THE EVER PRESENT LIFE THEME GOOD VS. BAD WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?

My latest ridiculous theory relates to how the concept of good and bad are constants.  They are played out in all of our moments, and we aren’t even aware of them. After finishing the Butterfly Garden, I was thinking about the Gardener's belief that was he was doing was a good service to the world. I’ve chosen the words, good and bad rather than using “evil” because it is much stronger than what I’m thinking about, and we all have a preconceived notion about that quote.

 

Definitions:

Good: Having the right qualities; untainted; virtuous; considerate, etc.

Bad: worthless; inferior; defective; unfit; wicked, etc.

As I see a certain, moral quality involved, I'll define moral.

 

Moral: Capable of distinguishing between right and wrong in conduct; good or right in conduct of character; principals or standards, with respect to right or wrong in conduct; ethics.

Ethics: Is the study of standards of conduct and moral judgement.  The system or code of morals of a particular person, religion, group, profession etc.
 

THEORY:

The ethical code that we were brought up with is imbedded in our neurological system and functions automatically, without our conscious awareness.

HYOPOTHESIS:

When going about our daily lives, we conduct ourselves according to these embedded ethics without any mindfulness. We are only aware of good or bad, when we are faced with something that creates a disturbance between our behavior and our beliefs.

 

RESEARCH DESIGN:

As this is a blog of my design, I have chosen not to do any actual research. I had my fill of that when I had to do my dissertation and other various papers.

I am going to put these research studies into two footnotes. These are powerful studies which I hope will make you think about your own beliefs in the strength of your own moral code.

 

footnotes

1. The Stanford Prison Experiment       

2.The Milgram’s Obedience Studies.

 

DATA/FINDINGS:

Collected from my personal life experience and a little bit of Freud.

I often think of characters in books, TV shows or movies in terms of Freud’s model of the id, ego and superego.

I first remember doing this for the original Star Trek.  I saw Captain Kirk as the ego. That part or ourselves, that has to deal and interact with the outside world. Its other job is to deal with thoughts and impulses of our inner life as well. Freud made a model that divided our inner workings into three parts.

A HELPFUL MINI-LESSON IN FREUD'S MODEL OF THE EGO:

The ego, well, I explained that already. See Captain Kirk.

The id, is that part of us that is uncivilized and all about fulfilling our needs. It’s the seat of impulse, and desire, the pleasure-seeking part of our personality.

The super-ego has two sides. It’s our conscience and tells us what is right and what is wrong. It also has a judgmental side which is our ego-ideal. The picture of the “perfect me”. If, in our super-egos eyes, we fail at this ideal, we tend to punish ourselves for not being good enough.

BACK TO STAR TREK:

So, Kirk was the ego. Spock was the Super-ego. The black and white thinking of, this is right or this is wrong. Bones, was like the id, all emotional and at times irrational and angry at not getting his way.  Kirk had to make choices between right and wrong, whether or not to give in to his emotional impulses or listen to reason. He often made the wrong choice as the episodes began.

GOOD AND BAD ON A DAILY BASIS:

It doesn’t matter whether you believe in Freud’s model. It’s just a theory that helps me to organize my views.

As I go throughout my day, I am constantly making choices between good and bad.  When I leave the house and get dressed, what do I wear? When I am hungry, what do I choose to eat?  When I speak to someone what do I say and how do I say it?

Each of these actions has ethical component in it. I just don’t think about it as it is so ingrained in me.

For example, I could put on a really, really, short skirt and skimpy top, a lot of makeup and flashy jewelry. First, at my age, this is probably not a good look. I could say it’s hot as hell here in Florida and the less I wear, the less I sweat, so I want to be comfortable. So, F You! That’s true. But, I don’t think I want to look like a slut,[I'm not judging if you dress this way, well ok I am. Are you beginning to get an idea that this being complicated?] because in my mind, that’s what I would see.  That’s my judgement. Your ideas may see that as good.

 

That brings up the question of, do we all see good and bad as the same thing?

The obvious answer is no. Which of course even further complicates things.  If we can’t agree on what’s good or what’s bad, we will be in conflict. Not just with ourselves, but with other people as well. I suppose I just gave another theory of why we will always be at war, but why go there? It's too depressing.

Every thought and encounter we have, gives us the opportunity to act or think in a manner that is good. Is my mind judging everyone else? Yeah. More often than I would like, so I'm working on it. So, one solution is that I may not say anything to anyone, but is judging other people an ethical thing to do? Whether you keep it to yourself or not?

Do most people even think about it? That’s what I mean about automatic.

We gossip with our friends. We know it’s not “good”, but we do it anyway. And our superego doesn’t seem to mind. Unless...... Your ego ideal says, "oh no. That makes you a bad person. My mother always told me not to do it", so you begin to feel guilty. You can substitute any word for gossip for anything you were told was bad, or you shouldn't do, and boom!! You're there.

 

We have a fight with our spouse and say something really hurtful. We do it on impulse.[oh no. how did my ego let that through. were you sleeping again?] Damn that id. It got through the barrier. What do we do then? Do we apologize? Do we let it stand because we’re angry? This would depend on what your superego thinks is the right thing.

Do I curse out the driver who cut me off? Do I dare give him the finger? Or do I remember that I am not always aware of how well I drive, and forgive him because there have been days I too have done this.  Do I let someone else into the stream of traffic, or do I just keep going. Life is of course about balance. I would still be stuck somewhere in a car if I let everyone go All the time. It's about being more aware of the choices.

 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

 

I’m just a regular old human being. Please don’t stress the old. I’m having trouble with aging. I would like to believe that I am a good person. It would be an assumption to say that others think this too.  There are probably many people who either don’t care, or never give it a thought. About whether they're good or not. I'm not saying that people are all thinking about me. It sounded like that when I read it so I felt the need to clarify. Do you often think about whether or not you're being a good person or not? Just saying.

I’m writing this because I believe that it is important to give it some thought. More than a thought really. Most of us go about our days on autopilot and it makes life easy. Does not thinking about things make us better? Personally, I don't think so, but that's me. I used to be a shrink who thinks too much.

I believe in the potential for good. That’s what I started thinking after reading The Butterfly Garden. I began to see that all our waking moments are filled with opportunities to choose. Of course, not having the same definition of good makes it hard, but still.

 

TODAY, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO CHOOSE? NOT ONCE. NOT TWICE. BUT ALL DAY WITH EVERY THOUGHT AND ACTION.
FIRST, JUST BE AWARE. THAT’S WHERE IT BEGINS. JUST NOTICE. ONCE YOU’RE AWARE, YOU CAN MAKE CHOICES. YOU DON’T HAVE TO FLY ON AUTOMATIC. YOU CAN BE IN CHARGE OF YOURSELF.

footnotes

1. The Stanford Prison Experiment.

  In 1971, in Palo Alto California, 10 male college students had agreed to participate in a study on “prison life” for $15 a day. Which back then, was a nice chunk of change. I am trying to be brief, so you can read about this study if it peaks your interest.

  Phillip Zimbardo wanted to examine whether normal people might behave in extreme ways when thrust into situations where they are either powerless or powerful.

  The study was ended in six days. Both guards and prisoners were playing their roles too well.

  The prisoners went back and forth between plotting riots and having emotional breakdowns.  Getting sick and crying.

  The” fiction” and “reality” lines had blurred so badly that they had to be released.

This brought to mind another experiment that was able to be repeated because no one wanted to believe the results.

2. Milgram’s Obedience Studies.

Milgram did this experiment at Yale University. The question was, would you electrocute a stranger, if someone in authority told you to. Long story short.

Yes. In this case though, the students only thought they were inflicting pain as they couldn’t see the subject. They could only hear the screams. That doesn’t sound so good either. In any event, the generator had numbers and words. Switches marked 15 to 450 volts, with corresponding labels from light shock to extreme and Danger, Severe Shock.   The shocking [LOL] finding was that 65% of the students went all the way to danger.  The experimenter in his white coat, kept saying, “keep going”.

  This experiment was done by many other researchers in the USA and in Europe because they couldn’t believe the results. Well, they all found out the same thing.