The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

Quote of the day:

“Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)

--Rene Descartes



Untrue truism of the day:

“East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet.”

--Rudyard Kipling

We often set up part of our lives as war. We identify an enemy and proceed to do battle.

Our main combat strategy is based on separation. We identify, categorize and separate ourselves from anything foreign--within or outside of ourselves.



Separation can take many forms. One of the easiest is to identify the foreign characteristic in another individual or institution and then either do battle with them or wall ourselves off from them.



We are constantly separating, as in:
the good guys from the bad guys,

stainless-steel appliances from white appliances,
time alone from time with people,
darkness from light,

BMW drivers from Ford pickup drivers,

evil from good,

work from fun, 

religion from science, 

sound from silence, 

heart from mind,

thought from feeling,

men from women,

serious from funny,

Americans from terrorists,

rich from poor,

gay from straight,

cool from uncool,

the country from the city,
the good old days from today.


We separate, categorize, and do battle. Are our thoughts distinct from our being, as most Descartes interpretations would conclude? Are there really two separate “beings” in each of us? Are they at war? Should they be?

This is very hard to talk about because conflict is around us everywhere. Sometimes it’s obvious, other times it’s not. Consider the kinds of battles we hear about in the news each day. Honest hard-working citizen versus indifferent big government. America versus terrorists. Gang versus gang. Celebrity husband versus celebrity wife.

Conflict is central to most great literature and art. And it’s what makes news interesting. Often the conflict is very simply drawn, as in the good guys versus the bad guys. Think 95% of classic western movies. Think Star Wars.

We seem to prefer hats to be clearly black or white. Yet our experience tells us that life is not a black-and-white enterprise. It happens in shades of living color.

Can we handle that, or do we have to continue separating, categorizing, and battling? Is it helpful to wall ourselves off from parts of ourselves? Is it helpful to see less-than-perfect parts of ourselves in others and fight with them?