To start off, I am not an expert here. I can only speak about what I’ve witnessed, what I’ve encountered, things I’ve seen and done in my life. Everyone is different, which means everyone’s definition here will be different.
However, since this is my site, and hopefully you’re coming here to learn about me and about the type of stories I write (with the intent on buying one…), then let’s talk about my ideas on good and evil.
I’ve kept this tagline, Evil always wins. It’s something that popped into my head once, and I didn’t think much about it, but I put it down and wrote around it. Days and months and years went by, and the line would pop up at the weirdest times, like the creative part of my mind kept rolling it around. Thinking about it. What I meant when I wrote it down. What it meant to me.
For those who want to understand where I’m coming from – read my Origin Story. It’ll go more in depth. But suffice to say, I’ve seen some bad things, I’ve endured others, and while I don’t claim to have suffered the worst, I certainly haven’t suffered the least, so in middling terms, I’m of the belief that Good and Evil really exist.
I don’t mean this in religious terms. Though by all means, if you believe, apply it. But I do really believe there is true good in this world, and true evil. That the concepts really exist, and exist in a way to give our lives real meaning. People choose to do one or the other. To perform an act of good, or an act of evil.
Evil exists because people do evil things. So why do people choose to do something wrong, or choose to do something right? Why haven’t we created a society where everyone is treated fairly? Why can’t such a place exist? I mean, we’ve existed as a race for a long long time. So where is our city with no crime, hunger, where – when misfortune happens to someone, the rest of the people always get together and help that person though that event?
In some ways I believe it’s a facet of human nature. We tend to choose the easy way out. Sometimes it’s a shortcut through a parking lot, sometimes it’s cheating on a test, sometimes it’s putting in a half-day’s work for a full day’s pay.
Sometimes it’s turning on the television, when there’s a blog to write… Good seems harder to me. It takes more effort. It takes more time, more patience. You have to choose to want to do something, like reaching out to a person broke down on the side of the road, and then actually push yourself to go do that thing.
So – Evil always wins. What does that really mean? To me it means the following:
Good is hard. It’s temporary, because we have to maintain an effort to continue it.
Evil is constant. It’s easy.
So, in a world of good and evil, evil always wins.
It’s that simple, for me. The best of us always, in the end, pass away. If we’re lucky we’ve created something that will last for our children, our friends, our loved ones. If we’re outstandingly fortunate we’ve done something more, created something, been someone, to have a true and lasting impact on society. But after we’re gone, we need someone equally as good, equally as just, to take up the reigns and keep that momentum going.
That rarely (if ever) seems to happen. Good things fade. They are never constant, in our world. If the good person that passed away had some kind of power, that power attracts people who desire it. And maybe the new people aren’t truly evil, but they don’t have the same good intentions of the first person. So – what that person left behind ends up decaying away, until whatever altruism was there, is gone.
So. Nothing good can be permanent, as it relates to us.
What’s good about this? I love this part.
Good can only be measured in the presence of evil. Since Evil is permanent, we can always use it to take our own measure. In how we live. In how we treat others. In how we go to work and how we come home. We can weigh ourselves and the good we want to do.
There is a cost to everything in life, and only by measuring the cost, and measuring our response, will we really know who we are. Evil is everywhere, it is there forever, with only out temporary moments of goodness to stand against it.’
Life is a constant struggle. A forging. A crucible. And those of us who enter the crucible and go about life with the best of intentions will make our mark, and improve what’s around us. We build something that gives others a chance. Most of the time it fades, but sometimes it inspires, and when it does, that inspiration allows another person to maybe do the same. Continue the circle. So that they inspire, and so on …
I think – for me – that is what life is really about. It’s about the struggle. How we survive it. How we endure it. How we become better, and better others. We could never do that if evil didn’t exist. We could never be heroic, if there was never a need.
I think about this a lot. It always reminds me I may never have another chance to leave something behind that inspires others. That I should act with that thought in mind. To think of others, before I do a thing, large or small. Use a turn signal. Hold open a door. Stop by someone broken down on the side of the road. Even maybe write a blog.
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