Judgment is Death

Today, I finished Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz.

There were two specific things that I took from the story. First, evil is like darkness. It is always present and immediately able to fill the void when light or goodness fails. No training, little time, and no practice are needed in order to have a moral vacuum filled with evil. Unlike the way cold slowly creeps in when heat is removed, evil immediately fills a void the way darkness fills a room when the light is put out.

Second, goodness or progress is made possible only by the extreme effort of strong men or women. Justice and goodness can never be built in to a system or an organization; rather, it must be taught to the young. When we entrust a system, we have a tendency to not train our children, and the system quickly degenerates.

Finally, a last bit of wisdom from Mahfouz ---- Rumor is truth. Truth is Judgment. Judgment is death.