Monday, September 27, 2010

Good and Evil

In the old days, there were monsters.
Demons hiding in the dark corners of the earth, trolls in the forests, imps, goblins, Fae. Monsters, all. These creatures were evil, and in contrast to them stood humans. Light, goodness. Good is the opposite of evil.
In the old days, there were dark places where the dark things hid.

Today, there are no trolls. No demons, no imps, no goblins. No dark places where the dark things can hide. There are no dark things. We have out-scienced the darkness. There is no longer true evil. All modern evil can be seen from its own point of view, and understood.

What happens when we, as a culture, as a race, have outgrown our fear of the dark? Where does goodness go when there is no more evil? Does the scale shift? Are we less good, now that there is no true evil to balance the scales?

Perhaps we need our Leslie Vernons.

1 comment:

Nallenon said...

In case someone is actually confused, no, I don't believe any of this.