Archive Home Page Subj: Re:Evil
Date: 95-04-01 09:55:13 EST
From: Joe Uhrig
>>Anything that is POSITIVE is Good
Anything that is NEGATIVE is Evil.<<
Good example of the linking of dualities AS DEFINED by their emotional connotation. You could also include.
White is Good, Black is Bad.
Light is Good, Darkness is Bad
or you could look at them AS DEFINED by their mythological symbols.
Evil - Eve - Evening- Moon- Night- Darkness - Female on the Tao
Good - God - Day - Sun - Light - Male on the Tao
Now it doesn't take too much to see that the above dualities and our emotional understanding of them form the framework for things like racism (black is bad) and the repression of women (evil woman).
The problem with definitons is that it is real easy to get into word play that either gets circular like "God is good, because good is God" or that leans on authoritarian commands like 'God is good because He says so and you better believe it or else". The second example doesn't feel very good to me. Actions freed from the linguistic web of contradictions and historical meaning speak much much louder than words. Good an evil are more knowable on a feeling level than they are in definitions, though I think there are clearly phrases which point the way. for example from the Bible "blessed are the peacemakers" or "beating swords into plowshares" or my favorite quote on laws which contains two dualities (just/unjust and uplifts/degrades).
"Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust."
- Martin Luther King
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
I was recently the best man at my older brother's wedding in a church in Texas that had interesting symbols. This one had a return of God theme as seen by the massive trumpets of the church organ which were central to the altar area. Proclaiming the good news, the triumph of good were thoughts it evoked. But the leader of this particular Christian congregation obviously had a deeper understanding of play of dualities in the world because also near the altar were some brass flower holders which when the flowers were removed (I'm a curious sort and with just the photographer present was free to roam the altar) showed the symbol of the Tao. Darkness and light, male and female intertwined. Seperate but linked, with one eminating in turn from the other. Within each the essence of the other.
In the collective colorful populations of the world it's pretty easy to guess which community is the bridge between the two.