{"id":3424,"date":"2018-11-22T11:36:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=3424"},"modified":"2018-11-22T11:43:48","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:43:48","slug":"good-and-bad-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/good-and-bad-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Good and Bad People"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The truth about “good people” and “bad people”.<\/p>\n

From “Guards! Guards!<\/em><\/a>” by the great Sir Terry Pratchett<\/a>.\u00a0 (Guards! Guards!<\/em> is recommended reading for these\u00a0 fractious political times.)<\/p>\n

Setting: As the dust settles the Patrician speaks with the Captain of the Night Watch (a civilian police force, i.e. of the people not of the state, it is not military – soldiers shoot citizens).<\/p>\n

‘It may help you make some sense of the world.’<\/p>\n

‘Sir.’<\/p>\n

‘I believe you find life such a\u00a0 problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people,’ said the man. ‘You are wrong of course.\u00a0 There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.’<\/p>\n

He waved his thin hand towards the city and walked over to the window.<\/p>\n

‘A great rolling sea of evil,’ he said, almost proprietorially.\u00a0 ‘Shallower in some places, of course, but deeper, oh, so much deeper in others.\u00a0 But people like you put together little rafts of rules and vaguely good intentions and say, this is the opposite, this will triumph in the end.\u00a0 Amazing!’\u00a0 He slapped Vimes good-naturedly on the back.<\/p>\n

‘Down there,’ he said, ‘are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity.\u00a0 All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness.\u00a0 Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass produced darkness of the soul.\u00a0 Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality.\u00a0 They accept the evil not because they say yes, but because the don’t say no’.\u00a0 I’m sorry if this offends you,’ he added, patting the captain’s shoulder, ‘but you fellows really need us.’<\/p>\n

‘Yes, sir?’ said Vimes quietly.<\/p>\n

‘Oh, yes.\u00a0 We’re the only ones who know how to make things work.\u00a0 You see, the only thing the good people are good at it overthrowing the bad people.\u00a0 And you’re good at that I’ll grant you.\u00a0 But the trouble is that it’s the only thing you’re good at.\u00a0 One day it’s the ringing of the bells and the casting down of the evil tyrant, and the next it’s everyone sitting down complaining that ever since the tyrant was overthrown no-one’s been taking out the trash.\u00a0 Because bad people know how to plan.\u00a0 It’s part of the specification, you might say.\u00a0 Every evil tyrant has a plan to rule the world.\u00a0 The good people don’t seem to have the knack.’<\/p>\n

‘Maybe.\u00a0 But you’re wrong about the rest!’ said Vimes. ‘It’s just because people are afraid, and alone–‘ He paused.\u00a0 It sounded pretty hollow, even to him.<\/p>\n

He shrugged.\u00a0 ‘They’re just people,’ he said. ‘They’re just doing what people do.\u00a0 Sir.’<\/p>\n

Lord Vetinari gave him a friendly smile.<\/p>\n

‘Of course, of course,’ he said. ‘You believe that , I appreciate.\u00a0 Otherwise you’d think you’re standing on a feather-thin bridge over the vaults of Hell .\u00a0 Otherwise existence would be a dark agony and the only hope would be that there is no life after death.\u00a0\u00a0 I quite understand.’\u00a0 …<\/p>\n

\n

Genius and beautifully explained.<\/p>\n

So, is there a way off the bridge?<\/p>\n

Is there a chance for “goodness”?<\/p>\n

I believe so.\u00a0 But it is not some dramatic performance, it is simply about being more universal.\u00a0 It is about letting go of our animal fear and greed.\u00a0 It is about embracing existence and allowing ourselves to reconnect with nature.\u00a0 It is about realising that you are part of the bridge and the abyss and it is only fearful if your ego overpowers you.\u00a0 If you let go of fear,\u00a0 the bridge becomes choice and the abyss a pool of love.<\/p>\n

It is simple to follow the path presented by the universe once you have let go.\u00a0 How to let go?\u00a0 Breathe. Think. Flow.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The truth about “good people” and “bad people”. From “Guards! Guards!” by the great Sir Terry Pratchett.\u00a0 (Guards! Guards! is recommended reading for these\u00a0 fractious political times.) Setting: As the dust settles the Patrician speaks with the Captain of the Night Watch (a civilian police force, i.e. of the people not of the state, it …
Continue reading Good and Bad People<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,3,22,14],"tags":[224,152,223,102,225,97],"class_list":["post-3424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspective","category-holonics","category-living","category-risk-and-terror","tag-breathethinkflow","tag-ethics","tag-guards-guards","tag-holonics","tag-morality","tag-terry-pratchett"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-Te","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3424"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3430,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3424\/revisions\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}