Learning To Live With Evils
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Evils ought to be avoided, hated, and condemned. Nay, they must be trampled down, rooted up, and wiped out. But they persist, live on, and more often than not, prevail over man's sincere and persistent efforts to make an end of them. They resemble man in many respects. They are as much tenacious as man in holding on to their life. Once they are born, they get their individual name and live their life. They grow, have their day, become senile, but, unlike man, they rarely die out.
Evils are as numerous, various, and complicated as man in their kind, nature, and scale. Some are awesome and satanic as Adolf Hitler and as the atomic bomb. Some are as insignificant and trivial as the mosquitoes in summer nights for the sleepers, or the petty thieveries for the shop-keepers. Some are as cruel and deplorable as murder, and some are as enjoyable as the habit of smoking and drinking. Murder is considered to be one of the oldest evils brought about upon the earth. Of all the evils, it is hated and condemned most, but it enjoys his heyday even today and shows no sign of its decline in the near future. It seems that it will live with us as long as man inhabits the earth, although there have been and are tremendous efforts to bring it to its end. Nowadays, not many people regard malaria as a great evil, and many people even don't know of its existence as a killer of man. But once it was the greatest single cause of man's debilitation and death throughout the world. It seems that it has already seen its prime and had its day, and lost the power and glory of its youth. Man learned to control it quite successfully in many countries of the world, but this evil, although subdued, remains on the lurk, like tuberculosis, waiting for a chance of striking back. It has earned a name and will not die out that easily. Poor relatives are an evil, too, especially when you are the only man who makes quite handsome money in the family. They come to you and tell their sad stories, and ask money. They never telephone you in advance to inquire about your circumstances. They always surprise you at your house or at your office lest you should make any excuse of avoiding them. You don't feel happy after you have given them the money they ask. You can not be happy after you have refused to help them, either. This evil has quite a long history, and seems to enjoy its constant prosperity as long as there is a family and its blood ties. Evils are like the force of friction in physics. They are the antagonistic forces against the forces that encounter them. These antagonistic forces, whether we like them or not, have always been with man and have given us a hard time. Man can not shake them off, nor do away with them. For the physicists friction is the object to minimize or reduce as much as possible, but when it really becomes nill and zero, physics itself ceases to be. So are the evils for man. Like the gravity that pulls every man and things to the center of the earth, these cosmic forces of evils make us earthly beings and prevent us from becoming the heavenly angels. Without evils man and the world are not what they are. Not all the evils are so much frightening and hateful as murder. More of them are familiar to us and have a close kinship with us. Many of them are even admirable and attractive. Many of them are so-called necessary evils, and we can not live without them. All forms of government are a necessary evil, and so are all the laws and regulations we are supposed to observe. These evils are there to kill the bigger and worse evils. How nice it would be for a drunken driver, if there were no policeman! How happy would the students be, if there were no mid-term exams! What a heavenly thing it would be for the businessmen, if there were no taxes! We must not forget that man is the largest producer, distributor, and perpetrator of evils. Most of the evils come from man and with man. Man is living in them and with them. Man's life is a continuous process of producing, recognizing and identifying them. Evils are the premise of human existence in human society, and the maturity of individual man and society can be measured by the method and ability of coping with them. Free and open society can be characterized by the more evils that are tolerated in it than in the uncivilized and backward society. We have witnessed numerous radical attempts sincerely and seriously made in the Communist countries to eradicate the evil of poverty, and also their dismal results. Recently we have seen the emergence of a new kind of evil in our country: politically radical and rebellious students. They are definitely a force antagonistic to the school authorities, to the government, and to the society. They should be kept under control and administration. like any other kind of evil. They should be kept in school and should not be allowed to hit the streets and jam the traffic. They should be subdued by rough hands and clubs, if necessary. They should be dispersed by tear gas or by water guns. Sometimes they should be made to stand before the judge, and be sent to prison, if convicted. These measures taken to contain and control this new evil are universal ones and there is nothing new about them. What we should not overlook in dealing with this new evil is the undeniable fact that this evil, like the nuclear bomb, has been born and got its name already, and therefore, will live its life. If is entitled to do so. We should never, even in dream, expect to exterminate it once for all. We can, if we wish, destroy this evil completely, but we must remember that we are destroying, at the same time, the other ideals and values that make our life worth living in a civilized human society. The best policy is to learn to live with it as we should do and are doing with the nuclear bombs, -- much more worse wicked, and dangerous than the rebellious students. (August 17, 1980) |
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