What I Think The Battle Of The Principles Theme Is Refering To

Artistic depiction of a battle in full swing

The battle of the principles is, to me, a reference to a battle that must ensue within a species such as ours, as a consequence of an attained evolutionary level.

It is, in this, a reference to an inevitable state of war within a single species that must ensue once a balance between the good within the species and the bad is reached.

Friction has always been the norm between these two camps, and we can confidently say that evidence of it is clear in the lesser species we share an origin with.

Basically, when we talk of a human being as being good or bad we are in fact talking of the preponderance of the act of either doing good or bad in them, the balance of the scale within that one person.

Given both "modes" or choices can be effective at assuring survival, the issue central to the battle of the principles theme is the fact the option of whether to take one or the other as viable alternatives is always there and the choice, made within the moment of whether to be bad or good, the choice of which state presents the better coping strategy is, in this battle, a sign of higher evolution, a marker of the capacity to utilise good to sort out any challenge that may arise.

Living side by side, being born of the same womb, and so on, through time, the evolutionary model of which we are products has ample evidence of the fact the bad have always outnumbered the good, but as the species evolved and improved, more and more people joined the ranks of the good.

They gained, by evolution, the capacity to know how to use good to further their survival, the capacity to see that bad wasn't always the best option to take.

At the point in our collective history when mention begins to be made of this war in various cultures around our planet, the balance must have shifted as much as would make the good consider themselves the better evolved and start asserting this belief, their way of being ... calling for a world in which they reign supreme.

The war that started, then, is a war unique for any species in that its manifestation in humankind has the potential to destroy the species.

Also, there is here the issue of testing. It may seem clear that bad, as a way of being, has been tested through time. It is to their ways that we have clear evidence to thank for our survival in primeval times.

Without ruthlessness, without being exacting to the point of absolute coldness, many situations could not have been survived.

But good, too, has contributed as much to our survival, even in the most "primitive" of developmental stages of the species, albeit in ways too subtle to impinge sufficiently on our imaginations.

For, if we took a bird today, as closer to what our primeval ancestors would have been like, and observed it pick bits and pieces of food to take back to the nest of its hatchlings, we must understand that it cannot be mere genetic programming controlling its actions.

Something much more than this, something we could say it hungers for in the same manner we hunger for food, sex, as the means the species lives on. This hunger, that may itself be hardwired into the being, genetic, as all the other hungers are, a programmed hunger strong enough to take the being into its grips, posses it, may just manifest as love, and with this there may develop the desire to see it as the best justification for most ends.

And so it may be that we are on a journey, and the battle of the principles is a mere phase in it, a phase our ancestors may have recognised as soon as they gained the wisdom to think as well, and the battle theme they preserved for posterity may just be a big ".Calm Down" call from the past. "don't do anything stupid", they seem to be saying. "it will soon come to pass. Good will triumph over evil. That's just evolution ... The way it has to flow". Lol.