Good and bad

Good and bad 

Would I be an Adolf Hitler or a Josef Stalin or Mao? Would I be the person credited for almost ending the world if I had absolute power? Am I a good person or am I evil? Am I in control of my actions or just a puppet stringed along in this parody of a play called life? Is there such a thing called freewill? Is there such a thing called freedom? Am I really conscious? Do I really have thoughts or I am just deluded and everything I know comes from culture and mythology. Do I have it in me to kill in cold blood? To take away existence, confiscate the human soul out of its confines? Do I have faith? Do I believe in God, myself? Am I terrified of death? Can I put my trust in man? Do I have a hatred of life? Would torturing a human being bring me pleasure? Do I love myself? Am I happy? Would I kill my brother and rape my sister? Would I starve millions to make a point? Would I blame others for my inadequacies? Am I the image of God or extremely flawed? Is this all of life; the trees, mountains, seas and the sky? What is the end goal of life? Is it the continual suffering of mankind as stated in religion, mythology and philosophy? Is life worth it? Isn’t ending it mercy? After all consciousness is a disease one that will plague humankind till its doom. 

I am intrigued with the subject of bad and evil – the subject of morality. For years religion has been the driver of instilling morality in society. It contrasted “good” with evil very vivid with the fabrication of heaven and hell. It is a very sophisticated analogy. Heaven is a utopia, a place where suffering is not permitted. While Hell is a place of torment and demons that eat you alive. Life is energy and religion teaches us to practice things that have a high positive energy level. Things that are good for the continual species of man. Religion teaches reason, regulation of impulses and emotions, self-actualization and most importantly love and peace. These ideas or topics calibrate at a high conscious level, they build the soul and make life bearable – they take you to heaven. On the other side of the coin, it depicts a picture of evil. On the tale of Cain and Able, the bible depicts evil as a cancer cell that starts slow and gradually, undetected it multiply like compound interest ultimately consuming all of your soul. Evil is bad. Evil is not conducive. It makes life wither. It operates at a negative energy life. It is hidden and life threatening like the thief in the night. The story of Cain and Able is a very interesting. Cain and Able are the first humans in the world; they come from Adam and Eve while Adam and Eve were created by God. It is because of that, that I can relate better with Cain and Able considering that I am also human. The story tells the tale of how Cain killed his brother Able, because he was favored by God. Cain killed Able to spite God, to hurt God, he killed everything he wanted to be (his brother) to spite the world and it was a conscious action. Rejected by God on a constant, Cain was hurt and he started being conscious of how he felt. Knowing how he felt was the realization and consciousness that he could hurt the world, God and he did it because evil had consumed his soul. Was he wrong to do it? What criteria are we using? Objectively sure because killing another human being is wrong. However, subjectively how can we be sure? Everyone has a little evil in his soul? Cain’s evil just grew. Everyone has the capacity to kill. Before we can give the verdict we need to understand Cain on a subjective level because often truth is subjective. Didn’t God let down Cain? 

Morality like Justice is a hard thing to factor in. Simply because we are human beings, navigating this world and our nature is not known to us. We don’t know what consciousness is and we are always in auto-pilot. Yes, we can stop for a while and contemplate for a while about the world and the events transpiring all around us. However those are not our thoughts, they come from the world, they come from the books that we have read, the movies we have seen, the music we hear, from religion, from philosophy, from academic institutions, the tales our families tell us – in a nutshell culture, we have no original thoughts – everything in the world is always getting refreshed and rebooted to meet our current stance – that’s if you have the right frequency and energy needed to merge with what’s in the world. The world is feminine energy – chaotic! Hidden to us like the reproductive organs of a female and maybe that’s why need we objective criteria to serve as order. However, we are deluding ourselves. We are all hypocrites. After all, If I had absolute power in Germany with the backing of the SS, at the back of World War one when Germany suffered greatly, In a period where War and invading other countries was the norm and with my specific make-up and how I grew up; maybe I could have been Adolf Hitler. Instigating war and killing people to prove that I am the ultimate alpha. Torturing people and experimenting with them like Guinea pigs. Propagating Propaganda because of my denial of death and attempts at immortality. Maybe I could have been Hitler invading other countries and killing its people. Spreading tyranny and fear with terrorism and death. Imposing my ideas on the world and killing Jews for my entertainment. With absolute power, what would I not do? We all have a little Hitler in ourselves. Maybe I would have been Hitler had I been born in the age that he was born into, had I experienced everything that he experienced as a boy, maybe I would have been Hitler had I been in the Socialist party. I could have been Hitler, a bad man, an evil man in the objective criteria of the world. He is a bad man, an evil man because he violated people. He stripped people off their dignity, of their manhood. He experimented on people and tortured them while they were still alive. He killed people. The thing that makes you a good person is empathy and sympathy. Hitler did not have that and I can conclude that he was a bad man, an evil man.

The topic of good and bad is a difficult one because when is good bad or bad good? Is it definite like math or infinite like numbers? The beauty of the tales in the bible is that they can be interpreted in a million views. I don’t think Cain is bad or evil. He committed a bad and evil crime but considering he is human, he can be saved and redeemed. He killed Able because he operated on the lower levels of consciousness. Fortunately when you are down, the only way to go is up! With love, an energy force calibrating higher than everything he can be saved. He can find Peace and Joy and later attain Enlightenment. Cain can be the light of the world if we don’t lose faith in him. 

In the Spiderman franchise Directed by Sam Raimi we see a drastic change in Spiderman’s character and demeanor. He goes from being bright and positive swinging from building to building to being dark, edgy and angry. This is reflected on the change of costumes from Red and Blue to completely Black. What we know about Spiderman from the first two installments of the movie is that he tries to use his powers for the benefit of humankind. He saves people from physical harm. He dedicates himself to the salvation of men. He is at the peril of men. Crime is very low in the busy city of New York City. He instills order in the chaotic city of New York. He is a hero. He is also morally aligned, he always does good things not necessarily for him but for everyone else. As Peter Parker he denies himself the pleasures of the world like being with the woman he loves Mary-Jane Watson because he is Spiderman. He is often broke, failing to pay rent in his little apartment room that is fit for a peasant. And because he is always out in about saving the world, he doesn’t have the time to do his assignments resulting in the accumulation of poor grades. His professor thinks he is brilliant though and doesn’t understand why Peter Parker just won’t apply himself more. Peter Parker is heroic in all spheres of life. The juggling of his superhero life, personal life, academic life and he still has a job as a photographer for the city’s newspaper company – his efforts are honorable and superb. Despite the fact that he is often broke, he doesn’t have the urge to rob a bank or shop, I find that admirable. The best quote of the whole franchise is “I believe there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, noble and finally allows us to die with pride. Even though sometimes we have to be steady and give up the things we want the most. Even our dreams.” It is a powerful quote, one that defines the life of Peter Parker. 

Everything in Peter Parker’s life changes when he learns that the man who killed his uncle on the first installment of the movie is still alive and remarkably escaped the confines of prison. Filled with outrage and anger, Peter Parker puts on his Black suit costume and hunts down “Flint Marco”. He hunts him down with the intention of killing him. He locates him and they engage in battle. Peter Parker wins the battle and the last words he utters are “Good riddance” indicating the demise of Marco Flint. It is the first time that we see Spiderman doing something that is morally wrong. What he committed was not justice. This was frontier justice – it is putting the law in your hands. What gives you the right to murder someone else? Is it because he murdered your uncle years ago? That is not a justified response. It is wrong.  Oswaldo Mowbray (the Hangman of Red Rock) explores “Frontier Justice” on the brilliant Quentin Tarantino movie “The Hateful Eight” released in 2013. “If you're found guilty, the people of Red Rock will hang you in the Town Square. And as the Hang Man, I will perform the execution. And, if all those things end up taking place, that's what civilized society calls 'Justice'. , However, if the relatives, and the loved ones of the person you murdered were outside that door right now, and after BUSTING down that door....they drag you out into the snow and hang you up by the neck, that would be Frontier Justice. To me it doesn't matter what you did. When I hang you I'll get no satisfaction from your death. It's my job. I hang you in Red Rock, I move on to the next town. I hang someone else there.”

Luckily Marco Flint survived. Spiderman would have killed an innocent man. Marco Flint was a victim of circumstance. Yes, he killed Uncle Ben but he didn’t intent to. He was not even aggressive and hostile towards him. His only mistake was that the gun was loaded and it went off accidentally. Marco Flint was an accident murder. It was not his intent to kill Uncle Ben. He didn’t want to resort to robbing people to get money but he needed to do that. He had a motive. A morally justified motive. His daughter was dying and he needed money to save her. That was his only crime, his love for his daughter. Marco Flint committed murder but is he a bad and evil man? Cain killed Able to spite the world, God and himself. Is he a bad and evil man? Hitler, Stalin and Mao killed millions for their amusement. Are they bad and evil men? Where do we draw the line? What is our criteria? Which murder is morally correct? Which man is good? Which man is bad? Can you honestly state that you are a good person and believe it?