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Good People Do Bad Things
I mentioned in a member’s feed post recently that an extremely close friend of mine had recently committed suicide after being accused of downloading child porn. I mentioned this to one of my daughters, and she said, “Gosh – that seems impossible. He seemed like such a good person.”
Now, again, he’s one of my closest friends, so naturally I’ll tend to defend him. But I strongly disagreed with her in principle, as well, so I responded with a “Dad lecture” that my kids are probably used to at this point: “What? You think that good people don’t do bad things? Is that what you think? So good people do good things and bad people do bad things? That’s it? Look – that’s just not how the world works, kiddo. That’s why James Bond movies seem so ridiculous – that’s how they’re written, and it doesn’t seem real. Because it’s not. Human nature is not as simple as that. That’s the whole point of the Bible. We’re all sinners, just doing the best we can. C’mon. That’s why it’s so important to resist the temptation to judge those who sin differently than you do. Leave that to God. Us mortals are all just sinners, doing the best we can.”
I could hear her eye roll over the phone. But whatever.
Such simplistic views of human nature are dangerous. Even when I was an idiot jock in college (back in the ’80s), I was struck by the left’s strategy of declaring white-on-black racism to be the ultimate evil. Which means that blacks are incapable of evil. And when they declare, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” that means that all blacks can cast as many stones as they like. This simple trick elevated a Democrat voter block to divine status and power.
And there was nothing that Republicans could do to combat this. Absolutely nothing.
That was 35 years ago. It’s gotten much worse now. As you might expect.
Our kids learn in schools, and movies, and in news media, and social media, and so on, that bad people do bad things. They don’t study the Bible and Shakespeare. They read incendiary Twitter posts and watch James Bond movies. Evil people doing evil things. Good people doing good things.
Then, when news media, social media, etc., declare that any thoughts that don’t align with Democrat policy initiatives of the day are not just distasteful, but evil – that means that all Republicans are evil. They’re saying evil things. That makes them evil. Obviously.
Then the kid thinks, why would you consider compromising with pure evil? All you can get is half evil, then, and as a good person, you wouldn’t consider such a thing, of course.
So there is no limit to how viciously you can treat Republicans, or even insufficiently ideologically pure Democrats. Up to and including social exclusion and violence.
There is a reason that political violence is a feature of the left, and not the right.
I’ve known my friend for over 20 years. He’s a good person. He did something horrible. But he’s a good person.
It’s easy to judge him – he did something horrible. But it’s a mistake to simply dismiss him as a bad person, while I am a good person. Each of us needs to remember that we’re capable of horrible things, ourselves, under the right circumstances. Dismissing bad deeds as simply the actions of bad people, unlike us – that’s a dangerous mistake.
This is the genius of Christianity. We’re all God’s children. We’re all sinners. We have a lot in common – even with those with whom we disagree. We should focus on all that we have in common. And leave the rest up to God.
If we can’t see the good in people, even in those with whom we disagree, then our society will become more partisan, divided, and violent.
I would claim that this is a brilliant prediction. Except it’s already happening. Which downgrades it from a brilliant prediction, to an acknowledgment of the obvious. Which seems less inspiring.
On the other hand, you won’t get such an acknowledgment from the news media, or anyone else on the left. Because they want to leverage the social divisions they create to concentrate power on the left, and exclude those who take a different view from polite society.
When the news media sounds more like James Bond than Shakespeare, you know they’re up to something. Such simplistic representations of human nature don’t even sound real, but they persist with portraying the whole world this way, and hoping that their audience can suspend their disbelief.
It would be easier to just acknowledge reality. But they don’t.
We all need to remember that bad people are capable of good, just as we are capable of bad. Losing track of this simple truth makes for intolerant, arrogant people, and divided, violent societies.
Published in General
Voldemort never thought of himself as a “bad guy”. He was always bent on improving life for Wizards, and putting Muggles out of action would help in that regard.
And muggles are bad for the environment. Using fossil fuels instead of magic is irresponsible.
Not uncanny. Many if not most of them have a God-sized hole in their psyche, and in order to fill it they shovel in all sorts of rubbish.
If the question is, “Why?” An answer is difficult, or impossible to find. In the secular courtroom a motive is not necessary for a conviction. There is a difference between temporal and eternal judgement. There is a difference between temporal punishment and eternal punishment.
Pray for your friend Doc and his family.
I was consulted by a former Austrian diplomat who had been imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain for many years, first in Siberia and then in the famous Lubianka prison in Moscow. While I was examining him neurologically, he suddenly asked me whether I happened to know Dr. J. After my affirmative reply he continued: “I made his acquaintance in Lubianka. There he died, at about the age of forty, from cancer of the urinary bladder. Before he died, however, he showed himself to be the best comrade you can imagine! He gave consolation to everybody. He lived up to the highest conceivable moral standard. He was the best friend I ever met during my long years in prison!”
This is the story of Dr. J., “the mass murderer of Stein-hof.” How can we dare to predict the behavior of man? We may predict the movements of a machine, of an automaton; more than this, we may even try to predict the mechanisms or “dynamisms” of the human psyche as well. But man is more than psyche.
from Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.
As You Like It, William Shakespeare
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. — Oscar Wilde
Muggles are magic-deniers . . .
I get the one on the right, Dr. No, but who are the other ones?
Thanks in advance.
From L to R, Dr. No, Jaws, Scaramonga, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Sounds like Screwtape. Harder to corrupt men to hell when they are dying for something noble. But I never got through Mere Christianity.
This joke comes to mind, told by Paul McCartney:
I hope it’s not too early in the thread…
And… ?!!
As someone who watches the effects of child rape, daily, I can say good riddance. No one who watches child porn is a good person, no one. If there weren’t perverts watching it, there wouldn’t be someone raping her so he could watch! And no, he is no less guilty or disgusting than the one doing the raping. Mind your words y’all people are raping children! This is not an end, like murdering someone at least it is over for that person, but a rape victim lives with it for their whole lives over and over, day in and day out.
Wish I could like this a hundred times. There are mistakes, bad decisions, and bad acts. And then there is evil. There is no comparison. Taking pleasure in the suffering of another human being, especially a child, is an evil act.
What do you mean watch the effects of child porn daily?
I said child rape. I am not going to go into more detail.
Nope. He’s less guilty.
Not innocent by any means but legally and morally less guilty, your justifiable hatred of the entire industry notwithstanding.
Let’s look at the original story, Good People Do Bad Things, and conversely bad people do good things. For Sheila to see this on a daily basis, I can see your hatred for anyone who would do such a thing. I agree with most of what you said but the facts are he was suspected of watching child porn and took his own life. He was never charged, but we assume he was guilty, and he checked out of this life. He had a good relationship with the doc, and I’m sure was good in other areas of his life. The point is the evil he let in was stopped with the raid. He most likely would have gone to prison, and rightly so. But while there he could have turned his life around. He could have turned around other similar convicts, but now that will never happen. Him taking his own life was a second tragedy because his life wasn’t allowed to play itself out. Sheila, make no mistake, he was stopped which is far more important than his future. There are few people who are solely “good” or “bad”. We can only stomp the bad when we see it.
That’s a pretty good summary of how I feel about this.
He apparently did some very, very bad things. But he also did a lifetime of good things, for lots of people. His suicide prevented him from continuing to help people, perhaps in prison. Of course it also prevented him from continuing to do horrible things, which is a relief to me, and probably to him.
He was my friend. So I’m biased, obviously.
I don’t know where he ends up on God’s scorecard. That’s way above my pay grade.
I don’t know how to feel. I miss my friend. I love him, although I hate what he did.
I guess I just feel confused and dazed.
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable…
You might need some kind of ceremony beyond a funeral. Funerals are for saying both ‘goodbye’ and ‘it’s over’. But it’s not over for you.
That’s about as good as we can do.
You’re a good man, Dr. B., in case you hadn’t heard it lately.
He tries to be a good man. That’s about all we can do.
I agree that nobody’s perfect (but one). I was rounding up from the very high nineties.
I’ve been thinking about this today. You could put Mother Theresa in the good box. You can put Mengele in the bad box. The rest of us are dumped in the middle and constantly gravitating towards one side or the other until we die. Always in motion.
You didn’t know of the secrets he had and nothing can be done about that now. Now that it’s over don’t feel guilty about mourning the loss of a great friend and a broken-up family. The negative facts now serve no purpose. Just always remember him as a good friend. He is going to need some good checkmarks in his column. Really, don’t we all?
Amen. Don’t we all.
This. The recognition ( implied by the expressed reaction to the conduct involved) that evil was involved, is what I so totally agreed with above in comment #44. The good man did not just make a wrong decision, he was overwhelmed by evil. That said, I am not in agreement with the wrath expressed in comment #44.
Reading @Dr.Bastiat’s post brought to mind the following:
Ephesians 6:10-12 10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
It seems to me Dr. B’s friend was in a spiritual battle for his life, and it is a tragedy that he lost his battle with evil.
Prayers being said for you Dr. Bastiat and your good friend who was once a good man. And, for all those caught in similar situations to your friend. I pray that they may realize that they are not simply making bad decisions, rather they are in battle with evil. May they be awakened to the truth and not hide their guilt. Instead I hope they seek protection from evil and clothe themselves with the full armor of God so that they will be able to stand against the evil pressing in on them. We do not need to lose more good men.
All of us are in that struggle. Any of us can falter without the wisdom of that verse in Ephesians. My daughter loved our minister’s sermons and admired him. He faltered, had an affair, and left the church in disgrace. The associate pastor assumed the head pastor role and officiated at my daughter’s wedding. We attend a supper and he brought in a guest speaker. We were stunned. The guest promoted Marxist Black Liberation Theology. Our pastor had no clue. He thought it was humanitarian stuff. Sometimes the Devil’s work hides itself to reach those not prone to sin otherwise. Sadly, cancer took both pastors within a couple of years. We quit attending. I now watch the Facebook stream from my childhood church 2 1/2 hours away. It has stayed true to my values, the values it taught me. Small towns, small churches have advantages.