Blood Diamond

The love of money is the root of all evil done between men.

The desire for gain and for power is the root of the love of money.

The root of the desire for gain and power is the love of self.

The love of self is therefore the root of all evil done between men.

Each person's love for themself is the root of all evil. The love of self is basic human nature.


We deplore evil when it is done. This is because we inherently know that it is wrong. This is why we instinctively want to remedy the situation - because we want to make it right.

The fact that we inherently know what is wrong and what is right shows that we are aware that there is another side to the coin - there is evil and there is good.

Our knowledge of good and evil is inscribed deep within us - like a law written in our hearts. We call it our conscience.

Some people, through repeatedly violating this law, learn to ignore their conscience before its reminder even enters the conscious part of their brain.


Love for something is characterised by devotion towards it. The opposite of devotion is disregard.

Good is the antithesis of evil. Therefore it stands to reason that the root of all good is the utter disregard - or denial - of self.

It is utterly against human nature to totally disregard yourself.

For this reason it is obvious that man is inherently evil, and is not capable of anything that is truly good.


Many people will vehemently rebel against that idea as they do not wish to come to terms with it. It is not an attractive fact. That is because we deplore evil. However there is no obvious way to change, and so we prefer to ignore the question.

This is a sign however that we generally desire good in our lives. We want what is right. While this is to varying extents diluted by our evil self-seeking (we may look for it in others but not ourselves) it is generally true. We wish that we could live in a good world.

It is not possible for us to want something that is not able to exist. That is because we cannot have any concept of that which does not, and cannot, exist.

To put it another way - we cannot have any concept of man being inherently evil without acknowledging that we are comparing it to him being inherently good. You cannot have one without the other.

Therefore it is possible somehow, somewhere, that man, in spite of his inherently evil nature, is able to be completely good.

This involves everyone acting without any regard for themselves - only for others.

It is impossible for us to act against our own nature. The idea of someone acting in total disregard of himself is inconceivable.

In order to achieve this, it therefore stands to reason that our own nature must be superseded by that of another - someone who is inherently good. We must essentially have this nature transplanted onto ourselves so that we begin to act according to it, rather than according to our own nature.

This person would essentially be a saviour - saving us from the evil of our human nature and giving us a new nature - one that is inherently good.

Because this person is good, they would want to save us from our evil. Not because of anything we've done, but because they act with others' interests in mind - our interests. In short, because they are completely good, they love us with perfect love. Because they love us, they don't want us to remain evil and experience the pain and sorrow that goes with it.


If you follow the logic you will notice that I have stated that the very fact that we are able to desire good is evidence of the existence of someone able to make us good.


It has been wisely said that you become like the people you hang around. It is said that you should look around at the friends you have now because if you are still friends in five years time then you will be just like them.

The same could be argued to apply here - the way to become like this good person is to immerse yourself in them above all else and over an extended period of time you will begin to take on their image.


Then the issue is how you go about spending time with this person who obviously isn't anywhere on this earth. It would be up to them to initiate the contact as there is no conceivable way for us to do so.


But it's 2am and I'm sleepy and can no longer think straight.