Those of us who played Dungeons & Dragons and its many successors, well remember a concept called alignment. It was a way to measure a character’s ethical and moral positions. You had to place yourself on two distinct and orthogonal scales — whether you respected the law, and whether you would strive to do good or evil things. These two scales were unrelated, but intersected each other. Today, many people view life in the real world as a choice between Chaotic Evil (Satanic) or Lawfully Good (Godly).
However, the real world is not that simple and moral choices are not always that clear. I was reminded of this while digging through some of my archives, where I discovered some notes on an article about the conflict between Activists and Bureaucrats. The author classified them using the D&D terminology. According to him, an Activist such as Martin Luther King would be Chaotic Good, where as Bureaucrats would lean toward Lawfully Evil.
Lawfully Good vs Lawfully Evil: on Falkvinge.net
We need to have this discussion today, because of what is happening in the Republican Party primaries. Candidates, standing in the self-righteous position of being Lawfully focused are making statements that are morally wrong and calling for people to perform immoral acts. And, they are doing this all in the support of the law and in response to the equally immoral actions of terrorists who also believe they are behaving Lawfully in accordance to their laws, using them to justify their evil actions.
According to Sen. Fritz Hollings in the Huffington Post, the Islamic world is split into two communities;
- The 95 percent of peace loving Muslims that worship Muhammad and
- The Salafi or Wahhabi version of the Muslim religion that is intolerant of other Muslims and teaches that Jews and Christians are infidels and “free game for violent acts” (Turki Ali Al-Ahmed 11/9/2001).
That five percent, which practices Lawful Evil, is the heart of what is happening in the world. In the United States, thousands of people are calling out for a Lawful Evil response to those actions.
Satan is dancing a jig, while God quietly sits on His throne and cries.
My question to you is, what is your alignment? Ignore the law for a moment and think for yourself. Are you walking with those who cry out for the lost and the suffering, or are you with those who are calling out for a more violent response?
Finally, you know what is really scary? Start listening to the calls for action from the loud mouths and you will start hearing calls for actions that are not supported by the current laws. I am talking about those people who are in a position of leadership and who stand against existing laws, calling for evil actions. They are the worse kind of all. They represent Chaotic Evil and live outside all moral restrictions. When you hear a call to violate moral restrictions and legal restrictions in the same statement — please sit up and take notice. Because that is when you need to stand up for what is right and moral, or we will all perish.