Sunday, September 16, 2012

Shades of Gray

People are neither good nor bad. That I believe to be a fact: every human being has the capability to do either good or bad. There is no such thing as "being" good or evil, unless you look in books or movies. Truly evil people are unlikely to exist; just because they are mostly bad doesn't mean that they can't do good. Don't think I'm saying that Hitler was a good guy; what I'm saying here is that at least he didn't add animal cruelty to his list. That also doesn't mean that I'm going to tell you that he really wasn't a bad guy. He was bad, that much I can say. But he didn't have to be. That's just how it happened, that's where he went with his life. If he'd been accepted to art school, who knows how the world might have turned out.

So, about this whole "war between good and evil" thing. I don't really think there's a huge war between good and evil raging all around us. As awesome as that would be (give or take a universe or two) I can't say with any certainty where I'd end up being shoved in that one, since I myself feel thoroughly in the gray area. Personally, I like the way Good Omens shows it. It's a great little book about the apocalypse and the war between good and evil. Now, there are number of points the book makes (and keep in mind that it was mostly supposed to be humorous) and they all settle around three characters (or at least the points that I'm going to bring up do.) Of these three characters, I'll start with two of them: the angel and the demon. Both of them have spent a while on Earth, and having done so have realized something: they're not all that different. That's the way I see it; both sides have a little bit of both in them. The demon, Crowley, brings a bird back to life after the angel, Aziraphale, accidentally kills it. That's simply a small example of it, but really my point being that anti-heroes and anti-villains exist. Their very existence is because it's more realistic to us, because there is no such thing as a perfect person (like there may be in books or movies.) As a quick ending to my lame excuse to talk about a book I really like for an assignment, the third character to mention would be Adam. He's the antichrist, who is supposed to bring the apocalypse. Only, because he grew up with humans, he's just like them: neither good nor bad, with a capability for both.

Good Omens is a book all about the war between good and evil, but it's also twisting the idea upon its head. Because that's the way I feel like it would be. Even if there was a war of good and evil, somehow, I feel like neither side would be able to claim complete good or evil. In the end, I'm pretty sure humans are just that: perfectly flawed. One thing that Harry Potter got wrong is that one can live while the other survives: if not for evil, then what in the world would good be?

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