Monsters

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

Monsters are real. Sometimes they look like the rest of us, and sometimes they brag about being monsters. Sometimes they don’t know they are monsters and they become confused about who is a monster and who is not. Sometimes they know very well that they are monsters but it doesn’t matter to them.

Sometimes those who are not monsters must face monsters, must struggle with them. It’s a serious struggle; it’s a struggle to the death. In the long run, the monsters lose. In the short run, the monsters can do a lot of damage.

There is a saying, “fight fire with fire.” Those who battle monsters must be tempted to fight fire with fire, to fight evil with evil. That is a dangerous path. One can walk the edge of the abyss only so long before slipping into it. When one falls into the abyss, a monster is born.