binary oppositions and deadly sins

[beccaelizabeth]

these notes up here I was going to turn into long thought, but haven't yet:

Good/Evil
smart/stupid, wisdom/ignorance, true/false
don't need evil to know good. like you don't need false to know true. True stuff works.

chaos star - life more complicated than oppositions.
janus - unity in apparent opposites.


seven deadly sins
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride.

seven virtues
Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude
Faith, Hope, and Love


Also had some thoughts about Lust, how the word has an assortment of meanings, and why I'm not a fan of it (and Mal isn't either):

Lust is commonly misunderstood, mostly because the word has come to mean something different in everyday useage than it means as one of the deadly sins. People use it to mean sexual desire. And because people like sex, they think they like lust.

But as a deadly sin, Lust is not simply sexual desire.
Lust is what leads to sexual harrassment, sexual assault, and rape.
Lust is *unwanted*. Lust *doesn't care* if it is wanted. Lust sees an object of lust, sees some thing it wants to do things to.
Lust treats people as things.

Does not see people as free willed individuals with feelings and motives of their own.

Lust is what lead Warren, and the whole geek trio, to turn women into robots, kidnap them, try and get them to satisfy their desires, without wondering if they didn't want to.

Lust is deadly in a couple of different ways - not seeing people as people means you can't see when they might do different. They might defend themselves, against unwanted advances, maybe stop their attacker dead. And if they do, offended lust might lead to hitting them til they cooperate, or stop. Dead.

And it also deadens one to the existence of others. If others are just things, really, what is the point? Why hang around being human if you are the only one? Bloody depressing.

Personally, I'm not a fan of lust.


Now, if you think in opposites, then the opposite of lust would be not doing sex at all, right?

Which leads to people making statements like 'without lust there would be no continuation of the species'.

But that is just totally wrong.
The vast majority of children are not conceived by rape.

Maybe abstinence is opposite to lust, but that doesn't make it the right course of action.
Looked at from a certain angle you could argue for it as a bad thing. I mean it again leads you to ignore the desires of others, their feelings, what they would enjoy. Just in the not-doing direction instead of the doing one.


So what is the not-messed-up version of Lust?
Well, some forms of love, for a start. But that label is way too big and full of different versions. Ignore that label.

Try compassion. Caring. Wanting to make other people happy. Wanting to make them feel good.
If you start out with seeing a person as a person and trying to find out what they want, then doing it, that seems like a pretty good thing.

It also seems likely to get you *much more sex*. Which, also yaay.

Its the basic difference between Xander and Warren. Xander likes people. Cares about them. Tries to do stuff they'll like. And therefore gets regular sex for many years, while Warren sits in the basement trying to figure out mind control.

The other reason I'm not a fan of lust - it really doesn't *work* very well.


In the Firefly 'verse, the guys who treat women as disposeable vessels for their lust are consistently presented as bad guys. Guys that want to own women, push them around, treat them as things, take what they want from them. Always bad.

Mal might say he's a 'fan of all seven', but he doesn't do lust. He does sex, yeah, but he does actually care about who he's with (not just what). See the way he treats MrsReynolds? That isn't lust. That is trying to do what is right by her. So his *words* might say 'sin, yaay!', but his actions are clearly about virtue.



Now if I was doing this as a proper essay I'd put in references and stuff. I'd also have to refer to the Catholic definitions, which frankly are a bit of a mess. I don't consider sex outside of marriage to be the same 'lust' sin as rape, but some definitions do. But as far as I can figure out theology is as much of an ongoing argument as every other social thing. So I guess I'm adding my theory here.

I've got similar thoughts on the other sins. But it all depends on definition. If different definitions are used, different conclusions are reached. Which isn't terribly helpful.


Now the context of 'I'm a fan of all seven' was less about individual sins and more about being allowed to commit them should they so wish, that is having free will.

That I *am* a fan of.

Free will is the most basic foundation of everything else. If there is no free will, there's no point.

And everyone lie down and die.
Except the few, who get very angry about it.


Dosing someone with drugs would only give the illusion of helping anyway. It would suppress the behaviour, but it would not lead to virtue. Not being able to be angry doesn't mean you develop wisdom and compassion, understanding for your fellow living beings and the desire to help them. It is entirely possible to not hit people and yet still treat them as things, with no concern for their individuality.

And of course the people pumping the stuff into the air had to start off from treating people as things.

Big knock on effect of ignorance that whole thing was. Ignorance is poison. Whole planet got poisoned.



I've tried to write this before and made even more of a mess of it. This is still clunky. I'll post anyways.