Dens of Vipers

Dens of Vipers

Evil can be achieved in many ways.

There are both pro-active and less active ways of condoning, promoting, or enabling evil to occur. Evil acts and trends are fomented or abated by all of us, individually and collectively.

Do we stand up to the evil, or at least 

I learned about Michael Jordan's rookie team in Chicago, circa 1984. He found out what evil people were many of them, really, when you scrutinize it. Perhaps they were simply dumb or extremely selfish, but I think that their misdeeds and actions add up to really bad, criminal and morally negligent behavior. Michael is considered by most people the best basketball player of all time, and luckily he did not succumb to the evil that he witnessed on his team. That is one reason why he ended up being so great: he would not participate in the dangerous or foolish, or morally reprehensible things that his older teammates were doing.

They were found smoking marijuana, snorting cocaine, drinking alcohol heavily, and cavorting with women. Michael was surprised and stayed away from it.

Consuming and dealing with illicit drugs is evil, because it is not damaging just you. It is harming the whole flow: the peasant grower who depends on the product, the gangs and cartels that move it, and kill for it, the police and sometimes judges or innocent bystanders who die in this war on drugs. Whether you believe in taking the drug should be legal or not, by participating in this illegal trade, many people end up getting hurt. You, the "innocent" consumer, are killing people. 

Not me! Yes, you. That ignorance or feigned dis-culpability is evil. Wrong.

In the case of the basketball players for the Bulls, they were wasting well earned funds on themselves in indulgent and damaging ways. Could they not have saved a lot of that money, setting up their immediate families and themselves for a more responsible future? A healthier lifestyle that would themselves and those that surrounded them, and even gone on to help others do so with their power and influence?

How many of those Bulls were financially strapped within five years of their professional careers? How many went on to have serious health problems, many of which derived from their usage of alcohol or illicit substances, maybe some them becoming addicted? How much were those wealthy for a time players help their own families get ahead financially and in their physical and mental health over the course of their lives?

This is an example of evil. Just because they were ignorant or immature when younger and dumber, it does not excuse the evil of it.

There are other dens of evil which all of us can fall into. Most of those can happen through apathy. We just don't care enough.

Like, we do not participate in good causes or communities, perhaps because we have other selfish desires or are just plain lazy. I can relate to that.  

We all have ways that we contribute to evil ways or practices...

What more can we do to avoid it, or to stop it, or to overcome those things?

Good health.

Good language.

Hard work.

Selflessness.

Sacrifice.

Team work.

Giving back and being careful.

Be cautious.

Save some money.

Hold back from over-indulgence.

Share with those that do not have as much.

Stay within your means and stay committed to true principles.

Avoid debauchery and wasteful acts.

Stay far from the pits of dens and vipers.

Thanks, Michael, for not going into those dens of iniquity.

I think that we are all a bit better because of your focus, integrity, determination, and grace.

You were never perfect, but you were never a snake or a viper. And they are out there.