Note (03AUG2020): Rioting, looting, burning, assaulting infect the largest cities in this fragmented, declining nation on fire. The mayhem is the consequence of the machinations of a well-financed cabal of The Left, the goal of which is to have destroyed the vision of the Founding Fathers characterized by individual liberty with individual responsibility in a context of limited government protecting truly free enterprise. Its replacement would be the vision of Marx and Engels characterized by collective subservience with collective responsibility to the State in a context of unlimited government regulating allowed enterprises.
The current mayhem is the means to elect a slate of candidates led by a corrupt, demented career-politician presumably to be led easily. It may not be so easy. Dementia often is accompanied by psychosis. Consider a demented psychotic senile sitting in the Oval Office with this shaking finger on the nuclear button.
To fulfill their goal, the cabal has harnessed the stalking horse of so-called racial justice for allegedly persecuted Negroes to fulfill its goal. Do its actions represent goodness or evil. If evil, why? Evil for the following, two reasons among others:
1) Its promoters and supporters deny the reality of biologically different races and sub-races; whereas, any textbook of medicine testifies to the contrary.
2) Its promoters and supporters deny the reality of differing biological characteristics including intellect; whereas, hundreds of anthropological and biological studies including genetic testify to the contrary.*
*Lynn R: Race Differences In Intelligence. Arlington VA: Washington Summit Publishers (2015).
Any society that denies reality is, by definition, evil. Any society that denies reality dooms itself to a dismal destiny. Evil is as evil does. Ultimately, reality rules. These United States, once the political hope of the world, may become the nuclear death of the world.
Moments of crisis can have a bright side. The context for negative, emotional strain also can provide the context for positive, cognitive strain in the form of self-reflection. Who am I? What am I? Where am I? What difference separates goodness from evil?
Goodness. What is goodness?
Evil. What is evil?
Consider the following, three quotes:
“If nature is cruel, why should I be kind?” -attributed to Adolf Hitler
“One death is a tragedy — a million, a statistic.” -attributed to Josef Stalin
“Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you.” –The Koran, Repentance 9:123
Now, consider this quote:
“Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world; and whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” -Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a
Uncle — a fictional character in the novel, Inescapable Consequences — might respond, “It’s all in your point of view.” Is it?
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” -from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Really? Does not some immutable, absolute standard exist by which to determine objectively — not subjectively — goodness versus evil?
If so, what might that standard be found? In the Cosmos, perhaps?
Consider the following excerpt from the novel, Retribution Fever:
As an addendum to his original paper of 1905 describing his Theory of Special Relativity, Einstein formulated the most famous equation in history, E = mc2. Both theory and equation are the most misunderstood and misapplied of scientific statements.
Firstly, contrary to a popular misconception, the equation applies to all matter not simply to that which is radioactive. Secondly, the theory does not imply that everything in our Cosmos actually is unreal and relative.
As often occurs when those ill informed about Science extrapolate a scientific principle or finding that they misunderstand, some in the arts, humanities, and theology erroneously extrapolated Einstein’s theory to their own areas of interest. The consequences have been disastrous for individuals and society.
Everything is not simply that which you think it is and relative to everything else. There are real events in the Cosmos. There are invariants or absolutes. One, for example, is the speed of light; it is constant in the vacuum of space whatever your point of view or frame of reference. Another is time-space itself.
Some infer that Hamlet’s statement to Guildenstern is an early statement about relativism; namely, that all is that which one makes of it. Untrue! There are various interpretations of Hamlet’s words; nevertheless, whatever one’s interpretation, all is not simply that which one makes of it. Science tells us otherwise. Physical scientists can prove it mathematically, agnostic/atheistic secular relativists notwithstanding.
There are innumerable discussions of goodness versus evil dating back to antiquity. So, what new perspective can be brought to bear? Science. Specifically, Biobehavioral Science. For a discussion of goodness versus evil from that perspective unique to our time and how it applies to you as an individual, consult “Human Purpose and Meaning” in Chapter 22 of Retribution Fever.