The Origins of Good and Bad

Can the entirety of humanity be found in a single person?

I recently finished, for the second time through, the podcast series “S— Town”: a compelling production that tells the true story of John B. Mclemore, a polymath born and raised in what he dubs “Shit Town, Alabama”. The podcast chronicles a tragic sequence of events that unfolds as the reporter begins his investigation of a suspicious and fictitious death; listening again led me to contemplate how difficult it really is to reduce people to being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ once you consider the entirety of their humanity.

Brian Reed, the reporter and podcast host, skillfully humanizes each person he interviews simply by giving them a fair, honest representation. Some interviewees are people who embody qualities that we would generally be outraged at or reject (and often, rightfully so). But Reed does what a great reporter does — presents reality using the facts he has access to, which is always and necessarily influenced by what his interviewees perceive reality to be.

One key character in the story is Tyler Goodson, a young man with multiple daughters for whom he struggles to provide, and who is legitimately a criminal, albeit for understandable reasons (sometimes). Throughout the series, the facts of Tyler’s life reveal him to be, above all else, a flawed person, worthy of compassion, with an abusive childhood and a likely stressful future. Tyler, like all of us, grew up learning the ideas around him, and lives the life he knows how to live. He cannot be reduced to a “good guy” or a “bad guy”, although he is capable, certainly, of both.

The nuanced portrayal of the characters in this series kept reminding me of this quote by George Saunders, on what he calls “perhaps the most radical idea of them all.” Said radical idea: “every human being is worthy of attention, and [the] origins of every good and evil capability of the universe may be found by observing a single, even very humble, person and the turnings of his or her mind.” 

What a luxurious way to say that everyone has the capacity to be very good and very bad, and we really aren’t better than the person whom we or the culture deem “below” us in any particular way. To think we are above others who exhibit what we deem reprehensible is to deny the real parts of ourselves that also may be reprehensible; similarly, thinking that we are not the kind of person who would ever deem another “below” us is yet another way of hoisting ourselves up on the pedestal.

It is so easy to think we have the right ideas about things, or know a superior way to live. We want to think that there is a clear right and wrong or good and bad, and that we can identify what and who embodies those things. The truth is less satisfying than lumping people into a category: the truth is that we are all capable of being right, wrong, good, and bad. The truth is that life mostly falls into gray area, and we should figure out how to swim around in it.

We learn to make sense of the world based on our genetics, our cultural and familial upbringing, and how all of that interacts together. If you think about it, the way you exist right now makes perfect sense. Whenever you start comparing or judging or stepping on pedestals, it may help to remember: if you were raised in their body, experienced their childhood environment, were given the same opportunities, and taught to believe the same things…well, you’d be them, right? Had you been raised in Shit Town, Alabama, you might have been interviewed for the show.

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No doubt, there is serious evil that exists in the world, which should be viewed for what it is. There are very bad ideas that corrupt entire swaths of people, and some people will go their whole lives subscribing to those very bad ideas.

But, for the most part, it is impossible to truly judge a person based on the fragments we are able to see. Reminding yourself that everyone’s life is as complex and detailed as your own can work to engender some compassion and softness for the people you encounter in your days—and, especially, the ones you don’t encounter. Those people are still worthy of love and peace, and will go on leading intricate lives, even if we aren’t there to watch them.

Hopefully, we can at least listen to their stories on Spotify or Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Maggie