We Cannot Be Good or Evil, We Can Only Do Good or Evil

[unspeakablehorror]

I think people often have more desire to take credit for being a good person than to actually do things that help other people. And while I understand this likely stems from a desire for social acceptance, it often seems strange to me when people simply declare that they're doing good or that they're not doing something bad and expect that to be considered an authoritative statement. I think it is better to focus on whether a particular action is good than whether a person is good or not, and to have a consistent philosophy for determining the difference between right and wrong that we apply to both ourselves and others. People are not inherently good or bad--it is our actions that have ethical implications, not our mere existence.

On the flipside when someone does something wrong there is often a disproportionate amount of effort put into beating themselves up over the problem rather than trying to correct it to whatever extent possible. And while I'm not suggesting people should feel nothing when they do something wrong, I think that it's important not to view the emotions themselves as addressing the problem. If a person has very limited means to correct a mistake they've made (not uncommon) it's not going to improve matters to simply  beat themselves up harder about that. It's better for everyone to simply do what little they can to correct the harm done and practice kindness to those affected than to try to berate themselves harder.