Active Good Vs Passive Evil (Not A Mash-Up)

The good people are too defeatist these days. See that, even saying that is defeatist. Damn!

It seems to me the good people are on their heels, spending too much time analyzing and critisizing all the evil in the world. Instead of creating active goodness, they're dwelling on, and therefore becoming, passive evil.

We all do it. Let's read about how bad things are in Washington DC, in Pakistan, in Palestine, in Texas, in New York City. We've become a hybrid of Howard Dean and Ice T in his song "Momma's Gotta Die Tonight."

It's almost as if we think we can do something by being informed. "If I seem concerned then I'm doing my part..." As if seeming concerned can actually do anything. It's like being in an airplane that's about to crash, seeing another airplane that's about to crash, and being so completely worried about those other people. As if your worry could somehow help them. And you've focused so much on them you can't even help yourself now...

I see it in the music world. People bitching about how rotten music is. As if they were powerless to do anything about it. But music is quite egalitarian, and instead of complaining about everything, you can write your own songs and neutralize the crap that's out there. You can't complain about music, because you can always fix things. You should be able to say "music is the best it's ever been because I'm writing the stuff to make it so."

Active goodness sure beats passive evil. Too many good people are enamored with the international intrigue of all the bad news out there. It's good to be concerned, but I would say that the evil out there is potentially being doubled by the fact that it a) happens and then b) captures the attention of good people and paralyzes them from going about their life.

I'm not sure if I'm verbalizing this that well, maybe if I spoke from my own experience it would make more sense. It's fun the read the news everyday and hear about how bad things are. I could waste eight hours a day getting in-depth analysis of how bad everything is. I'd probably even get a little cynical from it, I'd feel all powerless and whatnot. In my self-analysis, maybe that's the point. Paralysis of the good people. Instead of living my life, I'm watching the world's soap opera. And it IS one or the other, there's only 24 hours in a day.

It almost seems like if you ignore what is going on in the world and focus on doing (and on doing good) then that will make up for the appearance of apathy. Like "sorry I'm not concerned about how bad things are in _____, I'm too busy doing good things here." I don't think the paralysis of concern translates into the "I've Done Good" column. I'm working on this one...