Unpacking Lewis's Mind...and My Own

            The quote: "You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness" (Lewis 44). 

                               ...haha, I accidentally wrote "Lewish"......(haha, made you check, I know how to hit backspace!!!)

AAAANYWAY... Analysis..
            This quote was one in a long sting of thoughts that can be wrapped up in a few basic ideas. The first idea is that Goodness is the predecessor of Badness, and Badness is but a product of what Lewis calls "spoiled goodness". Essentially, badness, or wickedness, is the product of seeking something that in itself is good, but in the wrong way or excessively. He explains that this idea does not invalidate the concept of "being wicked" or "wicked people", as those who fall to wicked deeds surely can be wicked. The point is, what these people often seek after is something good, such as power, money, even sex. Yep, I said it, sex. These things in and of themself are not bad. Money feeds your kids, power keeps them in line, sex creates them. It is the perversion of these things rather (and in these cases, often the overwhelming desire for more) that turns the act of gaining power or accumulating cash or seeking sex into something that is wicked. Here's the kicker: the reason the persuit of these things is so easily corrupted is because they feel good to have, but their presence is incapable of sustaining that good feeling. Then the persuer becomes ensnared in obsession to capture them again. If the obession grows enough, even the object of the persuit becomes wicked to some degree. Power becomes bad power, tyranical power, abused power. This is also where we get sexual perversions and acoholics and whatnot. But the point of the quote is this: one can be good or do something good and not feel good, but one does not do something bad just for the sake of doing something bad. Rather, doing bad is the product of wanting to feel good. That bad thing was, at the time, "pleasant or useful" (lewis 44) to the doer. Good stands alone, appart from the selfish human desires, but badness cannot exist alone. This can be seen in even the world's worst people. Hitler's initial message was not "kill the Jews". He could not have won over the hearts of so many Germans with such a brutal front, duh. Hitler's rallying cry began with a plan to restore Germany to pride and power after the embarassing closing of the first World War, as WWI's Treaty of Versailles left Germany with the blame and the debt of a war they did not even start. Desiring a good face for his country was not evil of Hitler. It was how he then went about it... how he went mad with it. As Lewis's quote suggests, Hitler was not being bad for the sake of being bad. He just went WAAAAAAAAY overboard trying to promote the Germans and the Aryan race. Like, by alot. Undestatement of my life. The funny thing then is this: this is what makes being good so hard sometimes. We dont want to, or dont feel like it, or come up with a myriad of other excuses as to why we didn't do something good when the opportunity presented itself. Goodness is Goodness without our intervention. Lewis is claiming that, heck, it can be completely neglected and still exist. I am inclined to agree.

            Yep, I am agreeing that Hitler was not the spawn of Satan. Weird, I know... saying "Hitler" and "NOT spawn of Satan" in the same sentence. However, as I have said countless times in class and in writing (at least, I feel that way..sorry for the repetition), I am a 110% believer in the initial Goodness in every man and the power of tapping into it. Too bad Hitler didn't have someone to keep him on the right track, because eventually he did become abit of a devil's child. Okay, maybe alot. Anyway...yeah. People can be wicked. People can even be completely wicked, caught up in the Pride and Greed that they allow to consume their hearts, "grab them by the wrist and direct them where to go" (to quote a favorite Green Day song of mine). I can almost hear Bob in my head, though, saying somebody could rob a bank or something just to see if they could get away with it, or just to test themselves and see if they could even do it to begin with. That could almost be seen as being bad solely for the sake of badness. However, I would argue that they do it for the thrill. If they were to rob a bank and feel nothing or get nothing out of it, I seriously doubt they would do it at all. It is rather that need to feel superior, or the adrenaline, or the pride in your own cunning that would drive you to do such a thing. The desire then to go rob a bank is the "persuit gone wrong" of the sought-after "thrill" or feeling of accomplishment. Pride is seperate; it is a sin in and of itself. On the flip-side, I have seen amazing things come out of appealing to the initial desire for that something good every man seeks to fulfill but, without God, knows not how to satisfy. The guy who drinks too much alcohol just doesn't want to hurt anymore and doesn't know how to stop..either the hurting or the drinking. And it doesn't even have to be pain he is trying to escape. Whatever is keeping him there is not something pleasant, even if that guy thinks being drunk is enjoyable. There's always that moment where you wake up the next day, feel like crap, and ask yourself why you do this, even if it lasts a nanosecond in your subconscious brain. Appeal to what drives that nanosecond's thought, and God can work wonders. <3