I'm not a religious person, but I think one of the things I feel most essentially is that it's important to believe that "bad people" can be good -- or that it's not a matter of people being fundamentally evil or all-one-thing. I think that's close to the core of what I believe/want to believe about people. It's part of why I'm attracted to morally ambiguous characters, I think -- there are some truly villainous characters and unambiguously heroic characters I love deeply, but I'm attracted to those ones who can go either way, and hopefully end up on the good side.
All the same, I've lived a somewhat sheltered life in some respects. And there are people I know, including several close relatives...who are dangerous enough, for one reason or another, for it to be important to stay away from them, and to write them off as a matter of self-defense. It's complicated, where those lines should be drawn. But I ultimately like to think that needing to cut someone out of one's life need not mean condemning them in a broader sense. In their shoes, I could be them, maybe.
And I agree about the art vs. propaganda problem...or, I think I do. It's difficult. I think for me, art is something that can be intrinsically good and worthwhile -- without the artist being a good person in every respect. And indeed, if an artist produces a work of art that genuinely is moving and instructive about the world, in a non-propagandistic way, then that is something that can even do something to redeem the artist...even if they are awful in other ways. Which is not to say that it justifies the artist's other behaviour...but I don't know if I can say that the bad can fully taint the good (nor the good fully wash away the bad).
At the same time, I don't condemn people for not wanting to read works from the artists.
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I'm not a religious person, but I think one of the things I feel most essentially is that it's important to believe that "bad people" can be good -- or that it's not a matter of people being fundamentally evil or all-one-thing. I think that's close to the core of what I believe/want to believe about people. It's part of why I'm attracted to morally ambiguous characters, I think -- there are some truly villainous characters and unambiguously heroic characters I love deeply, but I'm attracted to those ones who can go either way, and hopefully end up on the good side.
All the same, I've lived a somewhat sheltered life in some respects. And there are people I know, including several close relatives...who are dangerous enough, for one reason or another, for it to be important to stay away from them, and to write them off as a matter of self-defense. It's complicated, where those lines should be drawn. But I ultimately like to think that needing to cut someone out of one's life need not mean condemning them in a broader sense. In their shoes, I could be them, maybe.
And I agree about the art vs. propaganda problem...or, I think I do. It's difficult. I think for me, art is something that can be intrinsically good and worthwhile -- without the artist being a good person in every respect. And indeed, if an artist produces a work of art that genuinely is moving and instructive about the world, in a non-propagandistic way, then that is something that can even do something to redeem the artist...even if they are awful in other ways. Which is not to say that it justifies the artist's other behaviour...but I don't know if I can say that the bad can fully taint the good (nor the good fully wash away the bad).
At the same time, I don't condemn people for not wanting to read works from the artists.