Redemption, Darth Vader and a Parental Teachable Moment
**Warning: semi-inarticulate philosophizing ahead, triggered by thinking about something Rebecca just posted.**
Ok, quick, tell me: do you believe people are essentially good, or essentially evil? And do we always stay the same, or can we change?
My first reaction is generally to believe that all people are essentially good, but a bunch of things can possibly screw one up so that one slides down into evil deeds. In reality, I'd go so far as to say that at least on the observable behavioral front, all people are a mix and most of us are somewhere closer to the middle of the good/evil matrix than either of the two extremes (actually I don't think the absolute edge of the extremes--pure good or pure evil--truly do exist in humans). Call it the "bell curve of human nature" if you will. I think we fluctuate back and forth along the curve throughout our lives (sometimes from day to day!), depending on what environment, personality, and, let's be honest, fate serve up to us.
Why do I ask? Well, I was actually just having the "no one is ever entirely evil" conversation with Eli and his two little buddies in the car yesterday--in the context of Star Wars, of course. They were all animatedly discussing how Anakin used to be good and then he turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader. Then one little guy piped up that even when Anakin was Darth Vader, Luke said he (Darth) still had some good in him. I seized my teachable moment (well, I tried anyway, I'm not sure how much they were actually listening) and said as firmly as I could "well, you know, kids, Luke was right. No one is ever entirely a bad guy, even Darth Vader. There is always at least a little good in everyone." This caused them to protest that hey, Darth Sidious (aka the Emperor) was entirely evil, to which the other mom and I both responded nearly in unison, "even the Emperor has some good in him somewhere."
It's a lesson I think that's hard for 4 year old boys to take in, obsessed as they are with superheros and good vs. evil fantasies. But it's one I hope they get, eventually: not only that real people are a mix of good *and* evil, but that no matter how bad someone seems, they still have some good in them somewhere and you can't discount that. When he's older, I hope Eli believes that redemption is always possible, and fervently to be pursued--for ourselves, as well as for others. I want to tell him, like I'm telling you, like I'm telling myself here: it is the struggle towards good, towards doing good, that is simultaneously life's purpose and most difficult test. It will often be some sort of struggle to do good, to be good; but that struggle, that choice we make, is what actually gives life meaning.
This brings me to a belief I've held for a long time. You know how everyone's always saying "youth can afford idealism" or somesuch? It seems to me that, in the final analysis, idealism is nothing more than extremism, it's a very positive-sounding euphemism for it. The vast majority of the time, an "Ideal" is an extreme. Whether it's socialism, The Force, America's Top Model, thinness, the best-selling novel, whatever. It's an extreme of one sort or another. And what is getting older but losing idealism, which, with my definitions taken into consideration, means loss of extremism? To me, one critical aspect of gaining life experience and getting older (and hopefully wiser -- perhaps this is the very definition of wisdom) is gaining the perspective to recognize that there is a little _______ in everyone, that extremes (ideals), while handy, attractive, and compelling, don't really exist and if followed rigorously rarely have good outcomes. Can Good be an extreme? I say yes. Eliminate all Evil, and you lose any defintion of Good. Without our shadows, our dark sides, Luke becomes nothing more than another R2D2. He needs the pull of power, the attraction of darkness, to force his choice and therefore allow him to exhibit the virtue that makes him good.
Just some thoughts...
...I know you've all been waiting for me to weigh in on this one...
I would go as far as to say I do not believe in the existence of evil as an independent entity from good, or really vice-versa. The best sense or idea of doing good I've heard I borrow from the Jewish religion, which is 'Mitzfah', or 'hitting the mark', literally. It's as if we're aiming all of our actions and intentions at a target and the closer we get to bullseye, the closer our actions come to 'good'. Conversely, to miss the mark is to do less good, and to totally shoot in the other direction is 'evil', but it still is defined in terms of the target, the good. Now, take that idea and mix in everyone's perspective on where the target lay, and you get a very complex scenario. Our soceity serves to orient the great majority of its participants at the same target, so everyone's aiming for the same good, but not everyone participates. In fact, some shoot at different targets, and those who do both are doing good by their own standards, and evil by others. Basically, judgement between good and evil is normative, and depends greatly on the perspective of society at large, and the individual in specific. To relate good and evil, is kin to saying 'hot' and 'cold', where each is defined by the other, and the judgement of the quality of either comes by the perspective of the judger. However, just as in 'hot' and 'cold', the world has its boundary conditions it sets on the subject. Something that is burning is undeniably hot, at least in a certain sense. it may not be hot as the sun, but it's in the 'hot' arena. Something that is frozen is 'cold', in the same way. Even these are normative to an extent, but the point I guess is, somethings are easier to judge than others. Things such as murder and theft seem to rank on the 'evil' side, and things like saving a life, or giving love to children seem to rank on the 'good' side. These are not absolutes, really, but just part of the experience of being human. Other beings with different make-ups might have totally different judgements. In fact, different cultures of humans at different times have had different ideas around these subjects. Holy Wars and human sacrifice were/are seen in some cultures as being the highest level of piety. Anyhow, I've babbled enough. :)