Go to Seeking Limits of Mankind, and Limits of God
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TAPS-- I completely agree with your description of who 'needs' evil..... only those who are already steeped in it. The rest of us need for them to be disabled or destroyed.
posted by
GoldenMean
on December 4, 2015 at 5:03 AM
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TAPS-- probably 99.99% of Angelou readers missed it, because it is reported in someone else's book, which I read. There was a famous “Symposium on Understanding Evil” in 1987 in Salado, Texas, as reported in the book Facing Evil (Woodruff and Wilmer, 1988).
At this Symposium, famous people had the most absurd and ill-thought-out ideas. The poet Maya Angelou was one of the distinguished invitees. She said she suspected that Good and Evil are “torrential forces separate from mankind” and “Good and Evil are merely extremes which must be engaged for there to be balance in the universe.” This is eloquent language for idiotic ideas. Let me get this straight: evil is an independent force, alive in itself, that must exist to have a balance? Perhaps Maya saw Star Wars too many times (may The Force be with her, or maybe not).
But then, Maya also said that America is still engaged in the evil of slavery, and she said this 120 years after we ended it.
So, Maya did not literally say "we need evil", but that message is implied and inferred in what she did say. People often say absurd things to make a point, or in the passion of the moment..... I try to not do that.
posted by
GoldenMean
on December 4, 2015 at 4:49 AM
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I think I missed the Maya Angelou belief that "we need evil."
The only ones who "need" evil are those that are already steeped in it and it is a part of their being. As the Bible teaches, evil becomes a part of our lives when we are drawn away by our lusts and enticed...when we are no longer innocent babes. Some people call that "the age of accountability." The more evil that humans feed on, the more they need.
posted by
TAPS.
on December 3, 2015 at 9:25 PM
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