Sunday, September 16, 2012

Good v Evil


At the beginning of psychology this year, Ms. Jaquith asked us as a class what we would do if we could do anything in the world and it was guaranteed we would not get caught. One of the slips of paper read “I would kill Kony”, which we unanimously decided would be a charitable act rather than an act of aggression. Dexter is a policeman, one of the stereotypical heroes of good, who is a serial killer. However, he’s a serial killer who kills bad people. Is that an act of good, or an act of evil?
Unfortunately, life isn’t like a movie, where the evil villain has a crazy maniacal laugh and is typically unattractive and the hero is dashing, admirable, and awesome. However, good and evil do exist; just not in that clear cut sense. Leah Kleppinger did a good deed when she returned the wallet, but that doesn’t make her the epitome of good. A person wouldn’t be evil based only on taking a wallet. Now, if that person were to pocket the money and use it towards schooling, donating it to charity, or feeding a family, does that make the act of taking the money good, or evil?
Good and evil is what we want it to be. We should all strive towards good, but everybody makes mistakes and everybody has those days. 

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