Thinking...

[skull_bearer]

For a while, I've been thinking of the whole good vs evil thing, and what people nowdays term 'bad' or 'satanic' (please note that I was a satanist for a time, and am well place to know what is demonicly influenced or not). And I've decided that the person who can sum up my beliefs on the whole topic isn't a religious author at all, he's a comic fantasy writer, and his name is Terry Pratchett.

There are two books in particular which sum my thoughts up nicely, the first is from his book 'Johnny and the Dead'. I don't have the book with me so I'm writing this from memory, the main character, Johnny, is thinking about all the things people term satanic- Oija boards and so on.

Cards and boards, Johnny thought, and games. That's not dark forces. Going on about heavy metal and Dungeons and Dragons because it had demon gods in it, is like barricading the door when "It" is coming up through the floorboards. Real dark forces... Aren't dark, They're sort of grey, like Mr Grim. They'll take a town like Blackbury and turn it into frightened streets where no one wants to live and no one really does live. The Dead seem more alive than us. And everyone goes grey, and turns into number, and somewhere, someone starts to do arithmatic.
The demon god Yoth-Ziggurat may want to chop your souls into a thousand pieces, but at least he doesn't tell you you don't have one.

The second book (which I do have with me), is the Discworld novel 'The Light Fantastic', unlike Johnny and the dead, it's a fantasy novel.

Rincewind stared, and knew there were far worse things than evil. All the demons in hell would torture your very soul, but that was precisely because they valued souls so highly; evil would always try and steal the universe, but at least it considerted the universe worth stealing. But the grey world behind those eyes would trample and destroy without even according it's victims the dignity of hatred. It wouldn't even notice them.

I know it's rather stupid to look for meaning in a comic fantasy series, but if I look at the world going on around me, it seems as though I'd be better off trusting my moral compass to Terry Practhett, rather than all the holy books in the world put together.

Comments

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

Pretty true.
Someone famous and clever (I forgot who it was) once said something along the lines of: "The true evil is indifference."
-> I mean, killing a black chicken in the middle of a pentagram is much less evil than killing a wagonload of chicken and throwing them away for no other reason than that they are males and cannot produce eggs and are of a wrong race to let them grow to be eaten. (Not that eating justifies what we do to the others. And the early-killed ones are probably the ones better off. -> Don't get me wrong, I'm no emotionally-attached-to-chicken vegetarian (I tried, but didn't manage), I've lived on a farm and killed chicken myself, but at least I wasn't indifferent!)

"I know it's rather stupid to look for meaning in a comic fantasy series.."
I wouldn't have said that. Terry Pratchett's books do deal with a lot of moral issues and serious problems, only in a more humourous way, so people often don't notice.


The one real problem is that in reality, things like good or evil don't exist. Everybody has both of them in themselves and often they are indistinguishable. There's no lable sticking to a thought inside your head saying 'good' or 'evil' so you can decide what to do. You always do what you think right or what others tell you is right. (Often they contradict...) Or sometimes neither because doing something considered wrong by yourself and others is just too much fun.
Shit, this is all hard to explain. *fumbles with words and decides she could write a philosophy book (another one no one would read) about it* No wonder mankind has been trying to solve this for millennia.
No one has yet agreed whether or not there is such a thing as 'universal moral' or if ethics are only a matter of education.
Sorry if I bore you, but to return to the indifference-is-more-evil-than-evil-on-purpose: Do you know the film "Soylent Green"? (Probably. If not, don't read on!) It is not so shocking that they eat people (that's rather a logical idea) it's so shocking that no one cares for the individual anymore. (And that nothing beautiful of the world we live in has remained, but that's another topic altogether.) It's a very old movie and it's been some time since I watched it, but it made me think a lot about it all, back then.
It's the same with murderand other things like that. If you kill someone you have reason to hate, I'd consider that far less evil (though it's a matter of opinion, really) than a general who signs orders to bomb a city to ashes and then goes home and leads a perfectly fine life, always treating his wife and children decently and going to church on Sundays.
Reasons and purposes do not necessarily justify a deed, but for me something done with a feeling is always to be considered less evil.
I'll stop rambling now, sorry.

One more thing: I think we all get corrupted by the mechanism of indifference somwhere during growing up. There is a point you either have to give in to feeling guilty or you decide to ignore certain facts and live on.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

There was this story a few years back, this guy advertised on the internet for someone who wouldn't mind getting eaten. Someone answered, they met up, and the guy ate him. Do you think the cannibal deserved to be sent to prison? Because I don't.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

I don't either. The other person wanted to be eaten. It was "consenting adults"! But I would certainly hate someone who kills people against their will to eat them when he can get chicken (which is probably healthier and is said to taste the same *g*) in the next supermarket without any trouble and is not near starving (in that case I'd say it's okay, too).
Suicide should be legal, too. I don't know your law system, but here it's forbidden, which is absurd, because after a successful one, the "criminal" is dead. They put people in prison here for helping others with suicide! What happened to "free will"? *growl*

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

Suicide should be legal, too.

You think that, but when someone you love tried to off themselves, your opinion changes quite drasticly... I know what you mean though, and while it makes sense in theory, in reality it's pretty complicated.

[shadowvalkyrie.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, none of my friends or acquaintances ever tried, but when my granpa was in hospital and suffering from cancer, that made me think on it. I don't think I would want to die that way. I would want to decide.

I think your opinion on suicide always depends on what you consider a sensible reason and that's probably different for everyone. Keeping people from killing themselves if they have a good reason for it (whether you agree it's good, or not), just because you love and don't want to lose them, is understandable, but I also think it's a good deal selfish. (Which doesn't mean I'd not try and prevent such a thing if faced with them, I'd sure try to talk them out of it.) Guess I understand both sides, really.

[skull-bearer.livejournal.com]

The problem was that this person (who I'll call A) didn't have what I considered to be a good reason, there were a lot of people who were reliant on A. A was depressed and refused to see a specialist, which I think is a pretty poor reason.

I understand your position (hell, my grandfather died of cancer too), but as I said, it does matter on the situation.