Shades Of Grey......

I’ve always been rather fascinated by the whole good v/s evil thing. Not surprising, considering this is the third post dealing with the subject. I’ve often wondered how it’s that we so casually categorize things as black or white. The duality with which we deal with in our lives makes me wonder, would “good” still be good if it didn’t have evil as a backdrop to highlight its pedestal?
Perhaps not, but then is everything really so simple that it can be classified as such?

Since the dawn of time, we have always had figures that represent great evil; the transition went quiet smoothly, from the biblical Lucifer, to the modern day terrorists, we were quick to assume, believe and associate these personalities as perpetrators of great darkness.
But is there a flipside to these stories as well?

Satan’s name denotes a term of hostility and antagonism; he is believed to have been one of the ruling princes of the celestial orders before his fall. It’s said he was created on the 6th day of creation, representing more of an abstract entity then an evil one, his duty was to test the integrity of humans (some job he had huh). It’s popularly believed that, Satan led the revolt against god, but little known is the fact that the revolt took place after Satan tempted Eve into eating the fruit of knowledge, a lot of stories, sub stories can be found on the subject but it boils down to this, Satan was jealous of God’s love for Adam, a jealousy that laid foundation for the cosmic battle of good and evil.
But some theologians argue that the angels who fought alongside Satan, the fallen angels to be precise did so because of purely noble reasons. God created angels in the same image as he did humans, he gave them free will and a choice to follow him or not and these angels or to be more specific the watchers, representing the four directions felt that Satan had done no wrong by granting man knowledge, it was their love for mankind that made them take up the battle against god as God built them to be irrevocably decisive as in they could never go back on their choices.
Interesting to note, the name Lucifer means “bearer of light”, the story goes that when god created man, he called forth all angels to bow before his new creation, to which Lucifer disagreed and asked quiet scathingly “should a son of fire be forced to bow before a son of clay?” Arrogant he was, I grant you that but what else can you expect???
How many of us believe today that humility serves anything? Interesting to note, the most evil character in history had his basis in good after-all, which brings me to a much closer time-line, namely right now.

Terrorism has its coils around the world and slowly putting in the squeeze; taking lives seem a more casual affair then a Saturday evening tea-party for the terrorists. Given there is no justifying what they do and how they do but what about why they do?
Religious fanatics, but what drove them to being so. The recent terror attacks were all driven by one main ideology at their core, which made them so devastatingly deadly; the perpetrators went in accepting death. What in the world can drive a man to sacrifice his own life just for the sake of hurting others? The answer would have to be, hatred so deep that the depths of it are unfathomable by you or me.
The basis for their hatred lies hidden in the atrocities they have been inflicted with in the past. These people have watched their homes burnt down, their mothers and sisters ravaged in the streets and burnt alive, all in the name of religion. Well trust me I’m not hyping any of it, you don’t have to take my word for it but the truth remains. Such are the scars on their mind, that they’d do anything and everything to avenge it. Ironic isn’t it, the people we consider inhumane monsters, rather have the same perception of us.

Not so clear is the distinction between good and evil now is it? How many of us can claim to have never toed across the line? How many of us can be absolutely have harbored no vindictive thoughts, acted without mercy and inflicted no pain on someone at some point of time? Not many, the trouble is some just run with it while others slip back and hope no one ever finds out.

McGregor in his much publicized motivational duality theory (I’ve managed to retain some crap I crammed in for my organizational behaviour paper) classified human personality into two types, type X being absolutely negative and Type Y being absolutely positive, he further pointed out that no one person could be entirely one of the two personality types, rather these two extremities form the boundaries within which we are all incorporated.

Therefore the conclusion of this rather long and tiresome post is this, none of us can just be defined in terms of black and white, we are all the quintessential grey, some darker some lighter but grey nonetheless…………….