Nasty v Nice

What do you do?

Here is the scenario.

Nasty takes someone who is struggling and kicks them out. Vamos.

Nice takes the same individual and tries to find a workaround, a person-centre solution.

Time passes.

Nasty has acquired another protégé, Nice is stuck with the same guy.

You can multiply this by two, five or ten depending on the size of the organisation or the situation.

Nasty after a period of time has done-away with any challenge (unless he has identified threat as being not all bad*). Nice however is knocking around, pin-ball; the collective competence perhaps less but each safer in their situation, and, likely more able to perform.

Nasty over time diminishes. There are the initial successes; think Stalin. Think Franco waving to the crowds. Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Pinochet, all baddies now roasting in the dark dimensions of the past.

And then there are the good… Where to begin? Roosevelt, Washington, Gandhi, Mandela; Jesus, Muhammad, Abraham; lest we forget Buddha.

I don’t know enough about each individual to analyse too deeply. It is the ripples that have continued, the reflection held-up as a guide to tomorrow;

Peace, dignity, respect, sensitivity, tolerance, intelligence, candour.

You’ve got it.

Where would you rather be?

On the winning side of the tyrant or the losing side of the just?

I remember as a boy watching, I think it was Superman 2. Me worried by the twists and turns of the narrative, my dad relaxed, enjoying the moment, assured in the knowledge that good would always win.

Is the fiction representative of reality?

Will the good guys make it through?

Where will I be?

Most of this reflects values. Essence. Taste; flavour.

Savoury or sweet?

From a historical, moral or value-based perspective, I’d rather go down with the ship; honouring the march of time. I would prefer to be called a liar than be one who portrays the truth when it isn’t so.

I accept this suggests a too-straightforward split. Right or wrong, good/bad, hot&cold. Nothing is like this, in the messiness of life or love or fear.

And yet, and yet.