‘Not So Good’

Generally speaking there are 2 obvious schools of thought about morality; one is to be good while the other is to do good. The first is the real morality whereas the other may be the only a means to an end. Many people say, one can be good to do good, but in my opinion, this is rare. As how I see it, people do good actions appear to be entirely altruistic yet fundamentally they are egoistic, motivated by acquisitiveness, desire for merits, bliss, heaven, reward, fear of resulting punishment or combinations of the mentioned. And you guess it right, I am bitching about the people around me that I know. But no, you are wrong because I am not going to name those people. I rather not talk about them and their ‘great’ behaviors, that’s so not me.

I have met people who admits to their ‘not so good’ actions and to me these people are well better off comparing to those who tries to justify their ‘not so good’ actions while denying and pretending to be innocent. Shakespeare expresses this beautifully in one of his works where Lady Macbeth told her husband before he kills the king, ‘be like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it’. This truly illustrates ‘not so good’ hypocrite’s intentions are not seen until it is too late.

What do these people profit, even though they can be freaking rich, fortunate and enjoying all those great things in life, when they are not even virtuous, charitable and benevolent? To put it in a good way I shall use an example, a modified version of what I heard many years ago.

This type of ‘not so good’ people is like living on their own capital account, constantly withdrawing from the bank without making positive deposits. Before they knows it, they are well broke, penniless and of course all alone. Then they start cursing and blaming those who did not help them in their time of need till the extent of blaming god and fate. Honestly, for me at least, they have no one to blame for their ‘not so good’ actions but they themselves.

‘The greatest difficulty in life lies not so much as making the choice between good and evil as the choice between good and good”
~~Santayana~~

Morality should not be taken only at a personal level but to be practiced by all members of society. A person may think that he can get away with the performance of ‘not so good’ actions and may even be tempted to adopt the ‘not so good’ moral values glorified on TV. However, nobody can or may escape the consequences of this person’s ‘not so good’ actions and no society can be peaceful as long as there are such people around.

In addition, people in positions of power should uphold moral principles since their actions have profound effects in those who are below them. As I said, I am not going to mention names….go figure.