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[edit] Words of wisdom
The overwhelming desire for righteousness is at the core of all evil. Those wishing to become greatest heroes will most likely end up becoming greatest villains. Justice, peace, liberty, truth, etc., are fairly relative concepts, based mainly upon various social & cultural compromises. Zealous pursuit of such vaguely defined (or undefined) terms as one's absolute goals will likely bring about only more suffering, wars, inequality and oppression. As history has shown us over and over again, the most dreaded of totalitarian regimes were often inspired by some of purest ideas for a better world, with a clearly defined concept of how to destroy evil, purge the world of imperfections and bring about universal justice, peace and harmony. The practical result of this was most often some sort of genocide. This should be kept in mind especially by people with strong religious beliefs, who most often tend to be self-righteous and very quick to judge others based on their own beliefs, which they consider universal. Keep in mind, then, that by judging others, you assume for yourself the position of God you believe in, and thus in fact identify yourself with the Devil, the source and the beginning of all evil, who, according to tradition of Abrahamic religions, rebelled against its Creator seeking to replace him; or, as a folk saying in my country would put it "he wanted to be holier than God himself". Indeed, if there is some sort of supreme, omnipotent and benevolent entity whose hobby just happens to be watching over our species, we cannot but assume he cares for all human beings equally, regardless of their flaws & sins. If there is no such being, or we cannot be aware of its existance, what still remains is an (perhaps?) unfortunate state of reality that the worst of human scum, mass murderers, football players, drug lords, managers, politicians, pedophiles, etc., are also people of flesh and blood just like you and me. It is perhaps just dumb luck that we have not ended as them; there is a little tyrant, terrorist or journalist in everyone of us, and simple circumstances of our lives (you may call it a fate, if you want, it is just another term for coincidence) bring out the best or the worst of us. Evil, inasmuch as good, is a product of human deeds and affairs, and thus cannot be destroyed (unless humanity on whole is wiped out from the face of the Earth, something that various forms of totalitarianism have explored through experiments of genocides); it can be, however, forgiven, talked to, sometimes reasoned with or understood and, hopefully, neutralised to a reasnoble, acceptable degree.
This, of course, does not mean one should stop trying to make a world (and himself) better. It is just a question of how many bridges one can burn along the way. The end does not justify the means simply because there is never no final end; every end sooner or later turns into another mean for another end. Thus, our means, methods and deeds are what truly define us, not our beliefs, ideals or goals. The path that we take is what is truly important, not the goal to which we strive.
[edit] Awards
For your nice work pertaining to the
Slavic mythology, I,
Ghirlandajo, award you the
Exceptional Newcomer Award. Keep up the good work!
