Good Vs. Evil - We All Have Both Sides In Us

Their is no Good or Evil only Transition. Good and evil are in all of us and manifest for a variety of reasons. Nobody is born or stays either...

A quote by Denzel Washington in the movie John Q from his son to Denzel, "Daddy, is that a bad man?" To which Denzel replied, "No son, there is no such thing"... That made me think, so I wrote this article. People are quick to judge but slow to research. I believe everyone has good and bad in them and at different times stimulate one or the other. Sometimes voluntarily sometimes not. Sometimes voluntarily but not intending evil, simply stimulated by pain or negativity.

Sometimes they feel such intense pain of shame about themselves they attack others not realizing their doing it, because those other people are mimicking what they feel they hate about themselves.

People are amazing. Our body can heal itself with incredible precision, our minds can learn to get past anything, if we chose to let it try. Our capacity to forgive others is uncanny but so is our lack of exercising our ability to do so.

The Different Sides of People Don't Define Them, Its Their Current State You Should See

Denzel and many other great actors show the potential for one person in their many contrasting portrayals of a person.

John Q

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Denzel, we see him over all as a warm, loving and compassionate man, well educated and slick with the tongue, and has moral fiber and forgiveness in his heart always. If anyone can understand the human potential this man shows us what that is.

Denzel is a great actor because he can take you into his evil potential as well in movies like training day where he played a sadistic cop with NO moral fiber, greed, no compassion. In fact he showed how one could use the aforementioned qualities evil like by tricking people into thinking their intentions are good, then when you trust them they stab you in the back.

I was truly convinced he was evil in training day, but I was also convinced he was incredibly good in (actually most of his other movies) John Q where he played the part of a good man doing bad things to save his son (out of desperation).

A man who would never walk into a hospital and hold the staff hostage, make demands and bring negative attention to himself is caught between watching his son die, because the health insurance system screwed him for years and won't give his son converge to get a new heart becomes a desperate man.

He finds himself digging down into the recesses of his potential to save his sons life at all costs even his own freedom and in the movie even at the expense of his own life (He offered to shoot himself in the head so they would be forced to take his heart and give it to his son.. did you cry at that moment? I did. Well I misted up.. What compassion!?).

This goes to show a lot actually about how we are as human beings.

No one is always good or always bad.We actually need the contrast to grow, to learn, to make mistakes and learn from them.

Life is about learning about both (good and evil); things are thrown in our path just so we can learn to deal with them. When someone gets rude with us we learn tolerance, or we learn the pitfalls of allowing ourselves to indulge in anger and negative emotions. If someone embarrasses you, you learn diplomacy or you learn that revenge is a double edged sword that stabs both sides..

Life never stops coming at you, and the challenges will NEVER stop coming, even if you win the lottery and think you can now do anything, new lessons are their waiting for you. Money doesn't buy you out of lessons; it just buys you out of one set and into another. Imagine like that old Nintendo game super Mario brothers.

You remember the beginning your standing their and you can play or stand their but doing nothing still makes those mushroom people come walking towards you. If you don't move they will eat you alive. If you simply jump up correctly and at the right time you will beat the mushroom.

By the time you reach a higher level things get harder but so do you, you're more equipped to beat the challenges because the lessons in the game are stacked to enhance your skills, life does this exactly the same way (where do you think the video game writers got their inspiration from?)

Rich people have problems like poor people, their just different in nature. You can't avoid lessons, its why we're here! You can, however, learn to harmonize and grow instead of stagnate and drag yourself through hell dimensions when you fight fire with fire. Love and growth are the only way.. Some learn early, others the hard way. This is clearly illustrated in the controversial film American History X...

American History X / A History of Violence / True Romance (Triple F...

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American History X

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American History X : Powerful Film!

The movie American History X was powerful as well. It showed the extremes of both potentialities of human existence and emotion. I can't even think about that scene where he crushed that guys skull into the sidewalk for robbing him without cringing, I physically cannot watch it on the movie.

Edward Norton was incredible in his portrayal of an evil sadistic Nazi like white supremacist in the movie. I couldn't believe this guy could even pull that look off, and in fact I didn't realize it was him at first until someone told me.

I was so shocked by his performance and the first scene really pulled you into the movie, that I couldn't even see the actor but the acting.

This movie is about prejudice and the ignorance of judging people. Although evil in the film the main character wasn't born this way.

He was raised by an evil man and lost his path. In his heart he wasn't evil at all, but he was suffering both brain washing and caught up in the hate the teacher installed in him, he perpetuated this power through negative channels of existence.

When he went to jail and was able to step back from his life he realized what he became and didn't like it. When he was away from the influence, the judgment of others and had time to really think about what his life had become and where it was going he had a moment of clarity and changed back into his original disposition.

Armed with the awareness all of this taught him, the strength it built in him is carried over to the present, fighting his world that forsaken him, destroying the hate in his environment that fought to keep him evil. He waged war with his old lifestyle and in the end good usually wins, as its stronger to love than to hate, two extremes sure, but one simply feels better and wins you over in the end. Although as this movie also portrayed, there is usually collateral damage for your actions even if you get yourself straight, things you did in the past come back and haunt you.

What Denzel does in several movies and what Norton did in just this one, shows amazing capabilities to comprehend both sides of your nature. What made American History X powerful and jolting wasn't just the intense prejudice and action (this is also found in the movie "CRASH") but it was the complete 180 the actor did, that I can't see even Denzel Washington doing in one movie.. Norton has the boyish looks of the epidemy of not looking evil, but the potential of looking incredibly evil.. The message was clear and I'll never forget this movie.

Crash - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

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CRASH

This movie impacted me.. Wow.. It was stunning. It did what Norton did through 5 different characters and 5 entirely unrelated story lines that in the end intersected and affected everyone in the entire movie.

This movie shows that nobody is static, everyone can change, it just takes awareness of where you are what your doing and who you are right now.. We all possess the potential to be anything, but it is this potential and free will that makes it so hard to deal with life.

We must take personal responsibility for who we are, how we affect others and especially how we judge people. This movie was about reality, about how powerful forgiveness and awareness is, and the potential for anything to change.. NOTHINGS STATIC unless you feed it with your judgments that are unwavering and rigid.

Stop rigidly judging people..

If they make you mad, and walk away, give them time to learn, then reassess them later..

Think about this the next time you pass judgment on someone and rigidly stick to your opinion regardless of how much time has passed or how much they may have changed, healed, learned from their mistakes, or become a different person.

It sucks to be judged, it sucks even more not to be heard when you realize the brunt of your mistakes and actually do change.. The next time you judge someone and sentence them rigidly, think about how you'd feel if when you made mistakes, lost your cool or anything, if you weren't worthy of forgiveness.. Even if you changed and proved yourself.. How would you feel if you were marked in stone as a bad person, an evil person, or someone no one would give the time of day to.. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you, because they will do unto you, as you do unto others.. And this doesn't mean you do unto one and that one is the only one who will do unto you..

Be compassionate, forgiving and allow someone the chance to change their ways.. Condemn them and judge them and you solidify their lack of potential and are guilty of being no better than you think they are!

Updated: 12/02/2012, Jerrico_Usher

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Jerrico_Usher on 12/05/2012

Thanks Katie :) appreciate it

katiem2 on 12/05/2012

This is so true, now you have me thinking deeper with more conviction. Very interesting topic and one we can all benefit from. :)K

Jerrico_Usher on 12/02/2012

Thanks Brenda and Mira :) glad you liked it!

Jerrico_Usher on 12/02/2012

BrendaReeves on 12/02/2012

You hit the nail on the head. There was a research study done by a psychology professor at Stanford University in the '70's that proved exactly this: We are all capable of evil.