The Duality of Man

In the Bible, the book of Genesis mentions that, before everything, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning.

What if I told you that darkness and light have long existed before that? Good can be defined as something to be desired and approved, having the required qualities of high standards, something which is morally right (righteousness) or something of benefit or advantage. Good has many definitions. Evil, however, is regarded as something morally profound or wicked.

The first evil act in mankind's history can be traced back to Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel out of jealousy as Abel's offerings were favoured by God. However, evil existed long before that. We're born with good and evil. No person is inherently bad. We learn to be good or evil.

It is said that there are two faces to every coin. There are two faces to every human being. The first literature I came across which tackled this topic is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Dr Jekyll acts as the moral instrument of good while Mr Hyde is evil incarnate. We're all born with a Jekyll and Hyde. Evil appears as more easier or convenient than good. In my humble opinion, it's always easier to commit evil deeds than it's alternative good version. Why study for an exam when you can cheat? Why would you apply for a license when you can bribe its way into your pocket?

In every civilization, there's always an oversight which acts as a divine instrument of retribution. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have God which judges a person based on his merit. Aztec civilization had multiple deities. They offered sacrifices to satisfy the gods and recounted natural disasters as punishments by the gods.

There's always a god, good and evil and consequences. In our modern society, churches act as the godly instruments, police act as the overseers of society and NGOs act as the "good" in our society. We can't escape good and evil. It's deeply enrooted in our societies. Our actions always come back to haunt us.

Long ago, I played a video game called beyond two souls. Its protagonist, a young lady by the name of Jody Holmes, has a supernatural spirit which resides within her. It's often regarded as her dark side throughout the game. We're all born with good and evil. We all have dual personalities which resides within us. One personality is for our societies and another personality is our genuine selves which isn't hindered by the laws of man. For example: when we walk in our streets, we listen to music as is the norm within our millennial selves, however, we slightly shake our heads up and down or silently sing or hum in sync with the song. When we're in our homes which represent our deepest confines away from the plague of society, we sing, jump and dance away to the music. We cannot do that in public as it may be considered odd or it may disturb the natural calm state of the walking society, so we decide to do it away from the prying eyes of society. It is within our deepest selves to seek acceptance and conformity. We cannot be shepards so we opt to become sheep. When we lose that sense of belonging and acceptance, we become juveniles, rebels or criminals in a conformitive society. Serial killers become that way due to lack of empathy and societal acceptance. Their own parents don't accept them and show them nothing but violence and savagery, so they grow to become evil's divine instrument. Society is a double-edged sword; it breeds doctors, but more importantly, it breeds soldiers. It trains us to heal, educate and kill.

Society is troubled.

San Algamal