Sean Äaberg

THE GOBLIN NEWSLETTER 37

Added 2024-07-31 18:25:43 +0000 UTC

My kids try to make everything into some kind of moral story. We watched Long Legs yesterday (which was great, Nicholas Cage was great & gross) & they tried to do it with that. I insisted that it was a mystery, that was the point of the story, it wasn’t some kind of morality play. I worked actively to move beyond Good & Evil & that kind of binary thinking a long time ago. This way of looking at the world gets me in trouble with people who want to see everything in terms of good & evil. It gets me feeling that I failed some as a parent but there is a generational culture that is very invested in Good Vs. Evil. I’m not, as I say there are really good & bad intentions, for sure, but good & evil doesn’t play into it for me. Teenagers are supposed to push away from their parents, I get it. Valuing stuff like harmony, balance & order makes my values clear, but it doesn’t rely on the dichotomy of good vs. evil. Calling something evil casually sounds like some dark ages, caveman stuff to me. Reality & people’s perceptions are just too relative. When casting something as evil seriously, the only moral obligation seems to be to destroy it. To do otherwise implies cowardice. It’s because of this that I take these things seriously. Some people are okay with being selfish cowards, I'm not. There are common sense things like not trusting dishonest people with your money or stability or leaving them alone, don’t put your hand in a wild dog’s mouth but this has nothing to do with morality, it has to do with natural consequences. I find it difficult to see the ultimate utility of such loaded, backwards ideas. Cause & effect & holding certain values seems to be enough, probably more than most people even operate from.