An Understanding of Evil - Page 2 - Writers Forum

geminye · 12-17-2007, 11:27 AM

I guess a lesser evil would be a faulted good? Hmm...makes you wonder. I guess it is all relative.

Mike C · 12-18-2007, 04:28 AM

All evil is faulted good. All people take action for a perceived good, whether for themselves or for others.

Hitler sought to unify and bring pride back to a shattered country, improve it's infrastructure, reclaim lands that had once belonged to it, rid the country of harmful elements and make it powerful again.

The aim was good, the execution faulty.

geminye · 12-18-2007, 11:10 AM

Mike, that is very true. So, do you believe in an absolute evil? Either religous or otherwise? This might be more of a topic for debate, but let's keep it to a mutual discussion about the possibilities that exist, not what we believe to be true.
There have been many discussions on this forum about whether or not people are born evil, ect., but if we go beyond that: can there ever be an absolute evil? I suppose this conversation can't really even happen if we don't bring theology into the mix.

deviger · 12-19-2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geminye

There have been many discussions on this forum about whether or not people are born evil, ect., but if we go beyond that: can there ever be an absolute evil?

There is no absolute evil. That would imply doing something evil just because it is evil. There are always psychological reasons behind bad deeds.

*Angel · 12-22-2007, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balmarog

The best evil is the one you can relate to on some level. The one where you can understand, even if only a little, why this individual is slaughtering everyone in the orphanage and eating the charred remains.

kind of like, "could you follow the same path" if it happened to you, or if you had the same chance?

personally my favorite type of evil is the puppeteer, that pulls the emotional and psychological strings of everyone around him/her to achieve a greater goal.

Kaykobina · 12-25-2007, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Angel

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Balmarog

The best evil is the one you can relate to on some level. The one where you can understand, even if only a little, why this individual is slaughtering everyone in the orphanage and eating the charred remains.

kind of like, "could you follow the same path" if it happened to you, or if you had the same chance?

Like the breakdown of personal and group ethics and morals during war. What wasn't acceptable, even horrible before, becomes normal, is regarded as no big deal. The carefully built structure of societal conditioning crumbles away under extreme stress to reveal what truly lurks (or shines) in the heart of man...(Barnes/Elias in Platoon, on a very subtle level Frodo/Sam) - that kind of thing.

another type of evil...the group evil. Where each individual separately would do what is right, but in a group, they lose all bounds (hooligans, etc.), following the strongest, the one with the most will-power, no matter if right or wrong.

Has anyone read M. Scott Peck's "People of the Lie"? It discusses "evil" people. Could be great for researching truly evil human behaviour ... I liked it.

lin · 12-25-2007, 11:03 AM

Quote:

There is no absolute evil. That would imply doing something evil just because it is evil. There are always psychological reasons behind bad deeds.

Not really. There are LOTS of people who just do rotten things because it's cool. Or because they benefit from it.