I have a neighbor in my building. Good man. Really good man. He knows he is a good man, good and moral. It is very important for him that he is the good man that he is, very very important.
In the yard, we have a lion. A predatory lion. A lion with a history. The lion is shut in a cage because... well, he is a predatory lion. Every now and then, the lion roars in a big voice and reminds everyone that he is not only a predatory lion but also a hungry one... and that he would love to help himself to a neighbor or two. Not so long ago, one of the neighbors passed too close to the cage; there is one less neighbor in the building now. A predatory lion... No news there.
My friend at the building, the good man, also loves animals. It sits very well with him being the good man that he is. So... a lion in a cage is a big problem for him. It burdens him to be living in a building that keeps a lion in a cage. Lions need to be free, he says. And he is right; let my lion go.
My neighbor also knows what needs to be done, and it is so clear and straightforward that he is angry with other neighbors for not noticing. The lion needs to be released immediately; he keeps preaching to the others. The lion is a predatory lion because he is a caged lion. What is there, in the name of the maker of all living things, NOT to understand? And besides, he, the good neighbor, can't live with the notion that there is a caged lion in his yard. After all, he is a very good man.
The other neighbors in the building are not as good as the good neighbor. They are pretty sure that if they let go of the lion, he will do what he has always been saying that he will do… devour them (and the good neighbor). They prefer being bad alive and live with a caged lion, then being good chaw for a free one.
Lately, I began to doubt the love my good neighbor bears for animals. He is so full of himself being good that it must get really cramped inside, not leaving much room for lions or anything else for that matter. In order for him to be a good living neighbor, he needs me (much less good) beside him; without me, he will be a good dead neighbor, which is, as I am sure he would agree, not good.
In my neighborhood, sometimes being a good neighbor is a state of self-indulgence, while being a bad one is merely a survival mode. It is when the good rely on the bad to self indulge that they fall from grace. Or, to put it more gracefully; Fuck the good neighbor.
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