The bulk of the work of The Unitist is to bring people together by helping both sides come to terms with the fact that the other side of the political spectrum is largely made up of good people. We tend to define the other political party as the bad guys, and our own political party as the good guys. Understanding the reality that both sides have both good and bad is of paramount importance if we are going to get along.
Is there evil in the world?
With so much emphasis on recognizing the good in the other side, it does beg the question, of whether or not there is evil in the world. The answer of course is that there is evil in the world. There clearly is evil in the world. Which takes a wide variety of forms and exists across a broad spectrum of degrees. Evil exists wherever there are people who seek power, who are dishonest, who take advantage of others, who manipulate, who intentionally cause suffering, and so forth.
Dismissing evil is not the point of this project. Any sensible individual must recognize that evil does exist. The point of this project is to help both sides realize that their side has as much evil as the other side, and that the other side has the same amount of good.
A friend of mine recently excoriated me. Telling me that evil has historically been stronger on one side than on the other. That good and evil traditionally do take sides. I agreed with her, but I explained that the sides are NOT right vs left. The sides are those who divide vs those who unite. The sides are those who are honest vs those who are dishonest. The sides are those who are sincere vs those who are insincere.
Yes! Unequivocally yes! There is evil in this world. We must recognize it for what it is. Evil seeks to divide good, and to turn two halves of the same good against each other. Evil seeks to convince two sides of good that each represents evil, so that evil can hide unobstructed and unhindered. Evil tells us that they are not evil. Evil tells us that our enemy is the other side (other good people) rather than them.
Evil exists on the extremes of both the right and the left. Evil exists in the leaders of both the right and the left. Politicians who divide us, and promote themselves. Likewise, good exists in the leaders of both sides. There are many very sincere and good leaders on both the right and the left. Who seek to build and to unite.
Our job is to look beyond tribalistic loyalty and to recognize good wherever it exists. As well as to recognize evil wherever it exists.
If we only see good on our side, and we only see evil on the other side, then we are not being intellectually honest.
Yes, there is evil in the world, but 90% of us are good, sincere, and wonderful. Those who are evil have very little power, when they cannot divide us.
