zaknafein543's Xanga

On the Concepts of Good and Evil....

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 01:12:29 GMT

Before reading this first ask yourself what you believe the main role to be in determining whether you believe a person to be good or evil. Do you believe it to be the intent behind an action or the result of the action that determines this? If you believe it to be the result, or effects of an action that determine whether or not the person committing them is good or evil, then you are stuck in the stone age and need help out of it. If you believe it to be what is in people’s hearts that counts you are much like me and most people today. Now that we we’ve established that it’s what’s in the heart that counts let me present you with a scenario…

Hypothetically- what if a person believed that only people who have been murdered go to heaven? Then, would it truly be evil for him to go around killing people in order to save them from hell? This may be a drastic concept for those who haven’t thought about these things before or a relatively simple one for those who have. All I’m trying to establish here is that nobody can truly be judged from actions alone. Actions may lead you down the wrong path in understanding somebody else’s motivations. And since nobody has really any clue what is in anybody else’s heart, nobody has a right to judge others.

Let me present to you another reason that the actions of an individual are a barbaric method in determining his alignment. I must do this first and foremost by destroying the pre-conceived notion of “good” by saying that all actions are selfish. Even an action like giving money to the poor has it’s rewards for the person doing it- it makes them feel good on the inside. Is that not selfishness? Doing something for your own emotional benefit because you feel good about it? People get too caught up in their actions believing them to be “good” as they look down on thieves and murderers believing them to be “evil”. In the end everybody is out for themselves. I’m not saying that you should quit helping people, because I like to help people. I’m just saying that you should be humble about it and get off of your high-horse. Everybody is just as bad as everybody else. And guess what? Actions don’t matter!

If actions can’t be good or evil then what can be? Ralph Waldo Emerson is somebody I’ve gained quite a bit of insight from. He believed in a “universal soul” that everybody is a part of. He believed everybody to be a part of God. Cells in a body will often work together to make the body better. In the same way he believed all of us to be a part of the same force that is working towards a better end . If you strip everything down and simplify everything it should be apparent that we aren’t in control over any action we do and we are in fact being carried on by the force that “God” is a part of. Think about it. When you are born you have an extremely basic personality that leads you to make your first decision. The next decision you make is based off of your experiences from the first decision and your personality. Can you really help any decision you make? It’s the manner of interpretation you were born with that determines everything you do. Now imagine that you were knocked out as a baby and cloned. Imagine that the clone was given the exact same personality as you and placed in an environment exactly the same as yours. Wouldn’t you both live your lives out in exactly the same manner?

With computers if you input certain information you will get a certain output. If you go over to an identical computer and you input the same thing you will get the same output as what the first computer gave you. People are exactly the same way and that is why the clones would live their lives out in exactly the same manner. We are the result of everything put into us. And the personalities we were born with are the start of the plethora of decisions we make. This is why I believe decisions made by other people can never really be judged. Every single person is the result of everything they’ve been through and you just need to sort of trust that the personalities that nature gave them are only furthering our evolution. And if everything is in fact working towards this better end that Emerson described, then how could any action be truly good or evil? If absolutely everything is working together than absolutely everything is good.

Absolutely everything is good. For some sad reason people have trouble realizing this. Picture this absolute goodness that everybody is a part of to be like the core of the earth. It is the fire within us- the center of everything. It transcends physical actions (actions aren’t important in determining good or evil, remember?) and simply exists as the core. Now, as people are exposed to the world they begin to adapt to their environment and they begin to learn things. They learn that stealing will get them what they want so they resort to it. They learn all kinds of other little tricks and shortcuts to get them what they want. All of this is what society considers evil and builds up the rock surrounding the core. When other members of society (being the selfish bastards they are) see this evil their immediate action is to say “no!” and they often punish the member who was committing an act that they’ve learned will get them what they want. Because of this, people start steering clear of these actions because they are afraid of the consequences. This creates a false “good” that is simply created through fear. People are doing what society believes to be “good” and they believe themselves to be “good” people because they are doing as they are told. (*cough cough*). This false sense of good builds up as the crust of the earth and only pulls people further away from the core. “Evil” actions are closer to the core than “good” actions are. Herein lies the problem. Most people live on the crust of the earth in a false sense of goodness. They see the evil lurking just below the surface and they are often afraid of it. If one were to truly examine this sense of evil and dig their way through it they would find that they aren’t really evil at all. Good is not found within the method of existence. Good is discovered through existence itself. (wow, you should quote me on the last two sentences….it would make a really nice quote)

Friday, October 20, 2006

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:06:58 GMT

I was just looking at the concept of a social contract and isn't it completely ridiculous? I mean really.....think about it.....if you disagreed with it would there be any way for you to fight it?.........I might post more about it later.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Sat, 07 Oct 2006 12:28:36 GMT

"Ever feel the same way? Slave to the brain wave
Brave if you pave ways through to the true you"

In the transmutation of earth to mud

the earth rises up to drown in the flood

among the chaos a flower grows

the flower teaches what one person knows

and what appeared to be the earth's bitter strife

has sprouted from it's heart a brand new life

the water has drenched a brand new spring

the single flower will lead the earth to sing

the flower's song has planted brand new seeds

the garden from the seeds will replace the weeds.

The water means change and change is good.

If you have the courage you can flood the world.

By: Me!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 00:52:48 GMT

sometimes I unwind
look back to the passing of time
sometimes I feel
those days become unreal
our lives are fashioned by things that come from outside
control so indirect we don't even realize
someday my instincts will be things I can trust
someday too much conditioning could make me self destruct
someday I'll fall back on values I've created in time
someday I'll have the chance to take back what's mine
sometimes I say
it's just gonna be that way
sometimes I hear
my own words come out unclear

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 14:15:04 GMT

I imagine that my thoughts are going to be hard to state in a way to where everyone reading this can comprehend them. I’m making an attempt though to transfer this influx of thoughts and ideas I’ve had into tangible words. This is funny considering my thoughts on words are similar to my thoughts on numbers.

Anyway, I believe the entire numbering system to be flawed except perhaps for the number “1”. Even this number is not the same as most people interpret it. Let’s take a look at an apple. One apple. Who came up with the idea first of all? To have one, or two, or three of something? Somebody created a system that works and everybody bought into it. Take for example if I created a system know as “bumbers”. I’m sure I could get it to work for a few things. Others may eventually build off of it and we would eventually have an entire system that works for things. While the system would work for itself and everything it incorporates it wouldn’t necessarily be true. Numbers are the same way. They work off of and build off of each other but what they are based on is just something somebody thought up.

Let’s refer back to the “one apple” I mentioned earlier. It is in fact not one but part of something else. And several other things are a part of it. The apple is part of a tree, that is part of it’s nourishment, that is part of everything around it. The apple is made up of cells that are made up of individual parts of the cell (and who knows what lies under that!). The apple does not in fact equal “one” but “infinity”! To throw something like the number one into something such as an equation is to blind ourselves to it’s other aspects. Yet our minds are trained growing up to only believe that one equals itself. In fact everything is “one” because everything is a part of “one”. If all of this is true then when we harm others we are in fact harming a part of ourselves. When we help others we are helping ourselves. And if you put “1” in for every answer on a math test you would technically be right.

Then again “one” doesn’t really make sense. If “one” is “infinity” and “infinity” is one then neither of them have any real value for themselves. One represents everything else and everything else represents one. In any math class I can sit around and go through the motions of the equations but I feel as though I’m being left behind. While everybody else seems to accept everything I’m still left in the dust pondering what “one” really means.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:28:12 GMT

"I'm all lost in the supermarket
I can no longer shop happily
I came in here for that special offer
A guaranteed personality"

I believe that people are born good. Good meaning innocent, pure, and all that stuff. Picture this goodness being the core or center of the earth. Now- as people are exposed to different physical stresses they react to them in ways we consider bad. It is the need for the physical and experimenting with the environment that creates what we know as evil. If a child learns that stealing will get him what he wants then he will adapt to the environment and begin to steal things. The child essentially learns to steal. The environment is his teacher. Now take everything people have learned in their lives and picture it as the rock surrounding the core of the earth. Now- as the child gets caught stealing he gets punished for it. The child doesn't learn from this that stealing is wrong- he just learns that stealing is bad for him. Next time when he decides not to steal it won't be because he doesn't want to upset whoever he is taking it from-it will be because he is afraid of the consequences. In different situations like this when society encounters what it believes to be evil it tries to cover it up. Instead of going back to the core, it covers it up with a thin layer of laws and regulations. Picture this layer being like the crust of the earth. Essentially I believe people to be good. As we begin to learn we start to drift toward what we know as evil. But the stuff we learn isn't really that important! We learn how to eat and survive and crap like that but there is much more to life then that. The physical world shouldn't be so important as to harm others in order to survive. And instead of correcting the issue society tries to cover it up with the entire crime/punishment thingy. This seems like a major problem to me. I'm not sure how to fix this problem or any crap like that. I just sort of simply know it exists. Maybe somebody smarter than me can think of something....

take care everybody,
Michael

Monday, August 28, 2006

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:35:06 GMT

Walking down these empty streets

where children live and people sleep

drifting through a sad excuse

hoping it's only a prelude.

For days will come

and days will go

you'll throw your seconds

out the window

hoping a day will come

where said actions are done

The physical world is only a dream

you float through it as though this were true

But in you heart your heart you know you lie-

if it were a dream why wouldn't you fly?

By: Me

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:36:26 GMT

Wow...there is a lot I feel like saying right now but I can't really find the words . I guess I'm going to talk about my uncle instead. I guess technically he was sort of a bum. He was sort of homeless but he enjoyed it. Instead of finding a good job and settling down he traveled across the country doing odd jobs for cash. He would use the money to by himself cars at auctions that he would drive until they broke down . After the cars broke down he would get out and start walking. He had a great personality too. Everybody who talked to him really liked him and he had a lot of wisdom to offer. He never really missed church on sunday's either. He would always find a way to make it and he would always bring people with him. Different church every sunday. But he wasn't arrogant or anything about it either. I don't know. Everybody just seems realy concerned about jobs and money and stuff. If I grow up to be as free and happy as he was I don't think I would mind it at all. I think I would enjoy it a lot.

I found this on somebody's website and I thought it was hilarious-

Monastery Life

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

He goes down into t he dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. ? Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him.? He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing,

"We missed the "R" ! , we missed the "R" !"

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.? The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, Father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was... CELEBRATE!!!"

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 12:53:17 GMT

"Hey there lookin' at me
Tell me what do you see
But you quickly turn your head away
Try to find the words I could use
Don't have the courage to come up to you
My chance is looking a bit grey"

Hmm... I'm not really sure what I should be writing about. I guess I should start by writing about something that has been bothering me a little bit- and that's the entire good/evil concept. Everything we do seems to be selfishly motivated! I mean- if you see somebody giving money to the poor or something you think to yourself, "what a great person". In reality though you should be analyzing why he does it. Could it be because he wants to help people out? If that is the case then by helping people out he fulfills his own emotional desire to help them.He helps them in order to fulfill his own desire! Helping them benefits him! He is giving money to the poor for his own benefit. Is that not selfishness? Just something I've been thinking about.......

Oh yeah in case anybodies interested in what his happening to me physically I now have a g/f- Martina in case anybody knows her. lol, I don't think I even know her last name yet...

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 16:16:55 GMT

This book I read was just completely awesome. There is so much beauty and depth in it that it's indescribable. Everybody should read it. Sorry if I've been mean to people, selfish, or any shit like that. I love you guys!

Take care,

Michael

* here's my schedule

1st hr-comp and tech (thompson)

2nd hr- precalc/trig (vancleave)

3rd hr- hon us hist 2 (martin)

4th hr- seminar (trusty)

5th hr- physics (maltz)

6th hr- Rotc

7th hr- English (henning)

8th hr- psychology (jennifer)