Tag Archives: Good and Bad

Redefining Good and Bad

In our society, we put a lot of stress on what is “good” and what is “bad.” For example, as children, we are taught that we are being “good” if we do what our parents and teachers say (stay quiet at nap time, play well with other children, use our words, etc.) and bad if we are disobedient (we don’t pay attention to rules, make messes without cleaning them up, are physically violent, etc.).

In the same way, societal pressures modulate our actions by placing those same monikers of “good” or “bad” on essentially everything we do. If I were to drop out of college and live at home with my parents, that would probably be considered “bad”, since I would be seen as lazy and unsuccessful, which are both qualities viewed negatively by society.

On the flip side, if I went on to obtain my degree, score a high-paying job, get married and have a nice, well-groomed family, that would be seen as a very “good” path to have taken.

Society gives us certain rules – we shouldn’t do drugs or drink too much, because that’s bad (and not just bad for your health, these things make you into a “bad” person). We should stay fit, because being out of shape is bad (and again, more than just bad for your health, because who would make a big stink about some stranger slightly neglecting their health?). We should strive to own nice things, like big TV’s and nice cars, because these will make our lives better, and more importantly show everyone we meet that our lives are better, which is good.

I’m sure you get the idea.

But “good” and “bad” are really just abstract concepts that should be personally defined – maybe the drop-out is happier than their traditionally successful counterpart for whatever reason, maybe you feel it’s good to not focus on being in shape and just enjoy life, maybe the stoner thinks it’s good to smoke weed, while another person thinks it’s the worst thing imaginable.

What I’m getting at is just because a whole bunch of people think something is good or bad, doesn’t meant that it necessarily is. And more than that, there isn’t anyway to actually definitively say whether any given thing is good or bad – it’s too subjective.

Personally, I’m all about not labeling things as good or bad whatsoever. Life exists on a gray scale, it seems ludicrous to use such black-and-white terms. Even the most heinous of all people are not pure evil – even Hitler thought he was doing a good thing for his country, no matter how terrible his methods were.

Using labels like “good” and “bad” are sort of a shortcut to get around really considering an issue fully, if you think about it. Once you label something as “good” or “bad”, you don’t really have to think much more about it – you’ve come to your conclusion and you’re done.

But when you start considering that everything in life is multidimensional, the true complexity of the matter comes out. When you look at each situation on a gray-scale, you’re forced to really question whatever value caused you to initially label something as “good” or “bad,” and most times the final judgement ends up somewhere in between the two.

And remember, just because a whole lot of people say that something is “bad” or “good,” doesn’t mean it is. To avoid becoming just another member of the mindless masses, you’re going to have to think for yourself here and come up with your own opinion on the matter.