Would you consider yourself a good person? I think there are very few people that would NOT answer yes to that question, even if others who knew them would say no. Are you a great person? I’m sure a few people would answer yes to this one too.

Are you a bad person? I can’t think of a single person, off the bat, who would say they were a bad person. Are you a horrible person?  Again, who would willingly identify themselves as a horrible person?

I started thinking about this yesterday, as I was toweling off after a shower. I would consider myself a good person, but… am I really?

How do you tell the difference between a great person, a good person, a bad person, and a horrible person?

First off, who do we consider great? Now, obviously I’m not speaking for everyone, but I think there are a few people that we can universally acknowledge as being ‘great’.

This guy:

Courtesy of http://www.turnbacktogood.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Girl:

Courtesy of photo.goodreads.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Guy:

Courtesy of http://www.vho.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, after much discussion with one of my friends (K), we came up with a few basic things to measure. It was originally used to measure the difference between a great person and a good person, but it works just as well to measure the difference between a horrible person and a bad person.

These aren’t necessarily in any particular order.

1. Impact on others

2. Size of population impacted

3. Intention

4. Result

5. Lens through which the person is viewed

  • Community Lens (ie: How a participating member of the Nazi army might have viewed Hitler vs a Jew fearing persecution.)
  • Known Lens (ie: Angelina Jolie’s every movie is practically shouted from the roof-tops by paparazzi. Joe Schmoe on the street? Not so much.)
  • Time Lens (The time from when an event took place to when it is evaluated can, but does not always, change the view that we have on that event. In the time that Jesus was doing his thing, he probably pissed a lot of people off, and was considered a pain the in the ass. Now? Jesus is considered to be a great man.)

K and I had a pretty good debate about this. Here are some scenarios that we used to define our 5 Things to Measure.

The Thief: Joe Poor steals a stereo from I. Rich. He then sells the stereo to provide food for his family. Is he great/good/bad/horrible? Depends on the lens. Obviously, his action isn’t impacting a large amount of people, so we could say by the 5 that he is already neither great nor horrible.  His intention was good – for him. The result was good – for him and his family. By community lens, though, he is bad, because he stole. He is also bad through I. Rich’s lens because, hello, he stole from him.

The Murderer: There’s a compound. In it are a lot of people that are being taken advantage of by this twisted dude (Mr. P) who thinks he is Jesus reborn, or at least purports to be. However, he’s a pervert taking advantage of a lot of impressionable people. It is a rather large group of people. Joe Schmoe is disgusted by this, and when it looks like no one is going to do anything about it, at least not quick enough to suit him, Joe manages to infiltrate the compound, and kill Mr. P. Joe had no ties to the compound at all. He was just doing what he thought needed to be done. How would he be ranked?  Impact on people: Most likely bad, at first, for the majority of the people in the compound if they were truly under Mr. P’s spell. Size of population impacted: Medium. Intention: Good. Result: Good? Ultimately, yes.. However, how does his ‘rank’ change when viewed through the community lens, the known lens, and the time lens?

The Star: We shamelessly used Angelina Jolie for this one. She’s a UNICEF ambassador, spreads awareness and such about/to 3rd world countries, donates large sums of money. Impact: Good. Population: Large. Intent: Good. Result: Good. Lens? Well, that varies. Through a community lens, she’s good. Through a known lens, she’s good. Through a time lens? We will have to wait and see. Angelina is also known for some behaviors that are not so good, such as stealing another woman’s husband. We will need more time before we can truly judge her through the time lens. Right now, though, K and I would judge her as good….but not great.

Since I gave us three examples of who we would consider to be great, here is the opposite end of the spectrum.

Who do we consider horrible? Well, I actually needed K’s help to come up with 3 people. I thought of Hitler and Osama Bin Laden pretty quickly, but the third one had me stumped. She suggested Stalin. Thanks, K!

This guy:

Courtesy of http://www.solarnavigator.net

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Guy:

Courtesy of http://www.logoi.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Guy:

Courtesy of http://www.warchat.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the 5 Things to Measure, do you agree with these ratings of Great and Horrible?

I think something important to recognize is that it is easier to judge great and horrible than it is to judge good and bad. I believe in God, but I do not think that we can use the 10 commandments as a hard and fast rule of measuring who is good and who is bad. People do things for a variety of reasons, and everyone has their pros and cons.

I also believe that we have to recognize that (even though we would like to) we cannot put a Rank to ourselves. We cannot say “I am a good person.” “I am a great person” “I am a bad person” “I am a horrible person” because, ultimately, it is not up to us. It is up to how other people see us.

All that we can do is make sure that we try to make sure our actions are ones that will be viewed in the way that we want them to be viewed.

But, hey, tell yourself you are a good person if it makes you feel any better. Self-delusion is one of our greatest gifts. Just listen to the little voice in your head to make sure its telling you your actions measure up to what you believe.