What makes a good man? I've always been a believer that most men are inherently evil and although I think the people who claim that men never act selflessly are unfair, I think in general, man is selfish. I also don't think selfishness is a bad thing as I am a objectivist, and that is what Ayn Rand (The mother of objectivism) vehemently believed.
Now, despite my views on man, men do good things sometimes. They also do bad things. even the most evil men in history probably did something nice once or twice. Jesus marched into the temple and started breaking shit, vandalism is a mean thing to do and he was Jesus. Was he justified in his anger? I think so, but it's a debatable point. This came to me because someone that I've long considered a good man did something horrible. Now, I know he feels extremely guilty about it to the point that he self-tortured himself, but it leads me to think, what is a good man? for you can argue that a good man would have obstained from doing the horrible thing in the first place. But what if it's someone who does something bad, but then feels deep remorse over it even though no outside person condemned him for it (nobody knew he had done what he did, he volunteered the information to cleanse his soul and keep it from bottling up). So, if you self-condemn yourself and never forgive yourself but just try to move forward and never do it again, do you lose the good man card? I don't think you should, but what about the person that in the same situation, obstained from doing it. clearly he should get more points. Is it a numerical thing; like if you do x amount of bad things, does that make you bad person? By extension, if you do x amount of good things it makes you a good person? That can't be it, because different things are weighted differently. If you commit genocide against an entire population of people, there are no amount of good deeds that save you from that. But, there is no counter on the other side. I guess if you jump in front of a bullet for a stranger to save their life, all bad deeds get expelled. but aside from dying for anoher person, there really is no good deed you can do that will forgive all else.
So, things are weighted differently. the thing about good men, is they don't look for fanfare. If a guy is hooking up with a girl, she passes out, and he leaves the room, he doesn't seek praise for not raping her. He thinks that's preposterous to praise someone for not being evil. but by keeping his good deeds low key, it only sets to highlight when he does something bad. espeically becuase he's the one that condemns himself more than anyone else. So....maybe that's a good man. someone that condemns himself for bad things moreso than others, but doesn't look for reward when he does good things. the problem with this is that people love to see good men go bad. Look at Tiger Woods and Joe Paterno. so, sometimes people's condemnation is greater than warranted therefore wouldn't equal even a good man's. Someone may say that a cashier gave you too much change and you didn't give it back, you should have your hands cut off. that's extreme and the good man couldn't be expected to match or surpass that.
People say if you're going to write a blog, you should know the answer. I say fuck that. I don't know the answer, but it's an interesting question.
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