See Evil

I wonder what’s worse. Is it cheating on an exam or cheating on your beloved? Don’t they both constitute cheating? Or which is graver? Is it stealing a few bills from your parent’s wallet or robbing a bank? Don’t they both constitute stealing? What could be more sinful? Is it gossiping or doing things that are worth gossiping about?

Is it wrong to point out that something is wrong and appear puritanical or self-righteous? Or appear puritanical while talking among yourselves about someone who is seemingly in the wrong? How do we classify the extent of one’s wrongdoing? Would you pardon Robin Hood for stealing from the rich and helping the poor? And would you do the same to those in power stealing from the poor to distribute the loot among the rich? Surely the choice is to pardon Robin Hood and put the powerful who steal to the gallows. But wouldn’t that mean condoning stealing? Regardless of who does the stealing, it is still stealing. The same argument goes to telling a lie. When one says a white lie like saying a friend looks good in her attire, it is no better than telling an all-out lie like telling you didn’t kill someone when you are indeed the murderer.

Who qualifies all these? Why do we even bother to measure the extent of the wrongdoing? A sin is a sin. Period. But we can’t be that exact about it, can we? There are a lot of factors that go into it because we deal with feelings, behaviors, ideas, the social science, or the like that we can’t certainly measure exactly. How do we resolve the dispute then?

To see evil is to be aware of its existence. To see evil is to be conscious of your own contribution to it or to the fight against it. To see evil is to have a responsibility. Now wouldn’t you choose to be blind to evil in order for you not to involve yourself? Wouldn’t you choose to be clueless instead and live in peace? For what you don’t know won’t hurt you. But wouldn’t not knowing hurt more than the knowledge of it?