Two Quotes on Good and Evil
June 13, 2022•359 words
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” - Elie Wiesel
"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" - Harvey Dent (The Dark Knight)
First, why I believe the two quotes are true. Two follows pretty easily from my argument in [1] that given a philosophically perfect system of good and bad, the imperfectability of mankind means that eventually people will degenerate from "good" into "bad", the devolution of hero into villain. The first one requires a much more nuanced argument. The gist of the argument is that to be good, you have to actively be "good" (consider how one doesn't realize one's privilege unless you actively look for it). The only reason that people would be motivate to do "bad" things is if the "bad" thing is materially easier than than the "good" thing, as being "good" requires intellect to realize and self-regulate when you're being bad (leaving "badness" as the intellectually lesser choice, thus making it materially easier). Furthermore, indifference is what allows the "neutral" people to exist, allowing "bad" systems like virtue signalling to be justified (for an explanation of virtue signalling, see [2]). Furthermore, indifference involves passively allowing "bad" people to do what they do.
I see the first quote as defining the "hero" that the second quote demands. Of course, the first quote isn't a true definition of hero as it doesn't define what is good and bad. But, I think it provides an important perspective on how being neutral isn't being "good". Admittedly, this is complicated by the possibility of there being multiple systems of "good" and "bad", but I think a good system of "good" and "bad" can and will accomodate for this. I see the second quote as a call to action: you must be a hero now, or you will become the villain. This idea of taking immediate action fits in nicely with the idea that indifference is bad.
[1] https://listed.to/@vt/35076/mortality
[2] https://listed.to/@vt/35778/virtue-signalling