Where have all the Bad people gone?
There was a time when it was easy for us to spot evil people. On an international level, sure we can call dictatorial leaders evil, or even heads of heartless multinational corporations. It's still easy to see who the bad guys are in books, on TV, and in professional wrestling, but in our every day lives, the antagonist doesn't show himself so readily. It seems to me that everyone I hear about is "a nice guy." I'm not trying to claim a monopoly on the title, but it really gets thrown around too readily. At one level, I read articles about Saddam Hussein being a warm and loving father, and hence "a nice guy." Slobodan Milosevic was a co-operative and friendly prisoner, another "nice guy." Hearing about the departed, you'd think everyone on earth lived a friendly and courteous life. Fundamentally, you're not allowed to hate "nice guys," and I recently caught myself talking about a guy that I didn't particularly like (and had every reason to despise him) and I said that he was "a nice guy". So what's the criteria for this new cliche? Someone who's good to their kids? Someone who's never been to jail? Well, to borrow a page from the book of Chris Rock, "You're supposed to be good to your kids!" and "You ain't supposed to go to jail!" Do we have such low expectations for our fellow humans that people meeting essentially basic moral code are classified as "nice guys?" Has our post-modern moral relativism stripped us of our ability to recognize evil in our midst? Maybe I'm old fashion, but I think we all need to work harder to earn our "nice guy" title and have higher expectations of other "nice guys."

   [ posted by William @ 11:27 PM ]