#053: When you realize that you're the problem

On moral philosophy and getting rid of binary thinking

Head of a Young Woman by Jean-Baptiste Geuze (possibly 1780s)

I took a comparative literature class in college called “Enlightenment Evil” where we, a tiny seminar consisting of nine students, set out to explore and make sense of the existence of evil in the world and in us. We read through poems, letters, philosophy and novels of the eighteenth century from the writings of intellectuals making sense of the incomprehensibly unjust universe and if man’s free will introduced evil into a world that was supposed to be inherently good. It was my first comparative literature class and it truly ~enlightened~ me to think about and discuss these banal concepts in a critical way. By the end of the semester, I left with a big fat crush on my classmate who my friends called “Comp Lit sweetie” and a headstrong belief that people are just inherently good or inherently bad. Nuance be damned because at the end of your day, you’re just a good person or a bad person.