The Black Rabbit: Psychological Framework and Moral Duality
Description
The Black Rabbit is an illustrated fable by J. C. Howard about two civilizations whose competing accounts of goodness become dependent on condemning one another. This complete edition preserves the entire story and all nine illustrations, followed by separate commentary explaining its psychological and philosophical framework.
The commentary examines moral comparison, dependence on an enemy, ideological purity, the interpretation of evidence, the limits of moral measurement, and institutional resistance to shared success. Its religious application considers how images of good and evil can support antagonistic identity while religious teachings also provide resources for transforming hostility. It places the framework in dialogue with research on intergroup bias and biased assimilation. This is an independent conceptual interpretation, not a peer-reviewed study or an empirically validated psychological model.
The story took several days to write; the framework behind it took years to construct. The complete illustrated story is free to read or listen to using the text-to-speech controls on the author's website:
https://thegoldenmanifest.com/articles/the-black-rabbit/
Author: J. C. Howard. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3050-3617
Version 1.0, 15 October 2026. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Related book: Finding Yourself: The God Continuum, Volume 1.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Yourself-God-Continuum-1/dp/B0FNY9PKSZ
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/finding-yourself/id6753191580
Files
The_Black_Rabbit_Psychological_Framework_and_Moral_Duality.pdf
Additional details
Related works
- Is supplement to
- Other: https://thegoldenmanifest.com/articles/the-black-rabbit/ (URL)
References
- Gaertner, S. L., Mann, J., Murrell, A., & Dovidio, J. F. (1989). Reducing intergroup bias: The benefits of recategorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(2), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.2.239
- Howard, J. C. (2026). The Christians Who Need Enemies. The Golden Manifest Journal. https://thegoldenmanifest.com/articles/the-christians-who-need-enemies/
- Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), 2098–2109. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.37.11.2098
- Tajfel, H., Billig, M. G., Bundy, R. P., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1(2), 149–178. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420010202
- The New American Bible Revised Edition. Matthew 5:43–48. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5
- The Clear Quran. Qur'an 41:34. Translation by Mustafa Khattab. https://quran.com/en/fussilat/34