As an adult, you are expected to have a clear understanding of what is considered good and bad. However, is this an adequate expectation? You can view good and bad simply as perspectives or refer to the legal system or religious scriptures, maybe even say that understanding these concepts is something we are born with. But are all of these views adequate though? Let’s find out.
Good and bad, as defined by legal systems or religious scriptures. Both were presumably created to make our lives better, and they more or less succeed. It is hard to imagine a functioning society without these regulatory systems. Without laws, divine or human, any order would immediately collapse. Generally speaking, it is profitable for us as members of society to obey at least most of them. But in some cases, of course, the opposite may be true. Laws can be enforced by tyrants, they can become obsolete.
Unfortunately, there is always the risk that some crisis will cause your country to develop a disease called “tyranny”. It is too optimistic to expect a tyrant to think too much of his people. He is only human, and so in most cases the temptation to change the legal system in a way that gives him some relatively short-term advantage is too great. Of course, such laws bring injustice, imbalance to the system, to society. Even religion can be forced to serve a tyrant. It is even more tempting to say that you are a god on earth. It may also be difficult to understand that your country is ruled by a tyrant, that the media is controlled by him and helps him to hide everything, to present it in a way that is favourable to him. So yes, laws and religion can be abused in some situations. That is one of the reasons why you have to be critical of religion and laws.
Another one is that both religions and legal systems can become obsolete. That is why we change our laws all the time and ignore some religious ideas. For example, owning women as property, thinking of them as “dirty” creatures, enslaving other people are things of the past, at least officially. Worrying about being killed in broad daylight just because of your low social status is also just a nightmare now. Thinking of the Earth as a flat disc resting on elephants standing on a tortoise might also be considered a bit outdated. These are just some of the things that our laws and religions used to take as both true and normal (in some places they still do), but now we have generally changed our minds.
So can we really think of law and religion as something that could define what is good and what is bad? Doubtful. We must remember that these systems are man-made, they can be abused, and they become obsolete over time. Even if we haven’t yet managed to invent something better to bring more or less human order to society.
Therefore, it is better to avoid using legal systems or religious beliefs alone to determine what is good and what is bad.
Good and bad as something we are born with. Well, obviously we have some understanding of what is good and what is bad, we know that pain is bad, that being hungry is bad, that mom is good. But unfortunately our world is a little bit more complicated. The child is guided by what he sees around him, by social rules and norms. This is why our ideas of what is acceptable, good and bad change over time, as discussed in the previous paragraphs. So, unfortunately, notions of “good” and “bad” are too obscure to be given “for free”‘ from the start.
Good and bad are simply our subjective perspectives. That is a risky thing to say. For if it were true, then our world might appear to be much more complicated than just black and white, good and bad. Yes, from an individual perspective, the world will still appear as white and black, where white is something that helps to achieve what is desired, and black is the opposite, some kind of an obstacle.
But as members of society, we need to think more broadly. And that is when this view becomes life-changing, even if it is hard to comprehend. If you accept this view of “good” and “bad”, you will soon find that it is hard to really hate or fear anyone. You will be able to understand much more clearly what is behind every human action. You will see that physically we cannot act “badly” on purpose, yes we can harm others, ruin their plans, but it is because we want something good for ourselves, emotion or any other resource, it doesn’t matter. Try to think of at least one thing you have done of your own free will that would be purely bad for you, that would bring no good from any possible perspective. I doubt you can. Even masochists hurt themselves to feel good.
The killer will see the killing as “white” and the people who try to stop him as “black”, just because he feels good about it, because he thinks it is a good, right thing to do for some reason. But to his victims and pursuers he will be “black” and they will be pure “white”. But if he kills the “bad” guys, someone who opposes society, he becomes a hero, pure goodness and virtue. And so the colours mix and the world becomes grey in this eternal conflict of interests.
This is why legal systems and religious scriptures are actually useful. They work very well to bring at least some order to the chaos of conflicting interests, even if they are sometimes out of date. Still, they are fundamentally designed so that most people find most of their interests met. And more than that, it is much easier to satisfy these desires together, in society, in a team, than by working alone, against everyone. Yes, antisocial people will be left out in most cases, but it seems that this is a loss that most people are willing to live with.
So yes, “good” and “bad” are subjective, and that can be unexpectedly good news. It allows you to see the world much more clearly, to understand what’s behind people’s actions, so you will hardly fear or hate anyone. It also reveals the ways in which legal and religious systems are important and useful.
It can be beneficial to see “good” and “bad” as relative concepts. Perhaps that is the best way for a human being to see them.
In short, defining what is good and what is bad strictly by what the law or some religious scripture says is quite unreliable, because they can be manipulated and/or become outdated. The concepts of “good” and “bad” are also too complicated to come in a free kit with all your other instincts when you’re born, you will have to learn what is what during your life. But what is true, or at least as true as it can be perceived now, is that both “good” and “bad” are relative, subjective ideas. Thinking in this way will do you the most good, because you will better understand why others do what they do, and how society works in general.
