Good VS Evil

When we go to the cinema to watch a movie or whenever we open our television to watch any series, cartoon shows, or any shows, majority of the movies we watch there will be two sides battling one another. The side of good and the side of evil. Of course, the good always end up winning but at some cases the evil side wins. However, it is not about which side is winning but it is actually how the director decided to show which form of good and evil it is. Good versus evil can be in a form of two kingdoms wage war in order for the greater good of their people or simply because to control the nation, it can be in a form of a mind battle where the main character is being manipulated by others or manipulated others, and it can be in a form of a personality change either because of a mental disorder or simply because of past experience that turn a character from good to evil, or from evil to good. The events that happened in movies can, already or might happen in the real world. When we watch the news or read newspaper for sure there will be murders, suicide, or misunderstanding between people. Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton, Barisan Nasional versus Parti Pakatan Rakyat, victim versus bullies, husband versus wife, son versus mother, and many more news that depict good versus evil in real life. We cannot deny that there is good in the world nor can we deny that evil also exists. So is the struggle between good and evil seen in good people and bad people? Is good and evil a personal conflict within each and every person? Or is it simply seen in the influence of famous people or group? This essay will explore these three premises.

Many of us may see the struggle between good and evil in the people we come across every day. We meet some who are good and others who are bad. But this way of thinking is flawed in many ways. A person we perceive as good may still be bad in the eyes of someone else. Not only that, but someone we perceive as good be bad in secret without anyone knowing about it. This is also true when we think of someone as bad, when in fact their conscious is clear regarding their actions. Sometimes by their appearance in terms of attire people can easily judge which one is good and which one is bad while on the other hand it is the other way around. For example, a man who wears suit and tie to work may have other agendas and more deceiving that he might have even cheated on his wife and do things without his family knowing about it. A girl who wears all black to school and wear hoodie when going out is a kind and caring girl who always take care of her siblings and her parents heart and the reason why she is wearing black is because that is her favorite color and not because wanting to involve in black magic or become a gothic girl. Even so, there are situations where almost everyone agrees that a deed is good or evil. For instance, mass killing is hardly justified. It is only a small fraction of the population such as the religious extremists can claim that murder is good. Hence, it is sometimes meaningless to contend on whether an individual has the option to define the words evil or good and hence justify their wrong actions. A majority of people agree that people who have done good things should be rewarded while the evil ones should be punished. It is for this reason that laws are made so as to ensure that evil people are legally jailed while the innocent are protected. In addition, the society does not associate with evil people. Murderers, rapists, thieves and other like-minded people may have to live in isolation and in fear. On the other hand, good people are praised and will have peace in the society.

What if both good and evil exist in every person? That would mean that each person does both good and evil. Some are stronger and disallow their bad to outweigh their good, while others tend to gravitate more to selfish pleasure – thus acting out with bad behavior. This way of thinking obviously brings up the question of whether we all have inherent good or inherent evil within ourselves. Every decision we made determine the good and bad in a person. A person decides whether they want to kill someone or forgive that person, to rob a bank or to find ways to improve their family finance, or to do drugs or find a new positive addiction in their life. Recently, Malaysia had one of the most disturbing and dreadful tragedy where a university student at National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) were bullied until death because of being accused to stealing his friends belonging. The boy was bullied and it is suspected that there are 36 suspects involve in this case. One of the lecturer even said that it is normal in a military education environment that there is bullying or ragging because it is a traditional thing and it even happened in the British army too so he does not see any problem with this case and why the society have to made this case as it is something big. In this case, yes, a person will have the tendency to find out the truth if someone steals their stuff but does the only way is bullying? Or we can simply find another way to dig the truth out from a person? In the end, the choices a person make determine the outcome of what happen next. However, there are some people who have mental disorder they are a special case because they are not in control of what they are doing. Their inner battle of good and evil are more challenging and the outcome might lead to suicide. The individual is always the one who determines good and evil. Good and evil are not foreign to you; they depend upon you. Many people talk about evil and social problems and so forth. Likewise they speak about good things and striving for ideals and a utopian world, but often these things are treated like something which is foreign or distant from individuals. This is not the case. These things are determined by the individual.

There is no doubt that a person will have a role model in their life. This role model can come from an entertainment field like Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, it can also come in the field that improve the technology years after years such as Steve Jobs, Belinda Parmar, Bill Gates, or they can come in any field possible. Role models influence a person’s point of view in education, philosophy beliefs, mind-set, motivation and so much more. Influence can be defined as the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. The influence from role models can also increase a person’s good or evil in terms of perception and also growth development. Politics aside because it is a normal to see an influence from politicians can affect a certain group of people. Let us look at the entertainment industry and how certain celebrities gave negative influences towards teenagers. Based on a Newsweek poll, 77 percent of Americans believed that celebrities have too much of an influence on the appearance and attitudes of young girls today. One poll participant, a first-grade teacher, even noticed her students using derogatory language, singing suggestive song lyrics, and even flirting with each other. Celebrities like Snooki, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber are horrible role models as they portray reckless behaviors and disregard for common respect. Ideally, teens and young kids should not be exposed to such behaviors. Let us take Miley Cyrus, before this she is a teen sensation where people know her as Hannah Montana in Disney Channel original series where she portrayed a sweet, talented and funny teen that tried to balanced her life as herself and as a famous superstar. During that time and until the end of Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus showed a good behavior, well dressed, and is not influenced by other actresses. After her breakup however, she started to take drugs, dress like a stripper and appeared in music videos with inappropriate dress and attitude. As a result, young girls decided to be like her by produce twerking videos, licking hammer, and at America, some girls even admit that they wanted to become like her by doing drugs and dress like her. This proves that influence from role model also give an impact towards a person and might change a person from good to bad or from bad to worse.

It is certain that in life there are some good and evil in ourselves and the people around us. A person’s perspective towards others determine our judgment of good an evil between them and what we see in others might not be like how we expected they are. Get to know them first, after that we can make judgment of who they really are and even though if we have known them, does mean they would always be good or bad all the times. Sometimes a person has to change their decision because of their inner battle in deciding whether to become good or bad. This however, the reason why we have inner battle is because of the current situation. Not all decision we made have to be good all the time because we have to be bad at certain point depends on the situation. The good and evil will also not end even if we manage to be good and decide life choices carefully if we do not have a good role model to show the right way of living and not making people be bad because of a person. We can never deny that in a battle of good and evil, the good is the right choice for us to support and join. The path of good is the path of peace. This essay ends with a quote from Martin Luther King, “When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love”.

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