Well actually, they were arguing about something. I am so not going into the details, but basically one is trying to say that he's going to thwart the other guy's evil plan, so and so, all the cliched bull shit. I mean, don't you EVER get tired of what the good guys have to say? O there he goes again, ranting on some righteous crap. We all know it's so not true in the real world, if you have been updating yourselves recently. Peace! I wasn't IMPLYING anything. I don't want any trouble....

So, back to the phrase. When the (bad) guy ask him to stop, and the good guy, unbelievably, have to ask why, here is his argument (I did my best to translate) :

"What good will it ever do? You said justice is served when the evil is punished, and when that is achieved, the people will benefit. You claimed that, thus, that you are doing this for the sole purpose of serving the people. You are trying to achieved the greater good.

"Then, I beg you, to stop and ponder : what good will it ever do to the people? Sure, someone is punished for his atrocity and his crimes, the victim gets comfort for the person responsible for the crime which may directly, or indirectly in most cases, cause inconvenience and perhaps harm to befell upon the victim, has gotten his punishment. So you said justice is served. But what of it? What real good does it bring to the victim? Revenge? And what does that in turn bring? For example, consider a murder. So the murderer is hanged, the relatives of the victim get to see the killer get the punishment as stated in the law. Justice is served! But what of it? The deceased will never resurrect. Nothing. The pain is still there. (of course, I realised there is an overgeneralisation and oversimplification of problems here, a flaw)

"I am not asking you to be blind to crimes. Rather, I am asking you this : if given another alternative, an alternative that will surely lighten the burden of the victim at the very least. Will you not consider it? Or, will you still seek for your so called justice to be served? And allow the victim comfort but no real solution to the problem at hand?

"You say good always triumph over evil. You are definitely right about that, but think about it, without evil, will there be good? Or light if there is no dark? The world is symmetrical : in the sense that all (according to ancient Chinese beliefs) is made of Yin and Yang, in harmony. (well actually, scientist are still unable to confirm that. One unexplained phenomena, a possible counterexample, is the significant imbalance between the amount of matter and anti-matter, the "evil" twin of the matter. Interesting mystery) This means whilst good is ever present, so is evil. Why seek only justice to be served? Why not try to find a more realistic alternative that might lighten the pain and sufferings of victim?"

Now I must clarify that I DO NOT IN ANYWAY agree with this argument. Firstly, it is flawed. Secondly, it is against my inner beliefs and principles. However, I brought this up not for that. I just find it very interesting, to see it in a different perspective and argue from there.

Not your usually cliched that's-why-I-did-it.

A food for thought.

On a lighter note, all the work on chemistry did pay off. Except I totally missed that it is a S_N2 reaction. Damn! But other than that, it was unexpectedly smooth sailing! xD

Till then,