Good and Evil

By

William D. Dannenmaier

Backing from the driveway on our way to church one recent Sunday, Andrew warned me that I was about to back into the rose bush. My bride laughed and said the rose bush had survived worse. Then she told Andrew about Stephen and the rose bush.

When we first returned to Cumberland Furnace, I purchased a climbing rose from Starks Brothers’ and planted it by the cliff, in front of the small cave entrance. One day Stephen, then eight, came happily into the house and announced, “You know those thorn vines? Well, I found one by the cliff. I stomped it good! It won’t cause us any trouble any more.” Sheila took time to explain the difference between our rose and the “wait-a-minute” vines which grew wild in the woods. 

Enlarging on the theme, Sheila’ commented that young children didn’t really know the difference between good and bad, they had to be taught. Her experiences with children agreed with Dr. Bettleheim, although she didn’t know about him.

Dr. Bettelheim was an internationally famous psychologist in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. He worked with disturbed children in Chicago and had a school for children in the heart of the slums. He was famous for his success with both disturbed children and slum children. He also took the position that children did not know the difference between good and bad: they had to be taught. In one of his essays he pointed out that the characters in European fairy tales were either good or evil, never shades of gray. He argued that to try to teach children about “shades of gray” only confused them. Speaking of his arguments led me to wander on, perhaps because we were on our way to church.

People are not shades of gray either, they all have, we all have, good and bad in us. I don’t know, and have never known, many people whom I would describe as all good. I believe that my father was such a man. I knew him well and never knew him to do, through action or advice, any thing but good for others, even when that “good” harmed him. It didn’t matter to him if a person were black or white; rich or poor; Christian, Jew or atheist. Perhaps that is why he had so many friends, ranging from the man who swept the street car tracks – with a broom – for a living during the depression to a multi-millionaire. I think, perhaps, my bride, Sheila, is such a person also. Like Dad, she has many friends of all races and all statuses in life. 

We need to stop pretending that people are “shades of gray.” People are mixtures of good and bad. When we decide that a person is a good person, or a bad person, we are simply reflecting on which of their acts dominate their lives – or of which acts affect our own interests most. 

I am not such a person. I have done too many things that were wrong. I simply hope the good out weighs the bad. 

Note that I’m not equating good and bad with legal and illegal. Here in the hills of Tennessee people have a tendency to define laws as a social convenience and interpret them in terms of common sense. I know that the speed limit is 55 MPH, but when I am on a straight stretch of road, with no crossroads, houses or traffic, I see little wrong with 65. On the other hand, still with a 55 speed limit, when there are houses and families on either side I’m more likely to be doing 40 or 45 unless I see young children playing near the road - then it quickly becomes 30 or less. Similarly, back in 1952, I thought it was wrong for the government to draft eighteen year olds and send them into combat (my friend Bob Buckner was wounded in combat at the age of 18) but deny them the right to drink a can of beer if thirsty. The federal and state governments approve of eighteen year old people voting and selecting the leaders of the states and the nation, but don’t consider them responsible or intelligent enough to know the difference between an alcoholic drink and drunkenness. Does that make sense?

Neither do I equate good and bad with smart and stupid. Something can be both legal and good, but still stupid, like mowing grass in January. In years of working with college students, I had numerous “coffee table” conversations in which students would tell me of things they were doing or planning on doing that could create problems for them. I found it much more effective to tell them I thought their action, or plan, was “stupid” than to tell them it was wrong. Once a coed told me that all of her friends were trying marijuana, and she couldn’t see anything wrong with trying it. My answer was that it was against the law and if caught she would have an arrest record. “You have spent three years studying to become a teacher,” I said, “a jail record could throw away a chance to do something you want to do, have spent years preparing for and, from seeing you in student teaching, are good at. It strikes me it would be a stupid chance to take.” She agreed.

Please note that I am not equating “bad” with “evil.” Evil is a religious concept, good is a social concept.  While “bad” in social concepts corresponds closely with “evil” in Christian concepts, they are not the same. The fact that I happen to believe Jesus set down a plan of behavior which, if followed by all, would ensure maximum happiness for all is irrelevant to the social concept of “good” or ‘bad.”