Saturday, August 26, 2017
When faced with an upbringing teaching
a false and hypocritical conception of what is good, some kids make
the decision to polarize against this conception of good and to
become what their upbringing considers evil. One may decide that in
this kind of evil is greater truth and greater honesty.
This however too is a game. The
definition of good still belongs with the upbringing. Eventually one
sets oneself up for failure, and the upbringing walks away thinking
that it has been right all along.
The correct solution is to not give the
upbringing the power to define good or evil. It is to find people who
are actually good and learn from them. There are any number of
genuinely good people who want to help out at-risk youth; and many of
them are good for real as opposed to only pretending to be good, as
do the kind of people against whom such kids polarize.
Some of these people are present in
flesh and blood. Others still access us through texts. Jesus taught a
lot of what it means to be good; however the world would not benefit
from everyone following the example of dying on the cross. It would
benefit from people using what they have to offer to benefit the
world. There are any number of ways in which people can do that, and
it works for everyone if at-risk youth is put into presence of
inspirational adults who know what it means to be good and understand
how to teach it to others.
One example of Jesus Christ that we can
in fact follow is that of reaching out to sinners. Once again, the
world does not benefit from people dying en masse on the cross, but
it does benefit from people who know what it means to be good
reaching out to those who do not know what it means to be good. Once
a person understands what being good actually means, he can then make
an informed choice as to whether to be good himself. In many cases
what they have seen is not good but hypocrisy masquerading as good,
and they have made the equation between good and hypocrisy. That is
just as wrong as is equating money with misuses of money or equating
beauty with misuses of beauty. Most things that carry appeal to
people can be used for wrong. That does not make them bad in
themselves. When people who are cold, deceitful or hypocritical claim
that they are the definition of good, some people will make the
mistake of equating good itself with their conduct. They do not
deserve to have that kind of power. They do not define good. Good
existed before they existed; it will continue existing after they are
gone.
The correct solution therefore is to
make a determined choice to find out what good actually is. And I
have found good in all sorts of places, including all sorts of places
where you will expect it the least. I have found genuinely good
qualities both among people who are doing well and among people who
live on the fringe. Any number of people whom many others demonize, I
found to be good people. Now maybe the life choices that I have made
are not available for everyone, which means that it should be
possible for people to have more resources where they can get
guidance. But many of the people who, like myself, have embarked on a
lifetime search have found something; and in many cases it is useful
for the rest of us.
Of the people who make the choice to
live in the darkness, only some are genuinely evil. Most of them
appear to be confused. They are polarizing against a false or
hypocritical definition of good, and they think that there is more
honesty in the darkness. In fact we will find dishonesty just about
everywhere. And we will also find genuine good in all sorts of places
where it is not expected.
My advice to people who are prone to
this choice is as follows. Do not make that mistake. Good is not the
problem; false and hypocritical concept of what is good is the
problem. Do not misconstrue misuses of the value with the value
itself. There is very much such a thing as true good. And it is more
honest and more profound than whatever one will find in the shadows.
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