#good v. evil

[pithia]

I like to see the difference between good and evil as kind of like the foul line at a baseball game. It's very thin, it's made of something very flimsy like lime, and if you cross it, it really starts to blur where fair becomes foul and foul becomes fair.

Harlan Coben

[redrikki]

I’ve made my case for Vader’s restorative redemption, but does he get a moral one? Luke would certainly say so. His argument is largely predicated on the idea that good and evil are mutually exclusive.

Some of this seems to be a refutation of Obi-Wan’s claims during their certain-point-of-view conversation in RotJ. Obi-Wan argues that, by becoming Vader, Anakin killed the good man that he was and is now a being a pure evil, more man than machine.The problem with this is that the ‘good man’ Obi-Wan thought he knew wasn’t quite as good as Obi-Wan thought. Anakin in AotC murdered an entire village of people, but that didn’t preclude him from still being kind and compassionate towards family, friends, and random strangers. He had decided that the Tuskens were things unworthy of compassion, but he could still exhibit it towards others. As Vader, he saw the vast majority of beings as unworthy of compassion. He made an exception for Luke and that means...what?

@kyberfox recently wrote about the difference between Christian and Jewish villains, and it’s relevant here. Christianity often posits goodness (or evilness) as a state of being rather than a description of actions. Christian villains are pure, larger than life evil, incapable of love or kindness. They are inhumane because they are fundamentally inhuman. Jewish villains are villainous specifically because of their humanity. They are capable of both kindness and cruelty and they are villains because they choose cruelty. For Jews, villainy isn’t something you are, it is something you do.

As far as Luke is concerned, Vader is morally redeemed because he proves through an act of selfless love that he is still capable of goodness. Would he say the same thing about a random Imperial officer who sacrificed his life to save his child despite having committed atrocities?

I do not doubt that Vader had a redemption arc. I do not doubt that Vader was just as capable of love and goodness as Anakin. I do not doubt that he made the right choice to save Luke. I just don’t think that he was redeemed in the way that Luke thinks he was.

[pithia]

Justice is always naive and self-confident; believing that it will immediately win once recognized. That is the reason why the forces of Justice are so poorly organized. On the other hand, the Evil is cynic, sly and fantastically organized. It never ever has the illusion of the ability to stand on its own feet and to win in a fair competition. That is why it is ready to use any kind of means without hesitation. And of course it does - under the banners of the most noble ideas.

Vladimir Bukovsky

[punnydude]

shits going down

[stevenneilmoore]

Inspiration for Glorious Incorporated

Glorious Incorporated had been an idea that I had for over a decade and really did nothing about. As with all grand ideas like catching a blue Marlin off the coast of Ireland, playing drums out on tour with Paul McCartney, and creating the “Great American…

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[somethingsarepoison-blog]

So let me get this straight...

There is God and he has an enemy called the Devil. If you disobey God he sends you to live with his enemy, the devil where he is supposed to torture you for doing what the Devil loves to do disobey God. Why would the devil want to do God's dirty work and punish those people, he loves the people in Hell, they are on his team. Thats like the Russians torturing a spy who was spying on America for the Russians, it makes no sense. So either Heaven and Hell are real and Hell is really just one bad ass Frat party or the whole thing is a fable. I'd put my money on the latter. 

[asheeleigh]

He Sendeth Rain

I wrote this poem based on the poem "Thou art Indeed Just, Lord" by: Gerard Manley Hopkins. It, of course, does not nearly touch the quality of the original, however, I hope that the reader might find my lines worthy of a nice passing over, however brief.

He Sendeth Rain[1]

Lord, your ways are just,

But I am a desert, my body rust.

I have heard it said, that your love abounds

Yet Kâli still dances her dance in rounds

  Man hears not your instruction,

“O Lord, save us from destruction.”

Man heeds not your command,

“O Lord deliver us from our enemy’s hand.”

In Sorrow, man waits for deliverance.

The shriveled branch bears fruit in winter

Yet a Spring dew withers the lily

  O thou Lord of life, send my roots rain.[2]

[1] Matthew 5:45 (KJV) “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

[2] Gerard Manley Hopkins, the final line of his poem “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend” reads: “Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.”

[3] Psalm 140:11 (NASV) The beginning of this verse is the antithesis of what I wrote: "May a slanderer not be established in the earth; May evil hunt the violent man speedily."

[delightfuldowney]

Fairy Tales are all the rage in 6th grade. Catch ABC's "Once Upon a Time" Sundays this fall and see if you can catch all the allusions.

Starts Oct. 23rd.