RULED by the Evils, Part II
Where do evil people come from anyway?
“Love people. Do good. Fear nothing.
What do you think happens to evil people?”
“They succeed! History shows that. The Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Ottomans, the British, the Aztechs, the Khans, the Jews, the Qin’s, the Reichs, the Samurais, the Americans, the Shaka Zulus, the French revolutionaries, etc…
I want to succeed. This is evolution! The “fittest” will survive! One must be strong. One must be powerful. One must have wealth. One must have an empire.
Darwin got us here. Darwin is here. Darwin will lead us thence.
I get all your “goodness”, and “sacrificing” …
But it is all just naivete, and frankly, laziness.
Look at what the Romans created. Look at what the Persians passed down. The Germans. The Japanese. The British. The Egyptians. The Americans!
So that’s your answer. Evil people succeed! No amount of lamentations by Jeremiah the prophet; and no amount of “praying the Psalm” by King David can fix that! Here we are, living in the world built by Barbarians, Vikings, warrior Greeks, Romans, Persians and oppressive Egyptians.”
“I see.”
“I appreciated the points you were making… sort of. I am just not sure if you have interest in human progress whatsoever. Seems life according to you is just rosy, blissful and passive….”
“Wait!”
“YOU must wait! Wait for what? To hear that I must go on… To be defeated? To be weak? To be like a child, a woman, a gay man, a crippled, a hermit, a monk, a priest, a saint, a scapegoat, a sheep, a chicken, a fly, an ant ready to be trampled on, a dog dependent on morsels coming down from the tables of kings, a pet, a pawn, a slave, a victim, a vagabond, a vegan, a dependent, a beneficiary?”
“None of those things!”
“What? Is that not what being “good”, kind, honest, “sacrificial”, naked, vulnerable, sick and despicable are all about?”
“Certainly. NOT!”
“Please… stick to your position consistently at least!”
“I am.”
“What?”
“Yes”
“What are on earth are you saying!”
[silence]
[silence]
[silence]
“Oh… I see what your response is likely to be.
You are likely to say that “good” people are not despicable after all. Which is unfortunately the case!
I grant that “some” good people benefit society by keeping some law and order in place. In times of revolt, they are the ones keeping our children, women and crippled ones taken care of. In times of peace, they are the ones giving us art, clothing, hospitals, hospices, restaurants, designs, songs, music, poetry, writings, enjoyment, and classic religion.
I am not sure if you have considered that such “good” people tend to be ungrateful for the real men and women who go to war. I am also not sure if such “good” people are really necessary in times of peace. Someone needs to “maintain” that peace. And it is us, the strong ones who keep the peace alive!
Clearly, such a view of “love”, “good” and “fearlessness” is truly naive!
The world is truly brutal. Even “evil” people are not really evil. They are simply humans who are stronger and that have found superior means of survival.
“Goodness” is frankly inferior and maybe even EVIL (when one considers the harm it potentially causes to our women and children). Once those “defenses” are gone. What have we got left?”
[silence]
“I do hope you see how entirely mistaken you are.”
[silence]
[silence]
“I am not mistaken. At all.
Thanks for wasting my time by telling me what I already knew!
I have deliberately given you time, space and freedom to fully express and assess your position in response to mine. Now I will show you the error, insipidness, and the barren hollowness of your ways!
Firstly, consider that you “possess” no set of rules for the “inferior” peoples: the children, the women, the crippled, the vagabonds, etc. What are “they” supposed to do? Since your system is based on violence, it would make sense for these “rejects” to attempt an onslaught on the “few” and strong. Failing which, maybe we should aim for a form of “goodness by statistical significance” in which the majority “votes” and decides on the various realities and consequences of being human. Note that the first option is the most likely. But it only leads to a series of endless wars as was witnessed with the slave revolutions in the Roman empire. Some of those slave peoples eventually become empires: the Vikings/French-German-Russian, the Barbarians (the British-Americans). So it’s a pointless repetitive loop of human existence and regression. As for the second option, which undoubtedly looks “better” than the first… it actually defeats your premise: that strength in derived from within (as weakness is equally derived from ignorance). This option leads to “statistics” being the decider of progress, not power or strength. It’s the French revolution all over!
Secondly, even if the strong are the strong and shall be, the strong, for eternity… it makes for a rather convoluted view of power. What, in the end, is power for? Perhaps it is meant exclusively for oppression; which will consequently result in even more power (indeed, the most permanent way to sustain it). Let us grant that power is meant to be : that might is right, might is beauty, and might is love. What will that mean for YOUR and MY existence? It would mean that I am meant to “get” it (particularly from others). It’s the very definition of the accumulation game plagued by its own infinite recursive-ness. As I said before:
“Nakedness is bliss. Honesty is gold. Sacrifice is prosperity”
The reality is : existential realism or beauty comes from freedom. There is no freedom in power; no freedom in pursuing power; no freedom in submitting to power. The moment we shift our conversation from “good and evil” to power… we would need to immediately submit that we are definitively powerless to discuss that subject. Power is power. Only truly powerful men and women can wield its content, subjects and conclusions. The conversation ends. We would have definitively given up the freedom to discuss the subject of existentialism and “goodness”. Freedom, truly, comes from within. Not from power…
Thirdly, you need to immediately cease looking at the world through the lenses of “numbers” and “sizes”. That’s certainly and clearly your prerogative. But please understand that those particular lenses are defective and frankly useless. When you use words like “despicable”, “weak”, “crippled”, “children” and “victim”; to whom are you referring? Do you realise that it is definitively impossible to define those categories? And when and how will those particular categories be applied to real flesh and blood humans? Let’s pick probably the most powerful man that has ever lived, say Augustus Caesar. In what sense do we “qualify” if he wasn’t “despicable/weak/crippled/child/victim”. In “relation” to the masses, he is NONE of those things. But in “relation” to time, he ABSOLUTELY doesn’t matter in the 21st century… no one is constantly consulting, assessing and “checking” the Great Emperor’s majesty to determine what they should do next… Besides, even during his reign, he was still limited by space, his power was “limited” by his physicality and the extent of trust he placed on his immediate subjects and co-conspirators. In these latter senses, he was as likely to be “despicable/weak/crippled/child/victim”. There is NO escaping this! But if one insists on your lenses of “numbers” and “sizes”, then one is tempted to think that such a thing as “real” power can be “attained” by a human!
You see, even if you are right that there are “measurements” of beauty and strength… they become entirely self-referential and self-contradictory; leaving you with nothing.
Power is power. But it can’t be measured. Beauty is beauty. But it can’t be assessed. Love is love. But it can’t be scientifically proven.
Which leaves you with the reality of having to forsake your “size-centric” lenses first before seriously considering the case for goodness.
The case for goodness requires no lenses! It requires no submission! It requires no power; no strength; no accumulations; no greed; no reference points; no “protections”.
The case for goodness! This is the truth : we are all equal. We are all both good and evil. Both weak and strong. Both despicable and beautiful. Both true and false!”
“Oh dear… more paradoxes. From you? I must say I am not surprised!”
“This is NOT a paradox! It is reality. For your ears sake : it is real power!”
“What??? To hell with this!”
“Pardon me.
I meant to say that it is more meaningful than blindly and fearingly dedicating your entire life to attaining power.
Once fear is ridden of. You are truly free and powerful.”
“How does one do that?”
“By believing.”
[silence]
[silence]
“Believe in Jesus?”
“Uhm...
That’s not entirely the point I was getting at.
Maybe belief is the wrong category.
You have to sacrifice! Your entire life. Your entire existence!
You were right! It was the wild Barbarians, Vikings, Romans, Samurai, Reichs, Greeks, Persians and Egyptians that built modernity!
But there is no need for that wildness to be directed AT other humans/the-universe. That wildness can be directed TOWARDS progress. TOWARDS beauty, love and creative growth. There is power. Then, there is growth. Power is only “real” and “stable” for a time and place. But growth moves, responds, adapts, emerges…
See? If “goodness” is only about passive love; then there would ACTUALLY be no requirement for “fearlessness”.”
“How does one both cultivate and eradicate the fear then?”
Anger causes fear within oneself and others.
One shalt have a healthy fear for thyself!”
