Most people that have played Dungeons and Dragons have heard of the alignment chart, showing the 9 quadrants available when comparing good and evil and order to chaos. Historically in the game, these were directly tied to any powers bestowed upon the player character by either a deity or patron, and working against the alignment would be a major detriment to the character. This solid way of thinking has broken down over the years, but as a tool and meme template lives on.
However, what I am referring to is the difference between good and nice, and its impact on society and how niceness is souring the relationship people have with each other. Good does not equal nice. Good is a measurement of positive qualities of something, to do well and to serve the desired purpose. Niceness on the other hand focuses on kindness and harmony above all else. As shown in the AI image generated above, good and nice can be seen as the traditional masculine and feminine of positive qualities. Both can be built upon the lawful code so I will not be discussing the law vs chaos spectrum which run perpendicular to good and nice.
Good focuses on measuring against an absolute, be it God, a code of ethics, rules, or laws. Good is a structure assigned by comparison against a concrete. One can be less or more good compared to a reference, but the reference itself is fixed. For a very long time in Western culture, this Good has been God, and everyone was called to live up to God's standard of goodness, and build a world based on it.
Niceness on the other hand does not have an absolute comparison. There is no rule book, guide, law or ethics for niceness. Niceness is not antithetical to good, but as we'll see can become a stepping stone to some very nasty behaviour. Since the diminishing role of Christianity and God in many people's lives, niceness has become the "default" point of comparison, rather than goodness. Niceness has its merits for diffusing tension and foster initial communications, but should not replace goodness in a society.
It is very difficult to build a world based on niceness. There is no reference frame, and niceness is more of an emotion rather than a trait. One can do good, one cannot do nice, you have to be nice. Even when parents discipline children for speaking out of turn, they use the phrase "be good" but in reality, mean be nicer to those around you. Building on an emotion is impossible. People experience many emotions throughout the day, but by cramming them into being nice all the time, facades get constructed, hiding true selves and building up layers of guilt and shame for chasing a completely unobtainable two dimensional goal. Be nice, or you are not nice and are ostracized by society.
Good on the other hand leads to building very easy, good allows for a range of emotions, and actions, good to help the poor, but also good to chop down the rich. Robin Hood, one of the oldest English stories in existence, was not nice. He stole from the rich to give to the poor, yet he is considered good.
Jesus also was not nice. In fact he showed many emotions when on Earth, from grief and sorrow to joy and hope. One that many overlook in order to show the more marketable "Nice Jesus" is that he was angry, an emotion usually chosen as the opposite of nice as rather than saying positive things to someone else about something, one says negative things. Jesus was angry. Angry at the people selling goods in the temple. Jesus states in Matthew 21:13 "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer', but you are making it ‘a den of thieves". At this, he drove the sellers out of the temple, overturning their tables as he went.
This action is not nice, but it is Good. It upholds what was considered good compared to God, based on what God said through Isaiah.
Goodness creates change. By upholding a moral code, a discussion can be had, a rallying cry made, and a new order achieved. By looking at the rules and their intent, and seeing what supersedes which, the goodness of God is revealed. Pity the one who clings to the Old Testament as the final source of all truth when the New Testament gives God as loving parent through forgiveness in Jesus.
Niceness creates stagnation that consumes itself. Niceness is the agreement to take on a set of traits that all people will say are nice, but not necessarily agree with. Any who don't take them are ostracized by the rest. As each person tries to out nice the next, more people are cut from the group as they are not nice enough. This is very similar to how totalitarian regimes die, by casting more and more people as outsiders until there is no one left. Any ideas that are brought forth are killed, as questioning what is nice is not very nice, you may hurt someone!
Society as a whole since moving away from God has become obsessed with niceness. Meaningless pleasantries make up most conversations today, and more and more people are on the edge of burnout for keeping up this facade. Even worse, those that have been ostracized have seen how weak and self consuming this system is, and have been using their identity of ostracized ones to build up a group to 'remove' the nice ones. See American election of 2024.
Nice will bend over backwards to claim that everyone belongs while silently making outsiders, who will burn the village down to feel any true warmth rather than the meaningless platitudes provided. Nice will pave the way to its own demise.
We need to bring back Good. Good with absolute scales, with reason, with rules, and take action against those who are against what is good. Good upholds values over feelings, creates community by a core belief, and has a strong sense of justice and ethics.
So which are you? Lawful Good or Lawful Nice?
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