...Good always wins.
We are taught this as we are growing up. The hero always gets the girl, the bad guy always gets theirs in the end. The stories, the comic books, the fairy tales... they all instill in us the idea that if you do good things, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad things... well, if you do bad things then the good guy will kick your ass in the end.
Elementary karma?
As we grow older we start to see this view as unrealistic, or at least fallible. We'll proclaim, mid-tantrum, that "this just isn't FAIR!!" to bemused parents. We are told that life isn't fair. This sucks, as an answer.
Then we get even older, and things get a little bit dicier. We see tragedies, both of the natural and man-made variety. We see wholly "good" people get hit by cars, or any number of other bad things that shouldn't happen. We don't ask anyone why this time, because we're supposed to know better.
Lately I've been thinking a little more about the nature of good and evil itself. I'm not even sure why, it's just one of those thoughts that's been floating around in my head, begging to be put into sentences.
What's got me really confused and screwed up here is this thought: Do good and evil exist once we strip away the notions of ourselves as separate entities?
My first instinct here is no. How can they? Evil is defined in the dictionary first as morally wrong or bad. Well that one's fucked. Morally wrong is a totally subjective concept that could never be agreed upon by everyone. We could spend until the end of time arguing about what is and isn't morally wrong. By some religious standards, the way I conduct my life is morally wrong and therefore evil, but my life is serving me just fine.
Next evil is defined as harmful or injurious. Again, no. I've had what some people can consider evil thoughts, but my thoughts have never hurt anyone. What I've done about or in response to those thoughts has done some damage, but either way...
But wait! I'm noticing a trend here!
This is sounding less and less like I'm defining evil, and more like I'm define sins for you, doesn't it?
My next thought is that good and evil are constructs. Devised in our heads to make us feel better about ourselves, and allowing us to distance ourselves from and condemn those who do not conform to what we consider right actions to be.
I think socially we need good and evil. As ideas, not in any practicality. We can look at this in terms of right action or right livelihood. If I walk up to someone and punch them in the face, that would not be considered right action. We're all ok with calling it that, because as it were, I don't punch that hard, and there wasn't too much harm done.
If a man is found to be sexually assaulting children, are we still ok just calling it wrong action? It doesn't sit right with me, because wrong action doesn't sound severe enough, and also, I've taken wrong actions. Does that put me right in ranks with a child molester?
Well, yeah. It does. I am.
Not a child molester, obviously, but I guess I'm just finding my way back to the point that I need to strip away these ideas that keep me separate. That identify me as a special unique thing. Because I'm not.
Everything is a separation. Everything is a distinction. Every time we call something something, we give it life in our heads. We convince ourselves that it exists independently.
Maybe good and evil, if they exist at all, don't need to be understood. Maybe they don't need to be analyzed or picked apart. Maybe it's just a part of everything else, and can be left to be.
