Monday, February 23, 2004

Lalala I think the music is pretty nice. Thanks to w33mz for the inspiration, although you might more accurately call it plagiarism. Hahaha. Do pardon the pop-up advertisements. I had thought of putting some Ayumi Hamasaki song (in case you didn't know, yes I'm a fan of hers) but I couldn't find any suitable ones. I thought those on powerwebmusic were too -erm- perky. Not that I don't like her perky songs, I just think my blog is not very perky thus the inappropriateness of music you would stand up and start dancing to. My current favourite song is Because of You, which has this really desolate feeling; I listen to it when I brood, which is rather often these days.

'Allo 'Allo is back on Central! Hurray! But not as triumphant a Hurray as a real Hurray (ok sorry I'm a little off my rocker today) because it is a repeat of a season that Central has shown before. The point is, though, that I only caught a few episodes of this season, no thanks to NS and Central's ill-timed shuffling of Comedy@Central programmes sometime early last year. So it will be a joy to watch the season again. Ah how I miss those JC days when 'Allo 'Allo was the subject of much hilarious conversation. The Sketch Show, which is before 'Allo 'Allo, is also a splendid production. Really incredibly madly funny.

Suddenly I am reminded of "lip my stockings" and I can't stop laughing. Which leads me to think of the exercise machine. Worse uncontrollable laughter. Sigh, I think Lost in Translation can be the fuel for a lot of amusement, although regrettably the more ponderable parts of it kind of eludes me. I am such an idiot. Hahaha.

Ok on to more rub-your-chin-and-make-thoughtful-noises stuff. Well, my brother borrowed some VCD box set from his friend of this miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil. And although I did not watch it something on the cover struck me: "The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke. It is really quite interesting, when you start thinking about the nature of this thing called "evil". I mean, evil is what we make of it, right? The thing about abstract nouns like good and evil is that their definition change over time and space, and even in the same time and space there will be different people who subscribe to differing standards. (I don't suppose I need to give an example here; I'm not writing a GP essay. You should know what I mean, ja?) It is only another indication of the complicated nature of the human race that we should come up with the concept of evil and that the definition of that concept should be so inconstant. The point is, though, that evil exists because there exists its opposite, good, and vice versa.

Which leads me to what really provoked some little grey cells to spring into action. The necessity for the existence of evil such that the human race should know what is good, is that not so? (I fear that I'm coming up with some really ludicrous and nonsensical point of view but I shall continue because I think it's pretty interesting) It is because of what Hitler propagated during the Second World War - the unconscionable testing of human subjects in concentration camps and the cruelty towards Jews - that formed the foundation of many human rights clauses, and ethical guidelines towards medical research. Many say that if only there had been people brave enough to stop Hitler before he gained enough power that so much tragedy would have been averted. But is that truly so? With no international agreement towards the ethical conduct of soldiers in war, etcetera, that came into being after the end of World War Two, would it not be possible that the nipping of Hitler's proverbial bud would only serve to delay the inevitable, that some time in the future some other maniac would come into power and that the tragedy that had been denied its place in history would be played out in full here in the future?

When it comes down to it, normal sane individuals like us, we cannot even begin to place ourselves in the shoes of the vicious and cruel. We cannot bring our imaginations to explore the places that these minds have been, and we cannot understand the impeccably perfect yet twisted logic of the insane. Thus, how do we know what is true evil, if we cannot imagine it? We must be shown it. And thus there is a place for evil in the world. Because only when evil exist does good exist, to oppose that evil. Superheroes would have no place in our imaginations if not for the existence of evil-doers and super-villians for them to fight against; they would otherwise be pretty boring individuals leading a normal life. I could say that we don't really need either good or evil in our lives, but then we would be living in a mutely gray world that would be comfortable but not very exciting or encouraging. It is all a part of the harmonious balance of energies (ah now I'm going into Zen) that is also reflected in so many other facets of life and natural laws.

Ahem pardon the blahblah I was a little carried away. And it's not a very strong argument too I think - no counter-examples hehheh.

Avaris / 2/23/2004 07:20:00 PM

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