Oh my gosh, a post! It's been forever and a half. But I finally had some coherent thoughts and there were three or four people I was interested in sharing them with and then realized that instead of writing it out in four different letters or emails, I could just post it here. Not sure if this is the revival of the blog but I am seriously interested in some legit discussion and this is often a good medium. (Hint: comment. Please.)
I think we've all heard the "There is no bad without good: there is no dark without light, cold without heat" argument. (If not, I've probably written a post about it.) The shadow proves the sunshine, etc. I believe this. I believe that we are inherently good in the sense that (as C.S. Lewis has said) we never sin for the sake of sinning. We do it to feel better, for pleasure, for selfishness, etc. Even the devil - the ultimate force of evil in the world - is motivated by pride. That being said, when it comes down to it, stripped down, we are not trying to be bad, we're just failing at being good. There's only one standard, and it's not a spectrum with two ends. That is to say, you can't much say you're good at being bad just because you're bad at being good. 'Bad' is given its identity by the standard of good - it's a broken piece of good (again, a bit taken from Lewis). There is only one conscience and set of morals to be abandoned, and when that happens you can't say you've adopted another, because all it really is is a broken version of the first. And it's broken by us failing at the given; it is not an original creation.
This conclusion that humans are, in fact, inherently good (in this sense at least - we are inherently bad [in my opinion] in the sense that we are so bad at being good) for some reason isn't particularly comforting to me. I suppose it is a large comfort that there's no such thing as incorruptible evil, or even corrupted evil, just corrupted good; but, on the other hand, isn't it sort of depressing that we're so bad at it? With the perspective defined above, there's only one standard and one line of judgement (so we only really get one shot) and we all suck. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense.
I was suddenly very tired of being cynical today. I think I'm just gonna keep my negativity to myself because that's probably what I hate most about it. I don't like sucking optimism out of conversations and I cringe at the thought of deflating dreamers (not to assume I have that power). It's not like I think there's no hope left in the world, I'm just more of an advocate of hope on a smaller scale. (Can I really call myself a cynic, then?) I think our efforts are more effective directed towards people on an individual level than they are towards the salvation of the species as a whole, or whatever the endeavor.
"The Silver Cord" by The Classic Crime is one of my favorite albums, ever. It's extremely thematic and, in my opinion, the theme is ridiculously legit. It's a fifteen track cd broken in the middle by an instrumental track called "The Ascent" that's named entirely appropriately. It's a chord progression that's literally an ascent. All the songs before The Ascent are sort of cynical and dark and very much minor - for example, a song called "God and Drugs" about drug addiction and another called "Just A Man" about manipulative advertising in Christianity - and the songs after are far more uplifting, major, and imbued with a sense of powerful hope. The song "Closer Than We Think" is the second-to-last song on the cd and its main idea is that we're "closer than we think to home." The first song is called "The End" and is probably the darkest song on the album; the last, on the other hand, is called "The Beginning". So, the entire album promotes an idea on life that pretty much illustrates my personal perspective: that humanity is a screw-up species but that there is a way to be good. I guess you can see why I like it so much. Not to mention all the musical qualities, which are copious. I highly recommend it and am willing to send a copy for those of you that don't have one.
Also, go here, click into the site (a very cool one, discovered thanks to Jon Foreman), mouse over the 'justice' tab and click 'feature'. It's a really good, moving article: this is the kind of hope I believe in. It was a very long time ago that I read it but I just checked and it's still up.
I'm sure anyone who reads this has already heard me rave, but: read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's one of the best books I've read in my life, ever. I'm halfway through it for a second time right now.
