Bad people doing good things

The young man told me "you are a kind, thoughtful caring person" and I felt guilty thinking of the woman and the men who had told me similar things and then stopped talking to me or issued restraining orders in various forms when they would have realised that I was not they expected.

Another young man was angry that I would not engage him in discussion about my not voting.. he constantly expresses his disappointment in my lack of objectivity and so on.

I know I know.. there is this thing that human beings are inherently good and they do bad things and that hope is in trying to get them to realise their goodness and so on.



In the madness around condemning Bheri Ramsarran's contempt for women while not calling for his resignation, a lot of people talk about how 'good he was/is' . One woman I know who is not partisan in any way said she was shocked because in all her dealings with bheri ramsarran ,  she never had any disrespect or problems.

She is an older woman. She probably reminded bheri of his mother. Not like the younger women who on Facebook said that bheri was one of the men you learned to avoid when doing your work.  Tagman also used respect for mother, sister and so when they issued the apology for Anil Nandlall who had no problems in engaging in contempt for a young woman doing her work. 

And so the contradictions of course of the abusers who claim to have respect for women. Perhaps they do for the women who hold power over them  while having contempt for the women they feel they have in their power . Like the doctors who molest children and save lives, including women's lives .  Or the religious leader who pronounces publicly against sexism and then in private harasses a single mother for being a single mother.


In Bharat Jagdeo's early days as President, he had said that he did not believe in beating children. I use that as my yard stick of bad and good.. good people do not beat children . Of course, his rantings on the political platform and his destruction of governance in Guyana are not good. And I am sure he still does not believe in beating children. And I know that many who talking about corruption and good governance believe in beating children as a form of discipline and so on.

I do not drink alcohol and am rabid against the industry. I have to hold back on thinking that men who do not drink alcohol are good though. Hitler did not drink alcohol either and I am sure that many of the men who killing children and stoning women and so also think alcohol is evil.

In getting my head around the spectrum of Bad -> Good, I believe in the principle of do no harm. I know that there is a lot of discussion over what 'harm is' and who causes more harm and what is greater good and so on.

The young man and I were talking about values and ethics and I suggested that it is good to write down what you believe in , and harm can be defined.

I know that there is 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' but some people have been conditioned to beat their children with love because they themselves were beaten by the people who said they did so out of love.

People who do not beat children but ranting and raving and inflaming their audiences ( another blog has to be whether the masses are asses and would just go and be inflamed by a mad man, or whether they have agency to do what they want) cause harm. People who shout that they against corruption and bad governance but like to beat children and don't want gay, lesbian , bisexual and transgender people to have the same  rights as them cause harm.

The minister/doctor who help many people but who think it okay to slap up and strip a woman who question him causes harm and has caused harm in the failure to involve the health sector in addressing violence, especially gender based violence.
The minister who responsible for children's well being who does not go through all the procedures to resolve the allegations of child abuse made against her colleague causes harm.

The politicians and organisations who condemning his behaviour while asking people to vote for him or not asking for his resignation are causing harm.

The human aspiration I believe is to not cause harm (causing pain sometimes, like injection or amputating wounded parts of the body might be necessary). It is expected that doctors should treat all their patients well and be helpful to all.
 
It is expected that human beings should be decent to each other.

Bad people who did good things  should be held accountable for the bad things they do. They should be exposed to a justice system which applies penalties. Same as when good people do bad things. There should be opportunities for redemption. Some bad people do become good people. 

The goal should be though to ensure that no further harm is done. Hence my obedience to the restraining orders and so on which have been placed against me.