Sunday, September 11, 2011

The thin line

"It's simple: there is good, and there is evil. The two sides are opposite, as different as day and night. And the line between them is clear. Or at least, it's supposed to be."

But is that all that simple? Is that line between them as clear as it's supposed to be? Or is it blurry, allowing for plenty of grey areas?

It's a thin line between good and evil. And maybe one that's impossible to find, too.

In the world of fiction, there are plenty of characters who display antiheroic or byronic tendencies, ones that blur the line between whether they are to be regarded as heroes or villains. Does one good deed make a serial criminal a hero? And does sadistic torture inflicted onto the vile, cruel criminal undeserving of life by the righteous hero make them, well, a villain?

Here's where moral ambiguity comes in.

None of us are strictly good, nor evil. We have both in us, with one side being more prominent than the other, manifesting itself in us as we go about our daily lives. This leads to us being judged on our actions as either good or evil. But in reality, everything we do, from the decisions we make to the people we meet, everything, is neither right, nor wrong.

Rather, they are both, because ultimately, good and evil are subjective; what is righteous to one may be regarded as pure evil by another.

Taking revenge on someone who has wronged you in the worst possible way? Some would applaud you, while others would be appalled at your lack of compassion and forgiveness. The former would regard you in high esteem for dishing out your enemy's just desserts, while the latter would condemn you for sinking to your enemy's level, for being cold-hearted, unforgiving and ruthless, just like them in every single way.

Things in life are never really clear cut; they are always polarising. So what are we, really, if we're neither good, nor evil? Where do we really stand, and whose side are we on?

Since we fall somewhere in the middle, then we can only assume this:
We stand alone, on nobody's side, but our own.