One lesson I have learned in life that stunned me most, because I used to live in denial, and which I will work hard to teach my kids and anyone who sought my counsel is: NEVER ASPIRE TO BE A GOOD MAN! The graveyard of social garden is filled with corpses or people who are extremely kind, sincere and honest but made mistakes of aspiring to be good.
Even If you are a good man, the world will manufacture bad out of you. And no matter how hard you try to please them you will keep making enemies compared to those who are professionally bad in reputation.
No wonder, Niccolo Machiavelli warned that "A prince who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good. Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to maintain his position to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.”
Being good is normal. Being bad is not the nature of man. A child was born of good but the world teaches him in hard way to hide his goodness if he wishes to go far in life.
Parents started this. When a child steals and confesses, the parents will look at him all the time each time something is missing. he is always the first suspect. Never mind that this child always willingly confesses when he is wrong. The parents sent the wrong signal to other kids that is much better to conceal your error.
The good child sooner learns this lesson and then keeps his errors to himself to align with the ones his Parents love. Meanwhile, the child who stole and concealed his act is elevated as a hero.
So these days, when I see people attacked as bad I tend to look deeper beyond the public accusations. Some people are surprised at this and think I must join in attacking the bad and praising the good. Do we know why they become bad after living as good before now?
And when I see people who are good, I always look at their motivation and intended gain. Many so-called good people that we praise because they share our views or align with our side of the argument are pathologically rotten evil inside them. They simply need to gain our trust, enough to make us lose guard before they strike at unexpected hours, or to make us give them power over us.
This, perhaps is why we tend to be shocked when someone we know as good all along gets to power and soon becomes a worse evil than we knew.
But Machiavelli was not done, especially to those who are obsessed with doing the right things :
He further counselled, " He who neglects what is actually done for what ought to be done sooner brings about his ruin than his preservation … A man who wishes to live up to his professions of virtue in every circumstance soon meets with what destroys him among so many who are evil."
... the midst of all the decoys, do not forget to do good when it is very necessary and appreciated. Do your good silently and let your deed speaks for you in your absence. It will bail you out when the world begin to believe what they forced you to be in public.
Isqil Najim
#echoofmymind
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