Tuesday, September 16, 2014

2-Pandora's Box-Gibbs

At the beginning of time, there was a God named Prometheus. He was the benefactor of human beings-for example, he gave fire to people because he knew that they needed it, even though this was against the God Zeus's wishes. Because he did this, Zeus chained him to a rock and allowed birds to pick at his spleen as it perpetually grew back. As an additional punishment for humankind, Zeus tricked Prometheus's brother, Epimetheus. Zeus ordered Athena and Hephaestus to create the first woman-her name was Pandora, and she was incredibly beautiful and beguiling. Zeus gave her as a wife to Epimetheus-along with a box (or jar, in some interpretations) labeled "do not open." Along with her many other gifts, Pandora was curious; one day, when Epimetheus left her alone, she could not resist-she opened the box. When she did this, all the evils previously unknown to man were released-hate, disease, cruelty, jealousy, lust, etc. However, there was one saving grace-along with the evils, hope was released into the world.
According to this telling of history, if Pandora had never opened the box, humankind would not suffer from these many evils. The world would be happier, less chaotic, and unrecognizable to us. Would that type of reality be better-or would it bore us? I don't know if I would wish for a completely simple world-however, there are some evils that I would like to rid mankind of forever. I would want to squelch cruelty and disease above all else. Mindless cruelty is a poison-it breeds and perpetuates the other, lesser evils such as (in my opinion) lust and jealousy. Cruelty is destructive and painful-it is an added devastation to war and other disagreements. The world would suffer no loss if it were to lose cruelty. Disease gives absolutely no benefit to mankind, aside from population control. However, this would be rectified automatically by a lack of food and space-there is no true need fro disease. It is simply and silent, terrifying, painful killer. It brings powerful, intelligent people low when they do not deserve it, and destroys development. We would only benefit from a lack of disease.

1 comment:

  1. Your description of the story gave just the right amount of detail and was perfectly concise. Also, your transition into the next part where you discussed evil you would like to squelch is subtle and well-done. Your discussion of vanquishing disease is relatable and as your reader I felt immediately compelled to side with your point of view.

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