What is evil?

Didn't say that, exactly.

 

That just hits way too close to home.

 

Im just teasing HB :bananalam

 

I'm glad. But some people believe that.

 

you have no idea

 

Actually it almost always is. Almost all good or evil has to be created by a motive force, which can then use the apathetic, but it doesn't arise out of apathy. Ordinary German citizens were motivated and manipulated to evil acts, but those acts were derived from the origin. I think we'd all agree that killing someone because you've convinced yourself that it's the right thing to do is far less evil than someone who kills while knowing it's wrong, and enjoying that.

 

We can get into a discussion of the sociopathies and seeming pyschopathies of Nazism, but it all would have been for naught without the man more concerned with promotion than with human life, the woman more concerned with social standing than with her neighbor's children.

The motive force is an external one in this case and quite powerful. It worked on the darkest parts of the human psyche. Repetitive propaganda that portrays other human beings as having less value and actually be less than human. Portraying them as being deserving of their fate caused the moral and ethical disconnect for the average citizen.

However, the evil manifested itself and was carried out in the most banal of ways. The efficient clerk. The dutiful soldier. Just following orders. To say that people are manipulated is true. However, to say that the personal responsibility of those who carry out the seemingly petty acts that allow true evil to be brought to bear is somehow lessened because of manipulation of the monster in the shadows is to forgive the greater evil, the loss of personal compassion and identification with another human being.

We operate in a dehumanizing and impersonal society as it is. Political campaigns and pundits share an awful lot with serial killers and terrorists, the ability to dehumanize the opponent, the target, the foe. Evil is done on a daily basis and we call it entertainment.

 

That isn't the greater evil. That isn't even close to the greater evil, and some would argue that it's not evil at all. There are plenty of people in the world who do not care a whit about their neighbors, and yet they do no harm to them. Are they honestly evil because of their apathy and selfishness? That seems ludicrous.

The problem with emotional arguments is that they usually lack anything except emotion. When taken apart and analyzed, they make no sense. Your argument is an emotional one, and it doesn't stand up to reason. It's appealing because of its emphasis on the need for caring and compassion, but it makes no sense logically. Apathy is not evil, and demonizing opposition is a minor evil at best. Evil is in doing significant harm to others, a still greater evil is in doing it knowingly, and the greatest evil comes from enjoying it.

 

I apologize if I was unclear. I am talking about active participants, even at the lowest level, not bystanders. The clerk processesing the requisition forms becomes part of the evil act. The lady who turns in the family down the block becomes part of the evil act.

I don't think I was necessarily making an emotional argument. Possibly a more philosphical argument, however.

Using the definition "evil is doing significant harm to others", apathy is one mechanism that allows it. Does allowing an evil act to happen not constititute an evil act in and of itself?

 

Glen Danzig clearly states that he is infact evil.



However, I hardly think you can ignore Evil Canevil. Cuz if you see him and say, hey evil, he will respond.