Good and Evil II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vku0LcbNSzo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_VSJQeLjwI

Peter Kopa, 23.12.2020

Morale on a personal leve

Moral good and evil is a universal factual truth which every man perceives inexorably in the depths of his self, of his conscience, as well as his inclination to evil, and at the same time his desire to follow his conscience to good. This dichotomy is dramatically explained by Saint Paul in the New Testament, and is the basic subject of fine arts, movies, et cetera. It is at the same time a manifestation of equality among men, and nobody has the right to make a judgment about whether a particular person is bad. Yes, on the other hand, a positive judgment can be made, because in principle every man is supposed to be good, unless the contrary is evident.

Man is not a ‘chemically pure’ combination of his spiritual powers of reason and will, but there are also instincts, feelings and passions in him, which more or less strongly influence his free actions. His ‘construction defect’ makes it difficult for the human person to impose the dictates of his intelligence against those tendencies, irrational and at the same time attractive, when they move him to something immoral. In this struggle of the person, to follow the law of his conscience, his very freedom is at stake: the more he yields to moral evil, the less freedom he will have in the face of further inner struggles.

Judaeo-Christian wisdom has always been very clear about the moral weakness of the individual in front of temptation. Therefore, education during the first years of life is crucial, and is produced above all by the good example of parents, facilitated by natural love for one’s child. The profound educational process takes place in the formation of the conscience according to the natural moral law summarized in the Decalogue, which is to the wisdom revealed by God.

Ignoring the inclination to evil, so frequent in our time, is a naivety that produces disastrous consequences that are in sight. For example, it is very imprudent to mix boys and girls in a tent, on the occasion of a school camp, or to let the patrimony of a company be managed by a single employee, without controls, or that a public official has the power to manage without controls the money of the State, etc. These examples, unfortunately, are real and are largely due to Rousseau’s teachings, which hold that man is born good, and only later can he be morally wronged by the bad example he receives in his social environment.  Thus, for example, he says that it is enough for man to know what is good to embrace it immediately throughout his life.

The impact of the environment

I think that technological advancement has been, is, and will continue to be good in itself, even if it gives occasion for moral degradation to some who have not received a solid formation from their parents and then in school. Specifically, the economic market, which offers all kinds of benefits, uses technology to seduce man to ever greater consumption, because it is what increases sales and profits. This is really one of the dark sides of socio-economic and political freedom, which, despite its limitations, is the best system that both ensures maximum production at minimum cost and is what best protects the freedom of the citizen. But at the same time  should be  improved the ethical and spiritual formation of man, so that he keeps his lordship towards opulence and, so that he does not end up crawling, like a miserable slave, behind money, drugs, alcohol, sex and so many other dependencies that can give him only some few moments of pleasure at the price of selling his own soul to the devil and having an unhappy life.

Why does materialistic atheism seduce

The answer to this question is given by Dostojewsky: if God does not exist, everything is permitted. In other words, without God, man not only loses knowledge of his identity as king of the Universe, destined by his nature to enjoy God eternally, but at the same time the very conception of the moral rule is blurred in him, before the attraction of the apparent freedom without barriers. In the background of this process, what the individual wants is to be like God, without any ties or limitations, and to decide for himself what is good or bad for him. This attitude of rebellion is precisely what led Adam and Eve to commit the disobedience of original sin, thus opening in man that permanent wound of the ‘construction defect’ mentioned above. Thus, the various atheistic ideologies are nothing more than conceptions and mental structures r aimed to provide a justification for one’s conscience, which in reality continues to ask for another justification, that of repentance and new conversion to God.

For this reason, the highest tragedy of man is to die in a state of separation from God: this is the drama of so many Judases throughout history. And for this very reason, when one rejects God, one comes to the extreme of hating and fighting him, exactly as do the ideologies of communism, Nazism, nihilism, etc. We all experience in our heart the prelude to this drama, which throughout our lives makes us feel our vulnerability. Who hasn’t felt envy, who hasn’t thought or spoken ill of someone, who hasn’t felt the grip of lust or the insinuations of one’s own ego, demanding exaltation and recognition etc?. How often many luxury cars are bought for appearances? The same can happen with cruise trips, with some dress or sports equipment, etc., etc.

Then, by going to greater vices, an amoral man will fall more easily into infidelity, administrative corruption, excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs, which very soon will make him be seen in the face that he is not a reliable person, so his friends will be only those who approve his behavior.

Good always outweighs evil

That said, good is always stronger than evil, both personally and socially and politically. Although the media always paint things much worse than they are, one has to ask, why hasn’t anyone bothered to statistically inventory the good?  For example, it is taken for granted that millions of parents dedicate themselves with love to their children, millions and billions go to their daily work to support their family, talk to their friends, help the needy and suffer so many other people’s ills.  This enormous silent majority is what keeps this wonderful modern world of ours going, taking good for granted. They are the ones who with their taxes maintain the structures of state power that so many times manipulate the people with lies and even sacrifice them in wars and exploit them through corruption, like sheep destined to leave all their wool, to end up in the slaughterhouse.

And we should not forget the millions and millions who behave badly just because no one has given them a good example, a good education in the family, but rather they have been practically forced by so many sad circumstances to behave immorally, continually suffering the condemnation of their conscience. But this does not mean that they lose their dignity as men, nor do they lose their human rights.

And these same people -they are legions-, throughout their lives, have partly come to their senses and have managed to straighten out their lives towards the good: we see this in the people who follow Jordan Peterson, who clearly say that religion matters a lot. We also see it in so many other examples, which occur without spectacle or news, in the silence of one’s own conscience. The good is not seeking to be applauded, acting hidden, without noise, so it is only news when it reaches the heroic self-immolation, provided it meets the conditions to be sold as news in the media.