Black & White Comment

02005-08-23 | Uncategorized | 5 comments

Gerald Weber commented…
I don’t advocate the approach of those that ascribe to the gothic mode of evil like Shelley did. Good, evil, whatever, it’s all hollow sounding after a while as reality is not bound by words or other symbols which we invent. Jiddu Krishnamurti lectures illustrate this concept very well. By the same token, I don’t feel that maybe sums up the situation either because this is all based on thought rather than feeling. There’s no duende in the story. So if you see your horse galloping off in the distance do you remain emotionless and detached and don’t have a feeling about it? Maybe?

Good point. I think when your horse races off into the distance you get mad and stomp your feet and scream… and then you go on about your business instead of carrying that loss for the next 20 years and cursing your bad luck. Emotions are human. They are part of our human condition. They are beautiful. On the other hand, holding those emotions for a long time is not good. In other words, you can express your feelings as completely as El Pele or or Jose Merce express their emotions when they sing/perform – but then you return the microphone to the stand, leave the stage and shake it off.

PS: the emotion isn’t what hurts you in the long run – but getting attached to it will. As a child we feel emotions directly, but without stored experience. We get mad and then move on. As we gather more data/experience, our brain starts comparing that data with the fresh emotion… instead of getting mad at an event we get mad and simultaneously the brain whispers “this always happens to me – it’s the same as what happened last week and the driver who cut me off then looked German as well: Germans are evil!” You see?

5 Comments

  1. Doug

    In terms of the line between good and evil, good is the only thing that exists on its own. Evil is always just a corruption of something that is good.

    Reply
  2. Balwearie

    Well said about letting go of emotions. I just left my BF of two years because he couldn’t let go. It gets in the way of going forward. Maybe you weren’t meant to have that horse – maybe you’ll get a new one… That’s the way I always try to look at life.

    Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with Shelley. The whole Frankenstein saga came about that summer they spent on the continent trying to scare the pants off each other. Basically, it’s telling tales around a campfire. That particular one just happens to have stood the test of time. On the other hand, a lot of what we personally think about good and evil (or rather, bad) is based on our own perception. That’s what makes a large number of artists/writers interesting – either they touch a common thread in all of us or they have a unique and inviting way of looking at things. Were we to all be emotionless, rational beings, the world would indeed be a boring place. Or…. it would be Vulcan, perhaps.

    Reply
  3. Eno

    Well put Doug.

    Reply
  4. Gerald Weber

    What is evil? I don’t know if there is a simple answer, but I did find the following quote on the web whose authorship is not known either. “In addition to the extended history, there are some wonderful asides. During WWII, Krishnamurti could see no difference between the Allies and the Axis: for him, killing in the name of nationalism was evil. Saying the Germans were no different than the English created some difficulty with the FBI. The solution was simple: he gave no audiences for the five years of the war with, apparently, no bitterness and no sense of loss.” Apparently evil has the ability to silence even great minds.

    Reply
  5. Borya

    i remember a discussion i had with my mexican friend where she “accused” of always comparing when talking about people. she was right to a certain aspect but that kind of comparing i cannot really avoid because it’s what makes my experience. it’s hard to take every new encounter as a white piece of paper on which nothing was written yet. all one can do is always remind oneself to proof the own judgements being willing to change them.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Archives

Images

Social

@Mastodon (the Un-Twitter)