I recently heard a saying, “Good and evil mean nothing in a world where good isn’t rewarded and evil isn’t punished.”
I haven’t watched any of the “The Purge” films yet, but I’m sure that whatever happens in them is likely what would happen in reality if all laws were made obsolete. I’m sure that at first, everyone will come to a mutual agreement to protect each other from those who instantly come off as evil, before it quickly devolves as people come to learn that they can’t trust anyone — not even themselves. Having to watch your back at every second of the day would drive anyone into madness.
And I think that half of that saying is already true today. Good often isn’t rewarded — but should it be? I mean, there’s often no real incentive to do good. That’s why so many people live by the idea that “just not doing wrong is good enough for this world.”
For example, we wouldn’t hold someone who saves a life in praise with the same intensity that we hold someone who takes a life in disgust. How many of us know the names of the founders of, say, UNICEF or the Red Cross? But we can name several murderers right off the top of our heads.
Actually, that’s a pretty stupid comparison in retrospect — those organizations are known for what they do and not who does it. Criminals, on the other hand — they’re just individuals. But I think my point still stands.
I had the pleasure of reading “The Giver” back in middle school. In that book, society is controlled to live perfectly without war and conflict by having everyone’s knowledge of “good” and “evil” erased, and everyone is “programmed” to live like perfect citizens from birth. The children in that society don’t even know what alcohol is, let alone sex or death, and the knowledge of those things that make us free and human is highly forbidden by law. We can’t necessarily do bad if we don’t know what is bad. If “The Purge” does ever happen, our governments would likely pull that on us after the initial chaos dies down.
Who decides what good and evil are anyways? It’s not like it’s some one-dimensional comparison like Superman and Hitler. There are plenty of things that are both and plenty of things that are neither — the same way none of us are “just good” or “just bad.” If I were religious, I’d say “God” to answer that question, but I’m not really, so probably the government then (what’s the difference?)
There are three types of people in this world who believe themselves to be a god: those who have lost their minds, those who are downright wretched and narcissistic, and those who are powerful enough to play God. I’d say that it’s more likely for someone to be all three of those things than just one of them.
What I’m saying is, I think the media should showcase good deeds around the world more often — good spreads like a wildfire the same way evil does.
