Sunday, December 20, 2009

Good or Bad ..... Neither

Lately for me the lines between the 'GOOD' abd the 'BAD' are becoming hazier and hazier. I wonder when did good - bad / right - wrong came into picture. Was it always there as an inherent part of everything or did it have a beginning. What we consider good/right/correct now - it sounds a very appropriate means of labelling activities that we perform - but by the meaning of good - is it good?

Here i am trying to say that good and bad are very efficient classifiers of action into two groups - one desirable and other undesirable. But does the meaning of the word good and bad has to do anything with it.

If this separation existed always - then it should have been there even before life began - but then consider the following -

1) Earthquake - destroys geography of entire planet - no life -> good? or bad?
2) Comet collide with planet -> huge destruction??

[sorry for poor imagination - this is all i could think in a world without life]

Then when life began - the first set of molecules that coalesced to exist as life.
They had their cycles - good? or bad?
Some of them started to feed on other microbes - one bacteria eating other - good? or bad?

After a little evolution - larger creatures - feeding on each other - so were carnivorous creatures good? or bad?

When i think about this i feel the good and bad never existed - it came into being not when the first man was murdered - but when someone wanted to take a revenge. In the name of punishing the other - his activities were called 'BAD'. Down the line just like the society things kept getting complicated and complicated - but the basic confusion that i face is - is the 'GOOD' really good? i am sure i want it. And then i see the stricking overlap between what 'I WANT' and what i consider 'GOOD' for me.

Oh the weather is 'BAD' today - its giving me allergies? Can the weather be bad?? its a cycle - neutral.

Then we come to complicated issues like - arent terrorists bad? as a label to distinguish their activities from mine - yes 'BAD' but not bad in its meaning. Yeah so they kill for what they believe - what is new dont we do the same - maybe not humans - but a life is a life. But in their heads they have a reason which is strong enough for them to act this way.

I would try my best to kill a terrorist before he kills others - but does it mean i am doing a 'GOOD' thing - i doubt that. Its like there is a heads to the coin and tails to the coin - thats it. His activites and mine were opposing - he wanted to kill - i did not want him to do that - we have conflict - the stronger wins. Nothing inherently good in what i did and nothing bad what he did. But to label the activities, yes, 'GOOD' and 'BAD' serve the purpose.

What i am suggesting is that good and bad dont exist. Its just activities - i chose to do things in one way - someone else in another - if we are opposing each other - there is clash - i take stand for what i believe - he does the same for himself. We use force - physical or intellectual and try to prove the other wrong. THATS IT. I am not doing any 'GOOD' nor is he doing any 'BAD'. These are just labels.

1 comment:

  1. guess what...i have been thinking similarly and i even remember a conversation with one of my friends on this.....

    well said...

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