The Essence of Evil

 Seven deadly sins have been identified: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth.  Knowing them does not prevent committing them.  

The sins have virtuous counterparts.  Virtuous Pride, Industry, Love, Respect, Discipline, Forbearance, and Initiative.  There is a personal satisfaction experienced when the are practiced.  There are also societal benefits attained when individuals collectively, and reasonably, practice them.  

What makes them sinful is going to extremes in the same, or in polar opposite, behaviors.  The virtues morph into the sins.   They can be collectively summarized with a single word, excess.

It can reasonably be said that an excess of anything is evil.  And that can be extrapolated to say, excess is evil and evil is excess.

When evil/excess becomes de rigeuer, society, even on a national basis, takes steps to purge it.  Some extreme examples are the American and French Revolutions, the Civil War, WWII,  and Korea.  The excesses of colonial rule, the aristocracy, slavery, German and Japanese Imperialism, and the attempt by North Korea to take over South Korea, all  had to be confronted and, thankfully, checked.  Even now in the Ukraine, the excess of power being displayed by the Russian dictator is being resisted by an international coalition. Many of our laws, regulations, and ordinances are an attempt to curb excess.

On a personal basis, excess can be avoided by making behavioral changes to avoid it as soon  as the first signs are recognized.  If excess takes hold and becomes the raison d'être, it takes heroic individual effort to get rid of it.  It is an addiction and analogous to war on the international scale.

All of this does not propose prevention on a grand scale, but admonishes us to is be mindful that small excesses on a personal level can lead to perdition if they take hold. Excess is the result of gratifying personae who are primarily of the Emotional source.  We see that this is the battleground of good v. evil, the struggle to keep appetites under control.  

When a being succumbs to excess, it denies Core-being the ability to achieve his aim.  Denied, Core-being patiently waits for moderation to be restored so he can get on with his work.  If he determines that that won't happen, he may exit the being and allow it to be destroyed by those same excesses.

The Four Ingredients of Achievement (In three fourths Haiku)

 

One, information

Two, the imagination

Three, intelligence

Four, Discipline to stay the course through thick and thin.

Information is ubiquitous with the internet, and our access to it is unlimited.  About anything is accessible.  Once the seed of desire is planted, information is at one's fingertips.

Imagination allows one to envision aim, to project success in the mind before it is achieved.

Intelligence refines information and recognizes imagination to devise the steps necessary for achieving aim, finding the way, solving the issues, working out the details.

Discipline to tend to the task.  Neutralizing negativity, recognizing distractions and stopping them.'

There are two more important precursors to achievement: Inspiration, the idea from whatever source, and Initiative, to take the first steps at each juncture.  These could well have been included above but came to light later.

Dementia

It has names, and the one that seems to describe what is going on with us is dementia.  It was discovered to have already started in June 2010.  It is reaching the advanced stages now.

There's an analogy that helps me understand what's going on.  Our mind, i.e. the thinking of our brain, has a capacity for it that is like the water that fills a very large tub. The situation is such that no water can be added to the tub.  

Dementia is like when the plug in the bottom of that tub is removed.  The water flows out at a fairly constant rate but it is hardly noticeable at first because there is so much water in the tub.  

Then as it continues to flow out, it becomes more and more noticeable until, as it nears the bottom of the tub, it seems to run rapidly out.  It drains until all the water is gone.  And when the brain can no longer think, it's over.