Morality certainly includes the battle between good and evil. Persian prophet Manes (3rd Cent AD) and founder of Manichaeism had a dualistic view of good and evil. He viewed matter (body) as evil and the mind (nonphysical) as good. St. Augustine was a Manichaean and portrayed a dualistic view of good and evil in his City of God. In this writing he compared the Heavenly City (the way of good and salvation), to the Earthly City (the way of evil and damnation). In the City of God, St. Augustine discusses the evil that can come when our self-love instinct (city of materialism), overtakes our God-love instinct (city of virtue). The Old Testament has a deterministic view that has good at one end of the continuum and evil at the other end. The New Testament has a more relativistic view of good and evil that avoids the absolute extremes. America’s Founding Fathers recognized human peccadilloes. In the U.S. Constitution there is a system of checks-and-balances written into it to offset the imperfections that come with a self-governing democratic society.
Humanity has had an ongoing passion play between good vs. evil. This passion play includes each person, group, community, country, religion, and in the political arena. Our world has seen a lot of shameless mutilated evil over the last 70-80 years with many frenzy cases of genocide. Nazis eugenics moral vacuum had the grotesque embodiment of Rasenhygienes ——> “racial hygiene.” Racial hygiene is a pythonic cleansing, an elimination, a de-Jewification of what the Nazis considered genetic detritus. The Nazis decided Lebensunwertes Len, or those “lives unworthy of living.” The Twentieth Century alone has been visited by the dark personalities of Adolf Hitler’s incarnation of evil responsible for 14,000,000 deaths, Josef Stalin’s acts of evil answerable for the deaths of 40,000,000 people, and Mao tse tung’s acts of violence accountable for 40,000,000 deaths. Thomas Acquinas proposed that for certain evil autocrats, tyrannicide is appropriate. I propose that applies to Hitler, Stalin, and Mao tse tung. Prudent people of good will should have a heartfelt sadness and a consternation over our own species that can produce such diabolical evil. The world should cry out against the cold-blooded cruelties we humans are capable of performing. The cruel irony is that in a world that so profoundly needs love –—> so much profound hate exists. Feel free to add comments to this crucial subject.
