Thursday 1 July 2004

Pic of the day: The Circle of Thorns don't sacrifice their victims because they want to see them suffer. They need the bodies to bring more of their spirit friends into this world. It's nothing personal, really. (Screenshot from City of Heroes.)

Evil is not the only danger

"You are too preoccupied with evil" said The Black Wall to me. It had refused not one but two of my entries, which is rare indeed. I was lying in my bed. "Evil is not the only danger..."

This was of course a reference to "Madness is not the only danger in dreams", the famous quote from Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. In a way, it can be said to sum up the entire trilogy, or even both of the trilogies. Covenant believes that The Land is a dream, and that accepting it as real is madness. He refuses. But Lord Mhoram says: "Madness is not the only danger in dreams. There is also the danger that something may be lost which can never be regained."

Not to say anything good about evil, but it is not the only danger. Stupidity will have much the same effect sometimes, and the biggest single problem is probably egotism. It's not that we want others to suffer, it is that we want to have a good time and we don't really care what happens to others. We allow injustice to continue, because it is comfortable to us.

In the same way, when others seem to do something evil, perhaps that's not what they mean. Perhaps they are just stupid, or perhaps they are just not thinking about their actions and what it means to others. I know I've been there and done that, and probably will again.