The best and worst specimens of humanity are two sides of the same coin. Heroes and villains are not categories that are divided by the expansive sea of morality never to have their shores meet. To the contrary, both the most exalted heroism and diabolical villainy are manifestations of a human spirit that has become capable of great things. And great things need not be good things. Alexander the Great, a man whose accomplishments helped to create the very foundation of the Hellenistic world, was given the epithet “Gujastak”, “Accursed”, by the Zoroastrian tradition in the Ardā Wirāz Nāmag for the great destruction his army wreaked marching on a war-path through Persia. Despite what evil he may have inflicted upon the world in his prideful thirst to conquer the world, Alexander the Great was still someone who activated the human potential within him for greatness.
A tragedy it is then that such a person would dedicate his efforts to the ultimately destructive and evil desire for conquest and deification. That it is even a tragedy shows that villainy and heroism are both channels of human capability, and that those who unlock that human excellence within them may become some of the worst monsters to walk the Earth. Excellence in capability is then the coin and both heroism and villainy, the capability of great good and evil, are the opposing sides. Both are united by the necessity of being capable of great things, but the two are distinguished by the paths that the person decides to channel that capability towards. Some create businesses that will make possible the use of a revolutionary product, become great teachers of morality, and inspire others to do good as well while others will become conquerors, and harbingers of other great evils upon the world.
Those who have done the greatest good in the world and those who have committed the great evil have both activated the human potential within them for greatness. Those who do not have the capability for great evil thus do not have the capability for great good. The best and worst of humanity are thus manifestations of the same human spirit and testaments to the power of human choice in the world.
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