You know, I was thinking about the following, actually, having a natural inclination towards good is not the same as being good. Because I think that not all people, but perhaps most, have a natural inclination towards the good, however, I am far from saying that most people are good. I would not say that about myself at least, and the reason is the following, being good is not that simple because, not only do you have to overcome ignorance when you don't know what is right and what is not, not only do you need to overcome temptation to do something that we know is wrong, but it is also particularly difficult to do good when we know that doing so will have negative consequences for us. I believe that those are the three main causes why evil is done, or good is not done, all based in one way or another on ignorance. I mean, it is not only necessary to tend towards the good, but it also takes a significant degree of self-discipline to be able to do so. That self-discipline is very important.
Because, well, we often hear about corrupt and morally deficient people who do this and that, and everything is wrong, yet very seldom does that invite us to reflect on our own morality. What would we do in that situation? Because, most people don't do actions as bad as those that many politicians do, for example, however, it is true that we have never been in a similar situation. Most of us have never been tempted with millions and millions of dollars, or all the unimaginable pleasures. Most of us have never had to face that. Nor have we been so many times in situations where our ignorance of what is right affects thousands or millions of people. And most of us have not been in situations where there is so much corruption that doing the right thing can compromise our success, our work, our lives, or the lives of our families. In other words, it is possible that all the conditions are in place for many of these people to become corrupted, if they are not already corrupt. And I don't want to relativize the evil that they are doing, that's not what I'm looking for, what I want is for us to think about that, yes, well, these people are bad, but how different are we from them? That is, what percentage of the world's population would resist such great temptations or act despite such punishments? And again, I am not saying that people are corrupt or anything like that, I am think that most of us have an inclination towards good, however, it is also necessary to work on our self-discipline to avoid being those people that we criticize so much and that do so much harm to the world. It's not just about criticizing them, the truth requires something more of a commitment, we need to be different in thoughts, words and deeds to these people.
It is necessary that we work ourselves to resist the temptations that we have in our daily life, and to try to act despite the consequences. To reflect on what is right. Will is truly required to do good. And it is not something easy, not at all, it is very difficult. If you see it like this you realize that it is very difficult to be good sometimes, and it is easy to realize why the world is in the condition that it is. The gate is indeed strait, and the way is narrow.
Now, although I don't like to link videos to my posts, I'd like to end with an interview with actor Bryan Cranston about playing an evil character. I don't agree one hundred percent with him, but he does mention a few things that I talk about here and I think his perspective is interesting and worth seeing and hearing. Although after the minute 6:00 the topic changes.
