Good and evil – the duality of life.

When G K Chesterton wrote about progress in society today, he termed it Social Darwinism, a refinement of values and beliefs which changed and morphed as society itself went through its changes and development.
His belief was now we had developed physically from ape to man it was time for us to take the next logical or natural step, one of developed morality. In so doing he acknowledged it was possible for man to progress from ape to angel, but this was also just as likely as progressing from ape to devil, a reflection of the duality of development which is possible morally.
His thoughts led him to the conclusion that if man continued to ‘pay homage to the god of materialism’ we would, without doubt, be heading along the route which leads to man – devil. The way to avoid this was, in his opinion, was to follow a spiritual route.
Stainton Moses agreed with this philosophy but felt there was more to the argument than just this; one could explore spirituality and not get in contact with the positive side of it, and as George Orwell put it, get in contact with the ‘double plus god’, an unhealthy interest in everything to do with the occult.
But at the end of the day what is it that really gets us going?
What is it which sparks a real sense of curiosity and delight? That inner sense of, ‘this may be dangerous’ excites us to such an extent we follow it with exhilaration, looking for the thrill which accompanies such risks.
Think of some of the late night programmes we can watch if we are still awake enough to watch them. Programmes which begin with the warning, ‘this programme contains scenes of an explicit sexual nature and may contain gratuitous violence’ set us up for exactly that, a wander into the seedier side of our natures; that titillation which connects us to a base part of us which is normally repressed. Is this the man-devil connection Moses speaks of?
Think back to the Roman age when it was fashionable to watch the mutilation of men and women in the ring; where man and beast were pitted against one another in a re-enactment of the struggle of life and death.
Box office hits advertise clips of excitement, clips of dare-devil stunts, death defying acts, all of which are designed to wet our appetites enough to pay the money and go to watch their wears viewed on screen. Ostensibly they all have a similar plot, the struggle between good and evil, parading a darker side to haunt, taunt and tease our senses. A darker side which makes us appreciate where we are and help the endorphins flow. We walk so closely with the devil we almost smell his body odour. Our closeness to partners increase, our reliance on others too increases; the social thread of friendship groups is brought back into view, re-establishing the boundaries of acceptability.
This is not a new fascination, we only have to go back to the Celtic or Nordic myths and legends or the old Hindu tales to give us a sense of what they were designed to do, to re-establish the fight between good and evil and to make sure people realised good would in the end triumph.
But does it? Or is it we change ever so slowly and do not notice the gentle disintegration into a more tolerant and explicit age? When do we notice we are moving towards Blade Runner as our reality, or Lord of the Flies isn’t so scary anymore because we see it played out on the news every day? Is this what Stainton Moses was trying to warn us about?
There never has been a lack of glamour in the ‘darker side of life’ in fact its just the opposite, we are so caught up in the possibilities it holds, we are tempted to view with our eyes half shut and our fingers covering our eyes, peering through our fingers until its easier to bear. Remember back as a child, watching programmes on the television which were just too much. We would hide behind our fingers, the settee or a cushion and watch it with our hearts pounding and our desire to run so strong we would look to our parents for comfort. Our fear becomes our friend, sitting closely alongside us wincing at the shocks, screaming at the mutilations, holding our button of overload, ready to press it when even it has had enough. We pant, our heart races with fear filling in the gaps through our imagination nightmares only we can create. We huddle under the sheets reliving the fear and our friend obliges us with re-runs within our own imagination adding as it does the missing pieces in the puzzle which will make sleep unlikely, and when it does come, fitful. We enjoy the fear, but fear the terror, the edges blur and we lose sight of which is which until we are numbed by it.
Our parents would invariably laugh and after time we too would laugh at our younger brothers or sisters for doing the same. The fear was dispelled, held less close, but still in control of the button, and we learned to view carefully at the beginning until we gained our control over it, then sit back and inviting fear back to us, enjoy the company of it, the high blood pressure, the desire to run, be sick or just collapse as a gibbering heap with fear still holding the overload button, but now unsure as to when it should be pressed.
The clothes, the culture, the paraphernalia, the secretiveness of the occult draw us in like a child is drawn to a box of matches. We strike the match and enjoy the excitement until we burn our fingers or set fire to ourselves.
We outwardly disapprove and reproach those who go down the path towards it, those who openly display the symbols of dark magic, of gothic status and yet study them with an almost morbid fascination. Inside our heads we secretly admire them for having the confidence to be different; externally we deride them for that difference, holding fear of these aliens out in front of us as protective armour.
Our fear is now our friend and we treat it as an ally stopping us from falling into oblivion; it controls the button and we presume is knows when it is too much. Too much and we become paralysed in the headlights of the very thing which fear fears most; too little and we ride rough shod over sense and sensibility. In the right proportions fear acts as our very saviour, our true companion igniting flight or flight, strength or power, resistance or resilience and the very thing which is evil in our eyes, but holds that fascination for us; creates a surge from fear which we both surf upon and fight against as we slip into the very bowels of thrill and exhilaration.
Duality then is a path we tread which takes us between one polar extreme and the other; a dance within ourselves which creates and dictates how we will react later in life to choices we are presented with. For those who ‘look ever sunward’ their shadows fall behind them. They continue to walk only seeing one side of the pendulum swing. Jung saw the shadow as that part of us which contains all that is negative, an ill-defined region where hatred, greed, jealousy and other similar attributes are held. Although we would all say we wouldn’t want to accept these into our personality, we have to accept that without them we wouldn’t be able to recognise the opposite and strive towards them. How can there be something called ‘good’ if we don’t have an idea of evil?
Interestingly we are taught to send these ‘negative’ emotional states to another place far from us so we do not exhibit them, but isn’t there a positive side to them? Is selfishness not also that ability to care and keep oneself safe? Is greed not the part of us which makes sure we have enough to eat and drink to keep us well? If we deny their existence or nurture a state of denial that these attributes exist within us, we fail to appreciate their necessity in making us aware and able to appreciate the ‘goodness’ that is within them.
Good cannot exist without bad, devil without angel; how can we know what is happiness unless we know sadness. By the very stating we are happy we acknowledge its antithesis, each emotion requiring the duality of form to create and retain its very existence.
The shadow never fades, just moves round with the movement of the day; bouncing off buildings and walls it flashes past our faces, sometimes larger sometimes smaller, sometimes blotting out the sunshine, swallowing our sensibility, speaking through our mouths, creating moments of insanity which ripple out across the social gatherings, creating awkward silences, misread signals and broken dreams. Like the darkness of the night it is but a flick of the switch away.
So why do we fear this aspect of ourselves? Why deny its existence, holding it firmly behind. Isn’t is better to bring it forward and honour the duality within us; acknowledge our limitations, our erroneous tendencies and be thankful they are there so as to amplify that which is beautiful, radiant and appealing; that which creates friendships, binds together families and communities and formulates the very foundations of our social value system.
Having a bad day is the shadow falling across our eyes obscuring the sunshine. Do we dwell in it, do we allow the shadow to remain there and give us the chance to wallow in that self pity where we can make excuses to be bad tempered, unfriendly and unloving? Do we stay there or do we give ourselves he privilege to turn ourselves towards the sunshine having acknowledged where we almost dwelt and praised our strength at turning?
Fear courts us as that friend and holds us in that point where we are; that present state which is familiar and safe however unpleasant that contorted view of safe maybe. A woman stays with a man because she believes his shadow talk and she accepts his beating; the dog stays with the family who keep him outside and feed him rarely because he believes this is his life and all he can expect. We fall under the hypnotic spell that Fear weaves and we bow to its majesty, yes, this is all there is. Instead of hearing the words of Fear as friend we hear Fear as foe and fail to hear it pressing the button calling us to turn and face the sun.
Sometimes we do the right things for the wrong reasons and sometimes the wrong thing for the right reasons. Which is most correct? Which courts Fear as its suitor and which its ally? Our intentions carry within them their own duality, altruism and ego. Which do we function from and when? Which is to the higher good? Do we practise vetting our own intentions so as to be aware of the impact of the words and deeds? How long do we stand before we launch into whatever we say; do we think before we strike or do we lash out with the spike of shadow across our face and Fear pressing the button of cessation or commitment?
If we are to move forward in the moral maze Chesterton called Social Darwinism, we have to first accept something called Free Will and the ability to have choice; choice to stand in the sun and the shadows, to speak from both aspects of our personality, but to be aware of the effect of both, and in so doing allowing the pendulum to swing fully from one side to the other. This way we can appreciate the sunshine and all its attributes and give ourselves permission to explore and in so doing compare and contrast the side s of the swing.
Duality between good and evil, dawn and dusk, shadow and light, fear and contentment are all parts of the moral struggle created within our language, our very existence. It is through duality that we learn to appreciate sadness, joy, beauty, rage and enrich our experiences of living.