Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, October 3, 2016

It All Adds Up

From the discussion question “Are there bad events in life that can never be redeemed or ‘made good’?

I interpret ‘bad events’ as actions made by humans with a negative impact upon themselves or those around them. A ‘bad event’ such as an earthquake, while disastrous, has no controller and can therefore not have a redeemer, so I have excluded such events from this response. I believe that bad events are classified as such due to the negative aspects of it, whether that be its nature or its aftermath and those who it affects, regardless of if it affects hundreds or remains self-contained. Mathematically, negatives, like other numbers, can be pushed farther from zero (in this case: more negativity) or brought closer. Negatives can also become positives, though it takes larger numbers, represented here as a greater sum of positive actions or ‘good events’.

A young boy putting gum in his sister’s hair would be a positive act, in the short term, for him; however, his sister and his parents are affected and add up to create a sum negative siuation, especially considering the length of the negativity. This would be a bad event, but it is not irredeemable nor impossible to make good. The boy could do nice things for his sister and act more respectably for his parents, eventually coming to or surpassing the theoretical zero. In a lighthearted situation such as this, at least compared to alternative examples, the sister may find that she prefers a short hairstyle and the parents may find it easier to get the kids ready in the morning. This would be an example of a bad event being made good.


An alternative school of thought, which I disagree with but is equally respectable, is that all actions must be considered in a vacuum. Regardless of how well-behaved the brother may be, regardless of how long he is well-behaved, and regardless of the damage caused by the gum, the action itself is still negative and therefore irreversible, irredeemable, impossible to make good. I believe my preference is more optimistic and easier to work with.

Christian Brooks, H3
October 3rd

8 comments:

  1. I agree with you when it comes to simple acts of negativity. However, when it comes to severe acts, such as those of Hitler, I do not think they are redeemable. Not even considering religious aspects, but just in relation to other humans.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Interesting elaboration, although regarding the correlation of all things, it is strange to hope to cultivate towards a single philosophy that sums it up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. (h3)Have you ever heard of game theory? Maybe there's no connection but what you are saying i making me think of that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. (H3) I just think it is impossible for there to be something good to come out of every negative action.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree, bad events have ways of being made good. They can be redeemed. However, depending on how bad the event was, the redeeming process may take a much longer time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Every negative situation allows opportunity for an individual to grow as a person; it just depends on how the person deals with it (H3)

    ReplyDelete
  7. this has always been an interesting question. Take for instance your example of putting gum in your sisters hair but then pays for his sister to get a hair cut which she badly needed and the hair with the gum in it is then cut off is the situation not then made right?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I really like the optimistic viewpoint you took. Too many things these days are held onto forever and never let go. I see many great friendships around me go down the drain because they refuse to let the bad things go. Many people believe that instead of redeeming that wrong, that they will only add more wrong to it. These people are so afraid of being hurt further that they would much rather be devoid of that happiness.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.