GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[David Morris]

> > Paul Mackin wrote:
> > >
> > > On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Michael Perez wrote:
[snip]
> > > Hard to keep one's moral compass from twirling incessantly.
>
>We all must have some kind of "moral compass" we can call our own.
>Something incorporating our notion of the bad. It's a basic human need.

No question, but how singular must it be?  The older/wiser one gets (if 
one's compass isn't rusty) fields other than polar might start to direct.

>It's the only thing we can truly own (call our own) in this increasingly
>standardized, routinized world. There has to be something out there,
>sufficiently separate from us, something that repells and offends us
>enough that we can summon up energy to fight it, so that we will try
>to defect from it. It's the only force keeping us in motion, keeping us
>alive. And, yes, it must be separate from the evil we may or may not
>recognize as being internal in ourselves. It must be external. It must be
>Their evil rather than Our evil. Take away this extenal, necessary evil
>and you have taken away the essence of our individualized being.

At the most elementary level you are right.  The first step in indentity 
requires a separation from all others.  Next step re-recognizes identity 
with others.  It's called "The Golden Rule."  Then comes confusion and 
conflict.

>The "truth" or "fiction" of the evil is quite irrelevant. The two realms 
>meld
>quite easily into each other. It is said that we live in a fictional
>world anyway. In the fictional world of Thomas Pynchon or in one we invent
>for ourselves. Now what the hell is whatever it was I'm ranting about.
>I'm lost. Anyway if you don't believe me just ask s~Z, he'll tell you.
>

Isn't that called "Sophism?"  In other models "Truth" is 'sposed to set us 
free.  A free mind (and ass) requires practice and patience.

Surfing w/ those dancing Sufis,
David Morris

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