Herostratus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus
http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/views/view87.htm
Is better to be an average person and "just go with the flow" to be passive, or is it better to be Herostratus, because to become Herostratus one has to use the huge power of will (more than the average person) to kill someone (as in Sartre story) or to burn the temple. In short: is it better to be good and do nothing, or to be evil and do something?
Under the wing of Nihil - Under my claws; Farnan, Ummon, & Ecclesiastes.
Human beings will be happier — not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie — but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That’s my utopia.
Kurt Vonnegut
New and Improved!
I would say they are pretty equal. If you are good and do nothing to stop the evil, you are nearly(*nearly) at the same level..
Patron of Basileous Leandros I/Grimsta/rez/ Aemilianus/Publius/ Vizigothe/Ahiga /Zhuge_Liang Under Patronage of Lord Rahl
MY TWC HISTORY
Protector Domesticus
It is a difficult question, because if you are good and do nothing, you gain nothing in life. If you are Buddhist it is okay, but being almost anything else, accomplishing nothing significant is bad. Being evil and doing something that will get you eternal fame and accomplish something in your life does something for you. You gain, but others don't like you. Some people hate you, but you are happy. If you do nothing and only act good, then you are unsatisfied (most likely) and will be forgotten over time as you did nothing significant to anything but what was there in your lifetime.
I would choose to be evil, if I knew that what I did would not lead to my death, and that I would truly be satisfied. I would only do so if the people I cared for weren't involved. being good and doing something of significance is great, but not a choice here.
Laetus
difficult question... i don't know what would i choose... now, at this moment - i would pursuit fame and evil things, all that my name is not forgotten. but, i am fairly young, so i'll need to think about it...
You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. - The Soap Salesman
Civitate
Doing something idiotic like Herostratus did is actually quite easy: there are thousands of arsonists and killers in prisons and mental asyums all over the world.
IN PATROCINIVM SVB MareNostrum
Primicerius
To be good, and do nothing to society, is better than to do something which is harmful to society. By doing nothing, it gives you time to become in tuned with the finer points of your life.
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