The Ox's monologue is truly a brilliant piece of writing, I enjoyed it so much that I transcribed it. If your interested, here you go: Doing the Right Thing - Juni Taisen Monologue What I mean by that is- it's impossible for you to do the right thing, unless you make a conscious effort. People do wrong in the most offhanded ways, just swept along they fall into evil. Without purpose, without deliberation, without any thought at all, then just like that they're on the wrong path as if there were no choice. By contrast, no one ever says something like, “without realizing it I was just doing the right thing,” or how about, “next thing I knew I was doing good deeds,” or perhaps, “I helped someone by mistake, oopsie”. You never hear that, and you never will. Without intent, there's no righteousness. There can't be, because righteous action requires righteous intent. You can't do the right thing unless you've set your mind to do it. If your inability to do the right thing is causing you to suffer right now, that's likely because you're aware of the fact that you're not trying to do it. There are many reasons why one may not try to do good; a myriad of fears which might inspire hesitation. You can blame it on another person, or on society as a whole. You can blame it on the age we live in, or the cards you were dealt. But hear me, those who are not doing the right thing, must admit to themselves: it's not that they cannot do it, but that they will not do it. And you- you need not force yourself to do what is right, but don't fool yourself into thinking your failure to do so is because you're unable, but because you've made the choice not to even try. All righteous people decide to do right, and then they do. The steps must be taken in that order. Worrying about the second step while you're still on the first, is the height of calamity.
I find myself returning to this simple clip from time to time. It blows my mind that a 6 minute clip from a cool free for anime will drastically change my outlook towards my entire life. I realized that all bad things I do are followed by an excuse to distance the act from myself. But all of my actions, good and bad, are fully decided by me. Thank you Ox
In jobless reincarnation there is a moment where Rudeus Greyrat was captured by Cat tribe, but then the villagers where under attack, before leaping to action He put a few moments of thought into a action/choice. he said "By saving them they will owe me in return!" He took a very reasonable approach, one that leads to both outcomes while favouring him in return.
