Nearly a year ago I talked about definitions for good and evil and how often one or the other is subjective due to circumstance. An action that is good for one may be bad for another and vice versa. At the time I promised more on the subject. However, there was so much more I wanted to say about other things that it got pushed aside. Today I am back for more on the topic.

Many stories, in both print and digital format have clearly defined boundaries. The presence or lack thereof of a character's moral fiber is easy to see. You often know from the very beginning who is the "good" guy and who is the bad. I am of course talking about classic tales of good and evil, things like Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Godzilla and other such fairy tales.

Life however isn't really much like those stories. Sure many of the components are there, romance, conflict and even the choices to do good or bad things. But, do those choices make us good or bad people? No, not really. And yes absolutely depending on your point of view. Seeing things as polarized, as black or white means ignoring all the colors in between. There is so much more but we often choose not to see it. So, of course, with any question where I answer on both sides of the fence more explanation is required.

Things happen during our daily lives. They don't happen to us. They just happen and we happen to be there when they do. During our lifetime we have a collection of things that we decide to do based on what the things are that happen. Some of those choices are good for us. Others are bad. Some of the choices that are good for us are good for others and some of them are bad for others. We are not the accumulation of all of these things. The accumulation of all these things is called experience. We are not our experiences. They are simply things that are in our past that we can use to assist us in choosing what to do in the future.

A person that has made many good choices in the past is often viewed as a good person especially if those choices have positively affected others. Conversely a person who has made many bad choices is often viewed as a bad person. These labels are not fair because they simply represent what we decided to do at given points in our lives. Other people do not live inside our heads. They do not know what went into making those decisions. So they are not qualified to judge. Also, and more importantly, at any given moment we are free to make new choices and take new actions that do not match those of what we have done in the past.

Think for a moment about a person who has been arrested for robbing a bank. Most people from that point on think of that person as a criminal. They see that person as someone that cannot be trusted. They did it once they will just do it again, right? Many times people that do these things are desperate. They know what they are doing is wrong but don't see any other option.  And after spending time in jail for their failure many of them would never attempt anything so foolish again.