Everything can be justified

Right and Wrong are subjective

I am a big fan of the Socratic method, and hence like to analyse the events around me alongwith my theories about life. This has made me realize one thing : a lot of things, even things that we have believed absolutely true (or false), are actually quite open to interpretation.

You see Joey, thats the beauty of argument : If you argue correctly, you are never wrong
--Nick Naylor (Thank you for Smoking)

In Thank you for Smoking, Nick Naylor is the chief spokesperson for Big Tobacco and explains how everything in life is a shade of grey. The movie explores how "wrong" can actually be made to look right. But again, if something is accepted to be right, isn't it right in itself?

That is precisely the point : There is no single authority on "Right" and "Wrong" anywhere.

One thing that influences our perception of right and wrong is culture and civilization. But again, history is a collection of observations and inferences drawn by peoples of an earlier age based on events happening around them. This removes the concept of absolutes. History is written by the historians of the winning side. That's why, right from the Mahabharat, through the 2nd World war and more recently the War on Terror, we have the bad guys losing.

Anyone who has actually read the Mahabharat will understand that the Kauravs were not actually bad people. Their claim to the throne was as legitimate as the Pandavs. In the war, the Pandavs killed more people unethically, against the accepted rules of war than the Kauravs (Bhishma, Karna, Dronacharya and finally even Duryodhan). Even the Bhagwad Geeta does not describe the Kauravs as "evil" or "the enemy".

The above point is in no way religious, it is just my interpretation of the Mahabharat, but since we have digressed into religious matters, I'd like to put another quote I'm rather fond of :

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful
--Seneca the Younger

There are no absolutes. There is only perception.