In all my years of study, by far the most disturbing conclusion I have come to about human behaviour is that there is no absolute darkness. No point beyond which human cruelty will not go. For every instance of depravity, from the individual scale of emotional abuse, to the collective scale of genocide, there is always the potential for a greater darkness beyond what has already been committed. There is no moral barrier halting the actions of individuals or collectives, because morality has no structural foundation in the universe, unlike gravity or magnetism.
But the inverse, you could argue, is that there is also no restraint in the good a person might do. Whatever we might define as ‘good’ can be achieved at any time, by anyone, and they are limited only by what physically restrains them. All other limitations - social, financial, cultural - can be bypassed by sheer will in the pursuit of compassion.
Paddy Dobson
24th May 2023