X Is As X Does

This morning, following a conversation I had previously had about cowardice, I sort of stumbled into the maxim, "X is as X does." Traits and behaviors are good or bad to the extent that they cause or reduce happiness or suffering. For example, cowardice is sometimes evil in that it prevents people from taking actions that would prevent or alleviate harm. Yet, cowardice is not always evil. There are times when no bravery is required, so the cowardice does no harm. Cowardice is as cowardice does. In the cases where the cowardice does nothing wrong, there is nothing wrong with the cowardice.

This maxim may also apply to other things, even to good things. Normally, my blog is a good thing, because it encourages the generation and sharing of spiritually-uplifting and informative thoughts. But last night, my blog wasn't as helpful. The thoughts I generated last night weren't really worth sharing, and they certainly weren't worth stay up that late for. In fact, insofar as my blog kept me up later than was healthy for me, it could be said that my blog was, at least in that moment, harmful. Of course, the same could be said for many of the activities I engage with. Sometimes, they are good in that they cause happiness and help to reduce the harm caused by stress, and other times, they cause harm by keeping me up late. The activities themselves are neither good nor bad, but their effects can be either.

Some people say that "evil is as evil does," and I think it's true. Evil actions and traits are considered "evil" because of the evil (or the suffering) that those traits and actions cause. Similarly, good actions and traits are good because of the good that they do. It's all well and good to say that you have charity, empathy, and compassion, but unless you actually practice those traits, they aren't actually doing any good.

I only stumbled into this maxim this morning, but I currently think that it's a good rule of thumb to judge by. We can tell whether is something is good or evil by the good or evil they do. And since traits can have multiple effects, some good, some bad, those traits can be a mix of good and bad, along with everything else. We can judge everything by its actions, effects, and results, and we can tell whether something is good or bad based on the good or the bad that it does.