Human failings and wickedness disgust me. The evil of human nature is the festering rot and agonizing death of what should have been immortal souls. Like corpses left to decay in the streets and homes of the living, the stench of wickedness sickens even those who would otherwise be well. No, it is not evil that makes life interesting: there is no spark of inspiration from light going out. Death is not vigor.
I was asked if people were basically good or basically evil. I answered that people were evil unless they made the effort to be good. I explained that evil/darkness/death were a nothing because they are merely a lack. We must breath if we are to live. Light must shine if it is to illuminate. A person must care if that person is to be good. If you care, you act accordingly. Good is not a matter of faith, belief or feelings. It takes effort. It must be courageous if it is to overcome the viciousness that hates it. Good is caring in action.
"Saving the world" is arrogant nonsense. Activism is political not spiritual. Compassion is a simple, unassuming, entirely personal virtue. It governs everything you do or else you are not compassionate. Take heed: even the reprobate can "care" for this reason or that. If you need a reason to care then you do not care.
Never "cast pearls before swine." Never sacrifice the wronged for the sake of the wrongdoer. Whosoever squanders kindness on the indifferent empowers the wicked to do harm. Whosoever aids the malevolent is guilty of their malevolence. Evil, more often than not, is passive and appeasing. Know that the wolves devour the lambs who feed them.
Good is lacking in our world. This deficiency is the evil of our world. Because people do not care, they rob, rape and murder others. Our wars are but a symptom of the smaller, personal evils. The world cannot be saved. Because it is unrepentant, it should not be saved. Those who care are the only ones who make our existence bearable. Let all that we do be for them or else our efforts are wasted.
Why should you care? Why not? My question is always: Why not? Be neither bought nor sold. Be sincere or else you shall bear only pride and shame. Yes, pride and shame. Sincerity is better than pretending for it can bear the light of truth. Not all things end. Death shall not comfort the wicked for even now it gnaws on their innards. Be a blessing as a person and you shall be warm and aglow. You shall rejoice for joy shall be your nature.
This is all so true and very relevant. Evil people are not the mad scientists that they are always portrayed to be. It is a bit more subtle than that. Evil is often very dismissive and selfish. They help if it will benefit them but they won't go any further than that.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of how in Polyanna how the Lady Aiders who valued their charities for foreign Indian children would not bother helping a boy that lived in their own town because they saw it as unsightly. At that point, I do not even care about what they have done if they are going to be like that. It is despicable. And although it may be fiction, that sort of thing really happens.
Evil is represented in the people of this world who choose to be indifference, selfish, or lukewarm in their lives. It is as simple as that, and there is no point in trying to make it more complex. That is the root of the problem, and unless it is pulled out by said roots, these people are not worth the air they breathe.
Indeed. A life only has meaning if it is a blessing.
DeleteThe worst evils are not found in searing malevolence, but in cold indifference. It is the emptiness where there should be something that causes the heart to shudder. To care is natural, since everyone wants to receive the same. For this reason, to not care is abominable.
ReplyDeleteYes. People often want what they refuse unto others.
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