The Good, the Evil and Me

"There is an old illusion - it is called good and evil."

Yesterday, I saw a picture and it got me thinking. It had a clear message: everything is black or white. There are no shades of gray. You can choose to be good or you can choose to be evil, you cannot be indifferent and choose not to be any. Being good or evil is just a binary choice.

Is it an illusion we are living in? Had it been so simple all evil would have been dead by now. Only good would have prevailed. If you could sieve and separate the two, people would probably choose to be good all the time. Being evil isn’t everyone's favorite state of being usually. At least people don’t accept it.

Even if there were people who liked to be evil, it would just be a matter of choice. Life would be oh so simple. It would in fact lay down a very clear path for everyone's life. Every time there is a fork on the road, people would know which way to take depending on what they like to be, good or evil.

There is a big flaw in this theory and that is because of the assumption of ceteris paribus. This theory assumes that every time someone is at crossroads, it is just the choice between good and evil that matters. It ignores the ever changing circumstances and it ignores the effect the decision will have on other people.

What is good for one might be evil for another. Let’s take war for example. A soldier would go to the front and kill a few for his country. It is good noble deed. But it is a gross evil for the family of those who he has killed. For that matter killing itself is evil. How do we define this action? We cannot ignore the trickle down and trickle up effect of anything.

There is gray. In fact there is red, blue, yellow, green, mauve, magenta, peach, brown, lilac, maroon, orange, turquoise, purple, gold, cream, off white, ivory, charcoal, beige, cyan and indigo too. And this is what we choose from. Not just black and white. We can choose to walk on the grass or take a detour through the woods instead of taking one of the paved paths on the crossroad. This is what makes life interesting.

Between the heavenly good and the forsaken evil, I live my normal unpredictable life. I rationally hear the arguments of the angel on my right shoulder and the devil on my left, mix the black and white and get a totally new hue of life.