II. GOOD AND EVIL

1. Good and evil find ever more varied and complex expression through evolving life.

2. Good and evil have no reality except in terms of each other. One can be measured or defined only in terms of the other.

3. Good and evil, like hot and cold, are each necessary for the existence of the other. This does not mean that any absolute amount of either need be present in any one place or at any one time.

4. Because the human mind can exult emotionally in what is good, while appraising objectively what is evil for the purpose of future avoidance, living, for good people with enough wisdom to control the mind, is frequently more than merely endurable.

5. Good is that characteristic of any situation, which if all else remains constant, will cause an increase, no matter how slight, in the overall amount of justice in the universe. Evil will cause an increase in the overall amount of injustice.

6. Justice occurs simply when the natural consequences to an organism normally to be derived from it's behavior according to universal laws, are not unnecessarily interfered with. This, or course, includes all instinctive behaviors such as normal predation or defense against attack from other organisms (6).

7. Interference with just natural consequences interferes with evolutionary destiny because it impedes the ever more varied and complex expression of universal intelligence through individual living organisms. Injustice is undesirable for this reason.

8. Injustice interferes with evolutionary expression because it constitutes a disrupting unpleasant stimulus or worse to an organism and is, for this reason, a direct initial encroachment upon individual liberty. This applies equally to all life.

9. Liberty is the inalienable birthright of every living organism to manifest justly as an unimpeded participant in evolutionary destiny. This manifestation to be both Libertarian and just, must not unnecessarily interfere with the evolutionary expression of any other living organism.

10. Evolutionary destiny is the principle imperative of nature.

11. What is natural is just.

12. In a different sense of course, it is "just" that unnatural elements should exist and "natural" that injustice should exist, in the same way that it is "right" for there to be both good and evil in the world (7).

13. What is natural is in accordance with universal laws.

14. Right behavior is just because it is in accordance with universal laws. Wrong behavior is unjust because it is not (8).

15. The Quest (9) for evolving good is to establish justice everywhere within reach.

16. Man is the one creature who must constantly strive for justice because he is the only creature capable of perpetuating injustice on any appreciable scale.

17. Most injustice results from the individual having false values about what constitutes attainment and from the taking of shortcuts to this. False values usually result from an undue concern with recognition from others.

18. Lazy wishful thinkers like to rationalize that evil will always cancel itself out because it is "negative." At last report however, evil was alive and flourishing almost everywhere. Apparently no one has yet succeeded in convincing evildoers that they are supposed to cancel out.

19. Evil is every bit as prolific as good. It is from it's own standpoint, equally as viable, equally as coherent logically, and rarely in a strange way, sometimes seems to be equally as "moral." The goals of course, are very different.

20. Emotion is an organism's reaction to any particular portion of the environment which happens to effect the organism, but which in the larger context, is beyond such localized scrutiny.

21. Most "morality" is merely a consensus code for behavior within a group of evolving organisms and is based primarily upon their emotional reaction to their environment.

22. "Morality" or "spiritual development" will herein refer to the relative balance of good and evil within the individual as this is reflected by the relative amount of justice manifesting in his treatment of all other organisms.

23. Good and evil themselves reflect emotional reactions more than anything else. Good is based upon the constructive impulse. Evil upon the destructive. Evil simply comes from entertaining the wrong emotional premise.

24. From a standpoint of the Five Elemental Goals, good and evil manifest thusly:

25. The final goal of good is an eternal state of pure spiritual ecstasy. The final goal of evil is non existence (10).

26. Those who treat others unjustly are at one of three levels of negative manifestation - ignorance, sickness, or evil. Ignorance is merely intellectual and can be remedied easily with knowledge. Sickness is when non-viable behavior allows evil to get a foothold in the psyche and the battle within begins to degenerate the individual spiritually. Sickness can sometimes be cured, but slowly. The important first step in this involves instilling a level of recognition in the sick individual which will allow for the volitional remedy of ignorance. Evil can be changed, but only very slowly and only by the individual from within. These three conditions abound in society. Ignorance is represented by the average citizen, completely deluded and totally apathetic about almost everything. Sickness is exemplified by those who are doggedly determined to live in a fantasy world induced by either false beliefs or drugs, despite repeated exposure to information which illustrates clearly the total non-viability of their behavior. This is where emotion comes in. The wrong emotional premise keeps sick people from apprehending the remedial information which sits right in front of them. Evil is perpetuated by people who hurt others unnecessarily. Some do this illegally just for it's own sake, such as the sadistic killer of total strangers. Some do it legally for self aggrandizement at a level far beyond any normal need for recognition by others (11).

27. The relative balance of good and evil within the individual is something quite apart from the absolute amounts of either which may be present. The absolute amounts are a function of the scale upon which the individual lives.

28. Human greatness is a quantitative, not a qualitative measure. It is the ability of the individual, whatever the motive, to produce change in the external world in accordance with will, to translate ideas into events, to make visions into actualities. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we like the individual or agree with his motives. It has absolutely nothing to do with the relative amount of good and evil connected with his actions.

29. The historical greatness of an individual is measured, for good or for evil, by the total amount he is able to tangibly manifest his will during his lifetime. This is a quantitative comparative measure relative to the activities of other people, not a moral judgment. Qualitative definitions of greatness are immature, hysterical, and usually tainted by jealous subjectivity.

30. A relatively small amount of evil in the total context of a great individual's life may represent a far greater absolute amount of manifest evil, than a much relatively greater amount in the life of an individual of little historical consequence. We must judge an individual only by his total impact upon the world.

31. It often appears that most people are predominantly good simply because most people consciously believe that they are good, and are zealous about and skilled at, conveying this impression to others.

32. Those who assert that "most men are basically good" are being self contradictory. They are saying in essence, relative to the particular dichotomy of good and evil, that the average person is actually above average. The average person, in the context of a lifetime, manifests about as much good as evil. Conceptualized on a continuum, most people cluster around a center point with only a few truly good or truly evil people at either end. None of this is to say that the relative amount of good and evil in any particular individual can be easily measured or even judged accurately. Usually it cannot except in the more extreme cases near to either end of the continuum.

33. Conscious intellect arbitrates among and serves as: a vehicle for good, a spokesman for matter, and an accomplice to evil, all of which are themselves largely subconscious.

34. Good and evil are equal and opposite forces in the universe. They always have been and they always will be. Both find equal expression through universal intelligence in the cosmos as a whole. One aspect of the eternal harmony lies in the perfect balance between the two. To know the truth of this one need only contemplate the impossibility of perfectly uniform goodness on Earth. This would mean no individual differences in wisdom. The minute we find a difference in the degree of goodness between two people we are once again dealing with evil.

35. The balance in the universe between good and evil occurs not only within space, but across time. A present good balances a past evil of equal magnitude and vice versa (12).

36. Any change in the balance between good and evil on Earth does not alter the overall balance within the universe as a whole, or even on Earth in the long term.

37. Evil, like good, is ever vigilant. Good people must not become discouraged, but should on the whole, expect only partial ascendancy over evil and then only within time frames of limited duration. This does not mean that evil should be accepted or institutionalized as it is in all human societies today. It is better to learn early a diligent realism than to later develop the kind of apathetic cynicism which masquerades as maturity, but is really just a hurt and frustrated reaction to what was unrealistic optimism in the first place.

38. As long as evil is institutionalized by human societies the long term effect of most good actions will be offset by evil actions. Things will only improve noticeably when governments are actually structured on the principals that most people say they believe in.

39. The evil that has befallen one in his lifetime should never be mourned, but celebrated as constructive adversity. It has been said rightly that "the same fire which will melt butter will forge steel."

40. As man continues to evolve, so will increase the complexity of expression of both his good and his evil.

41. He who would interfere with evolution would interfere with the potential varied and complex expression of both good and evil.

42. To the wise, the potential for evolutionary expression of evil is worth putting up with because of the equal potential for good and the mind's ability to focus selectively.

43. Any individual who persists in interfering with the normally occurring process of evolutionary expression, must by good men be regarded as evil, since such an individual impedes the ever more varied and complex expression of good.

44. Every time we discover a new evil in the world we also discover in it's opposite, a new good.

45. The destruction of evil provides good people with excitement and adventure, and is simply the activist component of goodness manifesting itself tangibly, as opposed to mere philosophizing. Good people of courage should humor good people lacking courage and should not confide specific activities to them overmuch.

46. Apart from any consideration of martial ability, all else being equal, if one who is primarily good is to prevail against one who is primarily evil, then the absolute amount of one's goodness, in terms of tangible manifestation, must be at least equal to the absolute amount of the evil of one's adversary. If it is not, this condition may cause one to falter at crucial moments.

47. Humanity is what the evolutionary process has made us. Our highest goals as a species are very recent and usually require us to transcend our ingrained lower natures. This is not easily done. Many of the built-in behaviors which we deem to be problematical relative to more recent goals will seem perfectly natural to the person eliciting the behavior, especially if the person's values are a bit less idealistic than average. Often stress or the necessity of crisis will lower the threshold for moral regression.

48. Psychology has helped humanity in many ways on an individual basis, but the discoveries underlying psychoanalysis especially have made people in general very self-conscious and suspicious of others. To progress upward we are now called upon to will the direction of our own future evolution, while at the same time, not being ashamed of what we are.

49. The Quest for evolving good will be as much in the recognition of evolving evil as in it's dispersal. Destruction of evil must be on an individual basis, and since there is absolutely no room for error in this, can be accomplished effectively only by people of advanced development.