What a Star Trek episode suddenly made me understand

bykiliwia62

4.5K followers

Updated 8 years ago

My husband and I love to watch "Star Trek", the old series.

This time, we watched the episode called "The Enemy Within" where Captain Kirk, being transported back on his ship, has been divided into two "Kirks", one good the other evil.

The consensus of this episode was, that we have to accept the darker side of us as well because it too, is valuable to the whole picture and makes us the person who we are.

In this episode, the "good" captain became weaker and weaker. he was concerned about the remaining men of the search party trying to survive on the cold planet below. He couldn't decide what to do to help them.

The "evil" captain wanted everything without thinking of the consequences of his actions to get what he wanted. His need was so important and every way was acceptable to get there, without compassion at all.

In the end of course everything went back to "normal".

This was the moment for me where I suddenly realised, that it is senseless to fight our inner "evil", the "darkness" we so secretly hate and despise, because our upbringing, education and morality tells us to do so.

Only the good ones are welcome, succeed and will make the world a better place.

Well, perhaps it will make the world a better place, but succession beyond that isn't promised at all.

But first, let us understand how we define the word "GOOD" and "To Be Good":

• Compassion
• Loyal
• Morality
• Helpful to others
• Friendly
• Integrity

and "EVIL" would be seen as:

• Wicked
• Immoral
• Vicious
• Bad
• Corrupt

Now here it comes, isn't it sometimes exactly the way I just described it, the part of being evil?

Don't we sometimes do some "wicked" things? Not always intentionally of course and perhaps not to hurt someone else, but to get our way?

Because we know that it has to be done and it is not just to our advantage, but to our success too?

I certainly don't want to put anyone on the spot, but if we would have compassion only and would emphasize with everyone all the time, we would forget about our needs and perhaps about ourselves altogether.

We wouldn't accomplish anything, that I can tell for sure, not mention success.

Example: If you have a friend who always has some drama in their life going on and even though you know it deep inside that this friend, not listening to what you have to say and to offer to make their situation less dramatic; this friend would find another problem to any solution you have to offer.

You probably will agree with me that this can be very draining and it is. It also will cost you valuable time to do anything else, and after the phone call is finished you perhaps won't even have the energy to do anything else either.

I have a friend like this. It took me years to realize that by being "just" compassionate and friendly, loving and helpful, doesn't help my friend at all.

She loves drama and she loves talking about it until the end of time.

Finally, I have put a stop to it. I told her, that I would be there for her in a real "emergency", but not for phone calls which will never end and only will stop me to do what I want to do and it will leave both of us dissatisfied.

When we are too good, we actually can become very indecisive, unable to make good and important decisions.

However, to do good and right decisions for us personally as for our business, needs actions, sometimes some controlled "aggression" to get there where we want to be.

This could simply mean, that we won't accept the next phone call when we see on the display who it is, or we would just say that we will call back to a better time, suitable for us.

It also can mean, that we say NO, not to have a talk, because the work we are at right now needs to be finished.

This might sound a bit silly, but this is actually our "evil twin" talking. Telling others that we are coming first at this moment before we can attend to someone else's need, and there is nothing wrong with it.

Sometimes we have to do what we have to do and we also do know that it is the right thing too.

And here are two quotes from Mr. SPOCK:

“We have here an unusual opportunity to appraise the human mind, or to examine, in Earth terms, the roles of good and evil in a man: his negative side, which you call hostility, lust, violence, and his positive side, which Earth people express as compassion, love, tenderness.”

“Yes, and what is it that makes one man an exceptional leader? We see indications that it is his negative side which makes him strong, that his "evil" side, if you will, properly controlled and disciplined, is vital to his strength.”

That's all for today from me!

Live long and prosper