We must not judge people, good or ill, by any single action, only by the aggregate. (One single, terrible action might tip the scales in the aggregate, but that's still worth calculating.)

So those are the main virtues good can call upon. But there is one more trait, less a virtue than a skill which, used by good, can lead to certain victory. But wielded by evil, it is just as certain to bring ruination. This is the trait that, when evil gets into power and infiltrates good, is the first thing to be outlawed. It is a weapon that beings terror to all those turned against it, unrelenting in its might.

It is resolve.

Resolve is composed of four things. First, clarity of vision: to know with absolute certainty the path one should take. Next, the fire of ambition: the steadfast capacity to work towards your chosen purpose. The strength of resilience: the ability to bounce back from failure and absorb denigration without breaking. And last, the power of magnetism: an image so powerful that it draws supporters and guidance to you. Brought together, and resolve becomes a self-perpetuating juggernaut, crushing all opposition underneath its wheels.

There's this book called "Play to Win," by David Sirlin, which is about exactly what it sounds like. The context he's talking about is in fighting games, but it applies to any competitive environment. The first third of the book is him defining what it means to win, and the rest is him justifying the book's existence. To him, there are two types of players: winners and 'scrubs.' Scrub has a storied history in gaming, but his definition is straightforward and carries most of the connotations of it: a scrub is someone who's playing by different rules than everybody else.

Sirlin gives an example of a scrub playing a fighting game who thinks grab attacks are "cheap," and therefore refuses to use them and complains when others do. Contrast this with a player who's actually trying to win. Even if they also think grabs are cheap, it's still something they need to incorporate into their understanding of the game. If they do, they'll discover that grabs are only useful in specific contexts, and aren't as infinitely effective as the scrub seems to think they are.

I mention all this because good seems to be filled with scrubs. I don't mean this in the sense that good should lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want, but rather that there's a whole house of actions, perfectly moral and ethical, that good refuses to use because it doesn't seem "fair." And the one that stands out to me most is resolve. Good believes the lie that evil snuck into the teachings, that ambition and surety of purpose are the signs of an impure mind. The truth is that resolve is terrifying to those in power, to those who want to tell you how to think, to those who want to trick you into an easy loss.

What does resolve look like for good? It's a clear and effective statement that you won't be pushed around. It's taking the reins of power in your own hands and guiding the future towards justice. It's standing up for the truth and teaching so that you will be heard, not simply to get gimme points. It's turning the saintly martyr into the image Jesus describes of a man getting slapped and turning his face, daring the abuser to slap him again, only as an equal rather than an underling.

Look at all of the tools that can be focused with the lens of resolve! Anger, for example. Good is terrified of anger, and for good reason. Left unchecked, it tends to destroy more than it builds up. But under resolve, it's held down, not by ropes or ties, but through the surety of purpose. It says, "What you have done is wrong, and horrific, and I will not stand for it." And then that anger is turned to the source of the problem and released with surgical precision to utterly annihilate whatever it touches.

Violence, too. Resolve can wield violence without becoming a murderer. Not cautious violence, but careful violence, violence for an end, violence to gain something. If violence is comprehensible, avoidable by its victims, then its victims will try to avoid it when possible.

Money. To good, it's the root of all evil, but to those with resolve, it's simply a tool. When people without resolve earn money, they spend it frivolously, hedonistically. But resolve turns money to its purpose, and builds things that help others and make the world a better place. It was evil that convinced good to abandon money, so it could have that power all to itself.

Speaking of which, power! Power corrupts, but only those who are corruptible. History tells us stories of dictators ruling with impunity, then gracefully ending their reign when their time was up. They didn't all turn into raging presidents-for-life. But it does take an exceptionally strong will to resist the siren's call of rerouting the affairs of office towards one's personal gain. It takes someone who knows what they want, and acts only toward that desire, to be so incorruptible.