I had a little chat with a figure in the crypto community who shares his daily podcasts on Twitter. His guest on the day in question had brought up the issue of how hackers had placed malicious code to mine crypto currency in a wallpaper purportedly shared on the internet in honour of the late basketball star Kobe Bryant after his demise in a fatal helicopter crash. The embedded malicious code was secretly engaged in cryptojacking which involves using the host device to mine crypto currency without the owner's consent.
His guest had opined that Kobe's family could have used such exploit to raise funds to be contributed to charities in memory of the fallen star. Obviously the family would have had to inform those who downloaded or shared the wallpaper that there was a code that would be mining crypto currency to raise funds for charity else it would have been deceptive or even illegal. The host at this point opined that it would have been a case of using something evil or bad for a good purpose.
This was where our conversation began. I held the opinion that something that was inherently or truly evil could not be employed to achieve a good aim or result. He replied that it could be the case, citing the example of penicillin being obtained from mould. He opined that the mould was bad while penicillin (the result) was good.
I replied that for the example he had given being evil or bad could be described in relative terms as far as the mould was concerned. The reason was that the mould is a fungi that grows in moist places, it may be termed bad or not useful if it is causing some harm or growing where it is not desired. Imagine the case of a College student conducting an experiment on getting penicillin from mould , a good result or outcome for the experiment or project is for the mould to grow. If it didn't for that student such result might be termed as bad result or outcome for the experiment.
There are so many other scenarios in life where things we may ordinarily consider as misfortune turn out to be blessings while some other things which we consider as being beneficial turn out to be harmful to us. I will give a few examples for want of space.
Getting a job for any family man is something that is most desired and termed beneficial. Securing a high paying job or a job in a well known firm is even better and is usually celebrated as a good thing albeit a blessing. However if in the long run such job keeps the man so occupied or busy that he no longer has time to spend with his family because of the demands of the job, such job may be termed by the affected family members as being a misfortune or a non-beneficial thing.
A politician campaigns for office and gets the full support of his constituents on the premise that he will ensure the development of his constituency as well as empower them. Eventually he secures victory and his constituents jubilate as they see it as a beneficial result because of the expected development. If on the long run, he fails to deliver on his campaign promises and even possibly begins to ignore his constituents , I am quite sure his victory would no longer be considered as something that was beneficial, in fact some may even consider it a curse.
A man after struggling and working hard for many years, manages to buy a car. The first reaction will be that the car is indeed a blessing as it would make movement easier and cinvenient but if after the first week of buying the car, the man dies in a car crash some may consider purchasing the car as being a curse.
Conversely a passenger is supposed to board a flight on a particular day but due to heavy downpour, arrives late at the airport and misses the flight. The first reaction would be one of disappointment and likely regard for the heavy down pour as a bad or unfortunate occurrence. However if it were to happen that the missed flight eventually crashed, I am sure that the same passenger will not consider the heavy downpour as a misfortune or harmful occurrence but rather a beneficial occurrence or literally as a blessing in disguise.
I am quite sure that at some point in our lives, we would have encountered events that are similar or fit into either of the scenarios mentioned above where some things appeared beneficial but turned out to be harmful and vice versa. I know I certainly have.
My closing remark is this quote " Sometimes you may desire something thinking that it will be good for you whereas it will be bad for you while some other thing which you may consider harmful or bad for you may actually be good for you"
Shukran
Danke
Merci
Gracias
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You're right. There’s no Place of racism in the world.