Of Good and Evil
Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, 30 December, 2012
Salaroche


Just a short comment about an article I read this morning in The Guardian which deals with a controversial piece of art that has been recently exhibited in Warsaw, Poland, which in turn enticed me to write some reflections on it.

As all of us may know, art is not confined to express only the beauty and qualities of nature in general and of the human race in particular, but also the ugliness and the weaknesses of both. In fact, it is very often through art that the injustices, abuses and crimes that we human beings commit against our brethren come to touch us most deeply.

Traditionally, good and evil are represented in clearly outlined ways, but we humans are also known to be ambiguous and even inscrutable, and there’s where art, and in particular painting, writing, sculpture, and music, know how to reach us down to that most intimate place within ourselves where only when we act as mirrors can we possibly intuit its meaning.

The general custom seems to be to represent evil in the form of shady characters with faces that usually resemble satanic drawings and paintings. In contrast, the concept of good is almost always depicted in the form of devout people with smiling faces that reflect the alleged luminosity of the saints.

But, are those stereotypes really reliable? Above all, how sincere can we think the countenance of the aforementioned "saints" in general is? For example, when we see someone kneeling to pray, how can we know for sure that their prayers and wishes are not entirely selfish and devoid of any consideration for others?

Of course we cannot walk around the world having such deep doubts about everyone we meet. A good degree of confidence in the reality that is filtered through our senses is necessary for us to live a consistent and psychologically-healthy life; otherwise our existence would be plagued with a continuous paranoia that would totally disable our ability to lead a social life.

On the other hand, how many times have we read in recent years about the opinion that some people had regarding neighbors who one morning just woke up to go massacre a group of their peers? "He was a very quiet person who never harmed anyone," their neighbors say, to which one often thinks that many alleged "saints" were also depicted as quiet people who never harmed anyone.

As you might have already thought to yourselves before, the nature of evil is inextricably linked to the nature of good. Both are part of the obvious duality of our reality: good-evil, top-bottom, day-night, hot-cold, etc. But, as far as the actions of human beings are concerned, both good and evil are part of our own nature, as it is there where both of them find their source.

Likewise, all duality represented in this world emanate from the same center of universal creativity where duality does not exist (the universal forces could not have created duality had it not first existed in a unitary way within themselves, i.e., a bifurcation is only conceivable as resulting from unity) but, equally obvious as well, the ability to exist within this non-dualism does not seem to be a clearly given feature within the parameters of human nature, and there’s where things get complicated.

In any case, the above are just some short thoughts that sprang up in my mind after reading the article in question. If ever you were interested in reading the article, please click on the following link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/28/adolf-hitler-statue-warsaw-ghetto

May you all be well.

Salaroche
www.salaroche.com