Whoa! What's this about bad things and good people - and good things and bad people!
Who would deny that “bad things happen to good people”?
But are we prepared to drop our presuppositions and think again?
“Good” people – who determines that? Doesn’t it automatically imply that there are “not-good” people or “bad” people? Who measures that?
There are multiple pre-suppositions – assumptions might be the better word – right there; arguably the most import of which is “I’m not a bad person” – a protest we regularly hear when catastrophes or accidents happen.
What’s the measure of a good person? And is a bad person just a person who doesn’t pass our ‘good’ test? Is there an external perspective – something or someone with the authority to measure us all? If we have a ‘good’ test, what’s in it? Is a ‘good’ test a bit like the IQ tests – you know: the ones that are so culturally determined that 60% of the world cannot but fail? If the test is based on a moral code of some sort, which moral code? And is one better or more authoritative than the other.
But here we are – living as if none of those questions matters; because it’s far easier to just make up rules than ensure we pass the test but others may not. Then we judge them for not being as good as we are – more specifically, as I am.
“Bad” things – who determines if a thing is bad or not? What is bad in one part of the world is not bad elsewhere: is that because ‘they’re’ not as advanced or developed or educated as we perceive ourselves to be? Is there a universal set of morals that does – or can – apply to everybody; if they’ll just submit to that standard (our standard)?
What is the measure of a bad thing? Is it bad in and of itself or is it bad because it affects things and people badly? And if we’re just another animal on the planet, are we not just another ‘thing’ to be badly affected – or not? Is the measure of a bad thing ours to determine or is there some external, abstract standard etc etc etc.
Stop it – my brain hurts already!
Well, if we believe in any kind of accountability (divine or otherwise) or karma or ‘universal justice’, we have no choice but to abandon our guns and grenades and weapons and stop waging war on others.
If I am a free sovereign individual, then so is the person whose eyes I’m looking into. And if I’m not a free sovereign individual, then I’m just a ‘thing’ that other things happen to and I have no business interfering in other thing’s crap.
I’m fairly certain that COVID-19 organisms are not minding the welfare of each other by telling them in no uncertain terms when they’re wrong or not reproducing or mutating properly – or improperly for that matter.
And for those who are sometime theists and users of the bible, that very bible makes it plain that “when bad things happen to good people” (the title of a book you can find in the stores), IT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHING WRONG – not even in the Old Testament under the old covenant.
It’s either random or it’s not. If it’s random, we have nought to judge about; and if it’s not random, we still have nought to judge about because that same bible specifically teaches us that God is in control of it all; God has his reasons that we, because of our lack of trust, fail to get or even comprehend often; and we are specifically instructed to not judge. And the reasons given as to why we are not to judge are a) because we are all in the same boat; and b) we all have a speck or a log in our eye. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
So when we cavort about, pointing the finger, we are assuming that we are better than the one we’re pointing the finger at – and, no matter how much we twist the bible, that is simply not true. “Let each esteem the other as better than himself” and all. And then perhaps we could add a bit from the Old Testament. Prophet Isaiah said:
“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.”
And what does Isaiah’s “then” refer to? God told Isaiah to tell His people this – loudly:
A glance to the side might be in order – and take a look at British alternative rock band Jesus Jones. Here’s a few lines from their “Watching the world wake up from history” song.
Here on youtube: https://youtu.be/MznHdJReoeo
Them’s my words! – they just got to them first.
I was alive and I waited, waited, waited (my Master’s thesis was about waiting for the bus that never comes. But right here right now? There’s no other place I want to be – because we’re watching the world wake up from history – and I don’t want to miss a thing. I saw in that decade where it seemed the world could change, in the blink of an eye. But that became just a monument and now stands as a sign of the times – pointing to a grand missed opportunity.
Francis Fukuyama some time ago declared “the end of history”. Now we know with absolute certainty he was wrong. Just how wrong we’ll have to wait and see. Will we “snap back”; or will we experience The End of Stupor (Ronald Conway, 1984)? Either way, there is a new history to be written.
The question remains: will it be written by people with “Eyes Wide Shut” and their heads stuck in a big blue barrel – or by people who know with absolute certainty that there is such a thing as society it’s US.
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