One can go a long way with just an apparently simple desire
to do good. Even deciding merely to "do good," will get one
started in the right direction. Of course, the achievements
will remain limited and far from their ultimate potential
unless they are supplemented with all the Divine guidance
that is contained in the Torah, but the aspiration to do good
is an important and essential first step, as Rav Leff has so
eloquently explained in the last issue and in this issue.
However, this must mean a desire to do genuine good. It would
certainly be enough if he had a desire to do what G-d wants.
But it would seem that it is also pretty good if he has even
a nontranscendant conception of good, say, as something that
everyone will praise. It may be fully enough if his
conception of the good is of something that those who have a
real G-d-based conception will praise.
We can see this awareness at work in a statement made by US
President Teddy Roosevelt who put it clearly while discussing
the importance of condemning evil while cautioning about the
excesses that come from unbridled muckraking. Roosevelt noted
that he saw a lot of ferment.
"So far as this movement of agitation throughout the country
takes the form of a fierce discontent with evil, of a
determination to punish the authors of evil, whether in
industry or politics, the feeling is to be heartily welcomed
as a sign of healthy life.
"If, on the other hand, it turns into a mere crusade of
appetite against appetite, of a contest between the brutal
greed of the "have nots" and the brutal greed of the "haves,"
then it has no significance for good, but only for evil. If
it seeks to establish a line of cleavage, not along the line
which divides good men from bad, but along that other line,
running at right angles thereto, which divides those who are
well off from those who are less well off, then it will be
fraught with immeasurable harm to the body politic."
If one side in a struggle is motivated by a desire to do
good, then the results will be satisfactory if the side of
the good prevails. As long as there is a real intent to do
good in an absolute sense, society will be organized for
greater benefit to all and progress will be made. However if
both sides completely lack any conception of good, then it
matters little — except to the parties themselves
— which side wins. Society will not benefit in either
case. What wins is merely the appetite of one side.
It is important to realize that the opposing motive to a
desire to do good is not the desire to do evil, but rather
acting out of purely selfish reasons. Evil is of course the
opposite of good, but as a motive, the greatest competition
to an urge to good is the power of self-interest, which of
course is completely void of any element of good. Selfishness
can drive people very far. It can supply the power necessary
to provide a complete motive force without any attention to
what is good. Even though it is not as bad as evil, it is bad
enough.
From the vantage point of this insight we can understand the
revolutionary power of the "Theory" of Evolution. In an
important sense, it made exactly the move that we have been
describing. Before it was introduced, the general belief was
that the world had been created and was being guided by a
Higher Intelligence that made things as they are and guided
them along as they developed. This Intelligence was obviously
good, and those who wanted to understand it better and grow
closer to it, knew that they had to work towards the good.
Darwin suggested that the entire affair could be understood
as nothing more than a cosmic display of selfishness. Nothing
cared about being good; things were all just concerned with
their own survival. No one need be concerned with being good.
As long as everyone just pursued their own obvious interest
in survival, things would progress according to the principle
of survival of the fittest.
But this is all nothing more than a myth. It is a story that
modern people tell themselves in order to allow themselves to
live selfishly, without any meaning and without
responsibility. It is false because it is based in self-
interest and the world is really based on good.
The truth is that Hashem saw "all that He had made, and it
was very good."
