There is no good without evil

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There is a trap in understanding good and evil.

The fact is buying into this concept of good or evil leads establishment of the other (sometimes subtly) as well. This may not become evident at first.

Further exacerbating the problem is in its establishment you allow ethics to be examined, inviting a confusion with identity.

By coupling identity to the dichotomy of good and evil it becomes a standard to defend.

This is why you have so many regions and states practice war at very same time both sides will be cloaked in a divine moral authority. The truth is you may find yourself masquerading under the guise of one (good or evil) while ultimately delivering the other.

Most of this is a wash in the grand scheme of things however if the collective community doesn’t see it that way you get to sides fighting over who is more justifiably righteous in their view of the other. This leads to wars of words (propaganda) and sometimes violence (war).

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Created in collaboration with ChatGPT.

Infiniverse

In the Land of Shadows, there once lived two neighboring villages: Lumina and Obscura. Lumina was renowned for its radiant beauty, where laughter echoed through the streets, and kindness flowed like a gentle stream. In contrast, Obscura was shrouded in darkness, where fear lingered in every corner, and suspicion clouded the hearts of its inhabitants.

One day, a traveler passing through Lumina encountered a curious sight. At the heart of the village square stood a magnificent tree, its branches adorned with shimmering crystals that sparkled in the sunlight. Intrigued, the traveler approached a local and inquired about the tree’s significance.

“This tree,” explained the villager, “is known as the Tree of Dichotomy. Its roots run deep into the earth, drawing upon the essence of both light and shadow.”

Puzzled, the traveler asked, “But why celebrate both light and shadow? Shouldn’t one strive to banish darkness altogether?”

The villager smiled knowingly and gestured towards Obscura, visible in the distance. “In our neighboring village lies the answer. Long ago, Lumina and Obscura were not separate entities but one unified community. However, as time passed, the villagers became fixated on the concept of good and evil. They allowed their minds to be consumed by the belief that one must triumph over the other.”

With a heavy heart, the traveler listened as the villager continued, “In their relentless pursuit of pure goodness, the people of Obscura cast out anything deemed ‘dark’ or ‘impure.’ But in doing so, they unwittingly nurtured the very darkness they sought to eradicate. Their fixation on goodness created an equal fixation on evil, and Obscura descended further into shadow.”

“But here in Lumina,” the villager continued, “we understand the balance of the universe. We embrace the duality of existence, recognizing that light cannot exist without shadow, and goodness loses its meaning without the contrast of darkness. The Tree of Dichotomy serves as a reminder that true harmony arises not from the rejection of one aspect but from the acceptance of both.”

As the traveler departed Lumina, they carried with them a newfound understanding. In a world consumed by the dichotomy of good and evil, perhaps true enlightenment lay not in choosing a side but in embracing the unity of opposites. For in the dance of light and shadow, beauty emerges, and the essence of existence reveals itself in all its complexity.

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I so enjoy your poems and stories! It does seem that people (myself included) too often look through a dichotomous lens, leaving them unable to appreciate nuance and complexity. While it can be tempting to see things so simply, I wonder what good has ever come from such thinking.

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Have you read the sci fi trilogy that C.S. Lewis wrote? It’s very good, i think. You should check them out if you haven’t yet. Especially the last one, That Hideous Strength. I think it’s a wonderful look into the good vs. evil dynamics. In any case, he also wrote The Screwtape Letters and a myriad of treatises on the subject of faith and the human condition. They all form an integral basis of my understanding of good and evil. That and some of the Daoist philosophy. To keep it 100 though, I often pray that other life forms do exist in the universe and that hopefully some of them have evolved better than we did. :sweat_smile:

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I can tell by your framing your are one on brightest folks that spoke up on these posts. I will check out that work, and that is a big ask. I read a ton, but almost never for pleasure. I have also spent decades mastering structural and archetypical storytelling. What your describing happens so often it has lead me to arguments and proof that lead to something that is very complex to describe.

This sounds wild but is the truth as far as I know it:

I am working on another post(s) to lay this out. I have honestly been working on two posts for 11 months that will lay this out.

The most succinct way to explain it is we are far closer to “aliens” or “gods” than we would care to admit. To say we are the most advanced race (civilization) in this solar system isn’t correct and indeed an understatement.

This leads all kinds of folk into a hysteria around the proposition. The fact is every interaction so far seems to have been mandated by circumstance and not malice.

In fact it would appear our ignorance and prone to social hysteria lead to an understanding. This kernel of a détente that exists between them until circumstance were able to shift.

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:purple_heart: :joy: humanity is an interesting concept. I admit that i believe there has been dialog between the stars and humanity, and I believe the Mayans were the first to have succeeded in catching a ride out.

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Our inspection of what humanity has deemed to represent good and evil has been interesting.
I believe the definitions have been fluid throughout our history but at the center of both rivers there are deep constants like how we all should feel a deep sorrow over man’s inhumanity to man and we should all feel full of life and light when we hear a baby laughing.

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I understand book volumes. :sweat_smile: omg catch the audio books :heart_on_fire::heart_on_fire::heart_on_fire: and if you catch the bug to read for fun, Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein is a wonderful dream. :blush:

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Yeah there are several tribal stories of peoples coming for a time and leaving with gods, star people, fire breathing chariots. Some gods are referred to as made of minerals or metal.

The problem is basically the arguments revolve around evidence. Often times we look to narrowly. When you are able to draw very narrow linear arguments you will find yourself prone to an error in judgment. This is the so called no being able to see the forest from the trees issue.

You see if you look at these myths and religions you start to see how the overlap and which borrowed from myth and vise versa. So when you look at a preponderance of the evidence your struck by several things.

Some civilizations are responsible for the bulk of early human development. These same civilizations say gods gave them this. These same civilizations bear linguistic artifacts that cannot be explained. The most damming of all is the two fold one the breadth of effort historical preservation. So in other words at the scale that was undertaken to produce all these scrolls, and tablets (not to mention scatter them in caves, crypts, caches, and pyramids) to have been produced is a monumental feat in and of itself. Next you have a bigger issue is that they all seem to overlap greatly begging the question why would you do that? The final part is answered when you read them. They all overlap creating the ability to understand more and more of the story as you collect them due to the fact you pick up more and more parts as you go along. This then allows you to see who has the most complete versions which leads you to understand all of the afore mentioned anomalous behavior is accounted for and discussed detail in the material.

So the counter argument is these guys are just a bunch of hoaxers. This is some medieval game of politics, or whimsical myth wrapped with bits of reality is a sad commentary and a projection of our ignorance.

The contortions you have to make for the common view of history is antiquated and I am not sure even held by historians at this point.

In other words sure you can explain a flood myth as having some grounds in reality. A flood happens a bunch of people make a myth. Then explain why in many of these versions god warns humanity and helps them?

Just they all though hey lets make up some part about how we all got smashed by this flood but god actually isn’t the reason why it happened. He actually helped us survive it. If this is wound through so many stories either it is a very old lie that was told for so long that derivative works were made of it endlessly. On the other hand someone may have been helped by what they conceptualized to be a god. Given how many technologies these “gods” hold authorship over I am not sure the distinction is grand.

Once you understand the best versions of the stories you understand they were real due to the physical evidence in the solar system and Milky Way galaxy.

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:laughing: lol. The history of man is a great story, not because it’s all the truth and/ or some fiction , but because, like the magic of the old world, of the present events and actions that a human takes based on the beliefs that they hold as true in their heads about their own history. We could do desertations but the real trick is predicting the course of human events based on what we think the people in power are thinking. We should just evolve to being psychic. Lol. I think Elon has the right idea with nerolink but the wrong approach. He wants to shortcut natural evolution. And i fear he wants to go hivemind once he has control :dizzy_face::dizzy_face::dizzy_face: and therein might lie the dichotomy of good and evil. Can’t have anything good without evil trying to ruin it.

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You are amazing.

I must reject the idea of prediction of those in power. You see those in power feed off the energy of the collective. Once you understand that you gain the insight to understand they are enslaved to their own ideas. What is worse is due to the fact they are in power those ideas are exposed and rife for attack and manipulation.

I will add another insightful point you made has to do with Mr. Musk.
You’re correct his is well intentioned and also likely to accelerate our fears.

When you look at emergent structures you see socially to the degree in which they micro manage is one huge factor. Most gravitate toward cortex hive mind, and the other seem to gravitate toward collective action hive mined power division. If I had to guess Elon is the former masquerading as the latter. This idea of granularity of control is conceptually valuable. The other is how the tree of hierarchy is formed. To what degree is autonomy (decision making) resources granted to any given group or individual.

There is a great saying in life there are two tragedies to life one is not getting what you want and the other is getting it.

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Lol. When talking about the powerful and their thought patterns, i agree that outside aggitation moves mountains, but I’m most interested in predictable reactions based on particular movements of the waves that are the masses. :purple_heart:

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That is funny in my mind they betray their own gluttony. I find it easy to yoke them.

You see when you understand who they are the bait is predictable. In my mind those who always lust for power and worship greed find certain actions impulsive.

If you can’t help yourself who is in control then? You see the way they control masses is in the immortal words of Zach De La Roch “We found your weakness and it’s right outside your door.”

It is irony no?

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