The milk of human kindness

I was rummaging through my old things today, looking for things i can throw away, when I saw my xeroxed copy of Brecht's The Good Person of Setzuan, which I photocopied when a friend appeared on a production of it by Dulaang UP. I was very happy to find it after such a long time.

Shin-Te of the play, is a kind and good person, the epitome of godly virtue, but her kindness has not brought her any worldly happiness. Instead, she lives in destitution and even derided by the people whom she sought to please. There is this part in the play where one character says that if you extend one arm to help people they would rip it off. That line is the one thing I distinctly remember about the play, and in many occasions when I was feeling dejected at the seeming absence of kindness in the world, I found myself mulling over and over again that particular line: extend and arm and it will be ripped off.

Another book, Marquis De Sade's Justine, dwelt on this same topic. The protagonist of the novel was good; her sister was evil. Justine suffered (and was struck by lightning at the end); her sister was rich and triumphant at the end. Justine has such incendiary memorable lines that whenever I feel momentarily Machiavellian, i would re-read some passages. Here's some:

What is virtue if it cannot prevent the tyranny of the strong over the weak, or the rich over the poor, or those who are in power over those who are not in power! Filled with the will for power, the voices of virtue forge irons in which to chain men.

Then there's this passage which I quoted in a paper (on the demand for social justice as the most potent political force in the modern period) for my Political Ideologies class:

"The justice of God!--his rewards! his punishments!--all nonsense. Don't you see that the cruelty of the rich forces the poor to rebel! Why don't they open their purses to our needs? Let humanity rule their hearts, then virtue will rule ours! Our misfortune, our patience, our faith, our servility only strengthen our fetters. We are all created free and equal by nature; but if chance puts out of order this first law of nature, is it not up to us to correct its caprices by our strength and numbers? Because we are poor, Therese, must we crawl in humiliation, must we quench our thirst with gall, must we satisfy our hunger with stones! Would you have us abstain from crime and murder, which alone can open the gates of life to us? As long as this class domineers over us we'll remain degraded, in want and tears! No! no! Therese, either your God is rich or impotent! Understand, my child, that if your God puts us in a situation where evil is necessary and at the same time gives us the ability to perform it, it is evident that your God gains as much from the one as the other!"

I don't know if I am being weird, but sometimes I have the same disturbing thoughts. If I were a Jedi, I probably would be tempted to walk over to the Dark Side. I remember that as a boy I cheered for Darth Vader whacking Luke Skywalker and desperately wanted the evil Emperor's kuryente power.

Socrates was famously asked the question whether it is in one's interest to be good, his answer--a solid affirmative-- resulted in Plato's The Republic. Many people remain unconvinced.