Monday 26 June 2006

Pic of the day: Blue vMeme as exemplified in the anime Magikano. When your only tool is a longsword, every problem looks like an evil...
(For my first mention of vMemes, see here.)

Beyond good and evil

I think we have already established beyond reasonable doubt that I am evil inside. Actually I am also good inside, sometimes in the same areas of life where I am evil. This is generally the case with humans, but it is also common to close one's eyes to it. Actually, it is common to close one's eyes to one's inner life in general. This is understandable, since it mostly runs fine on its own, much like breathing and digestion: The less you think about them, the better they usually work. It is similar with the psyche. Except for one thing: The psyche has a lot of room for improvement.

Traditionally, Christianity has been big on good and evil. This is a bit strange in retrospect, since Jesus doesn't seem much interested in it. But even so, I have suspected (and still do) that people who claim to be "beyond good and evil" usually just don't want to deal with their conscience. To some degree, they have my sympathy. I silenced my conscience too when I was a teen, but that was because it was erratic. It focused on trivial things that had little if any effect on other people, and ignored the more important things in life. So I dethroned it. But this is rather different from offing your conscience because you want casual sex and it doesn't. And then you dress all in black and tell everyone how you're beyond good and evil. Yeah, right.

***

But in a manner of speaking, I am beyond good and evil. In terms of Spiral Dynamics, the intense focus on good and evil is symptomatic of the Blue vMeme, the belief in absolutes, the state of mind of totalitarian religion and totalitarian politics. And without fail you find that "good" is identified with "us" and "evil" with them. You watch in a horrified mix of amusement and disgust as God exhorts both sides of the battlefield to fight for Him. Yes, nationalism is perhaps the most grotesque example of this thinking. Because almost nobody can stand the idea of being evil, you don't really need to convince them. All you need is to establish a clear separation between "us" and "them". Those who are born on the right side of this or that landmark are "us", and are expected to behave in certain ways that are called "good". The bad things we could dream of doing but can't dream of doing because they are evil, those things are projected on "them". They do all the bad things, because they are different from us, who do the good things.

It is not limited to nationalism, though. You find the same in religion. "They" do all manner of sinful things that "we" would not dream of doing. Literally, it seems, in case of most of my brethren in the faith. If they deny the evil inside, perhaps it goes away? Don't I wish. That's why men like Johan O. Smith and the other early "Smith's Friends" were relentless in admonishing each other and everyone who would hear: Do NOT believe that you don't have sin in the flesh. Keep watching yourself, and don't explain away the things that are revealed. If others are offended and you have a good conscience, look again and see if perhaps you have given them some offense after all. Perhaps you are not perfect.

Of course, most Christians are very clear on the fact that we are not perfect. We are sinners and depend on God's grace in Jesus Christ, blah blah. But try to actually point out a real-life flaw of such a person, and there is a good chance he will glare at you with the hate of Hell in his eyes. We can humble ourselves, in the most abstract sense of course, but if others try to lend a helping hand in our humiliation, their friendship is forfeit forever. Is this good? I dare say not. But being human is not easy. Try it who wants.

The belief in good and evil seems to follow people into the Green vMeme. Perhaps because both the Blue and the Green are collective at heart? So instead of plain old sinners you have eco-terrorists and cultural imperialists and the various other boogeymen of the greens. I wonder however how many politically green people are actually Green. The foundation of the Green vMeme is honesty, and there frankly does not seem to be too much of that in the world. You want politicians and corporations to be honest, but how honest are you to yourself and your family? You want the West to respect minority cultures, but are you able to respect the people you personally meet to the point where they are as real and important as yourself? I wonder if the so-called "mean green meme" is not just Blue in Green clothing.

***

As a Yellow (on a good day, at least!) I am for the most part beyond good and evil, really. I see things similar to what Jesus said on the cross: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do!" (Of course, I would have had a much harder time seeing that if I was the one being crucified!) The problem is almost never evil intent, but lack of insight, lack of enlightenment, or even lack of engagement. All too often we don't even care what effects we have in what we choose, because we don't even choose to choose at all. We just follow the current, or run the same way all the sheep are running. OK, that doesn't really sound like me. But it is, where I have not discovered myself yet.

For instance I have mentioned how I have so much clothes I can barely get them into all the wardrobe space in a whole house. How did that happen? I was running with people who had a vivid interest in clothes, and it felt normal to buy and buy and buy. But I'm not rich, and could place my money better than that. I did not make a fully conscious choice. I just happened to do something. Forgive me, for I had almost no idea what I was doing. When I realized, things changed dramatically. But is it realistic to believe that I don't have other blindsides, dark corners or white spots on the map? I don't think so.

The thing is not that good and evil don't exist. I won't argue that either way. The thing is that they are not useful tools of the mind beyond a certain stage of insight. When you understand more, it is like getting closer and you see the trees instead of just the forest. You see that there is a reason for each evil. People do, with very few exceptions, not act that way just to hurt others. Usually they have some reason for it. Probably not a good reason, but then again not all our reasons are good either. So the simple black and white lines dissolve, because we become able to see more. Instead of simple rules we see reasons. Instead of blind obedience to the letter of the law, we see why the law was made and we start to actively cooperate with it, to further its purpose rather than its letter. Then we are beyond good and evil, or as the Bible puts it: "The law is for lawbreakers."