Interesting thread below on the definition of evil. I don't think that people are "born evil", but they often behave in ways that are evil. What causes these evil actions? The root cause, I believe, is fear.
Bullying, violent forms of behavior, in particular, are caused by fear. The people who lynched blacks in the south were motivated by fear. The violent acts of abusive husbands and boyfriends have their root cause in fear. The little green guy in the Star Wars movies (who always looked to me like a cross between Albert Einstein and Kermit the Frog, LOL) actually had it right when he said:
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.
Often the anger caused by fear is anger at oneself, but the fearful person ends up directing his or her anger outwardly in an evil act. (And, but this is a different topic, sometimes the person is unable or unwilling to express their anger outwardly in an honest, open, appropriate way, and instead directs it inwardly in a self-destructive and unhealthy way).
The "No Fear" bumper stickers are ridiculous, because fear is something that we all feel. The answer isn't to feel "no fear". The answer is to not give in to fear, to not be ruled by fear. One of the many reasons I lead people on mountain climbing trips is to help them learn how to not give in to their fears. When they see they can do this high on a mountain, they know they can do it down below in their day-to-day lives too. This has happened many, many times for them.
Courage is something that we all possess. We just need to have an opportunity to find our courage, and let it become our shield when fear tries to overwhelm us and control our actions.
Always live your life courageously!
Fear and ignorance are often the cause of prejudice. But believe me, when they were stringing Black men up in the SOuth in the 20s it was not abour fear.. but about making an example of some uppty you know what.. Or out of hate.. They used to bring their children to these lynchings. The systematic murder of the Jews during the Holocaust was not about fear.. It is probably one of the greatest illustrations of evil documented.. Why? Never before in modern history had one people made the killing of another the fulfillment of an ideology, in whose pursuit means were identical with ends. History has, to be sure, recorded terrible massacres and destruction that one people perpertrated against another, but all-however cruel and unjustifiable-were intended to achieve instrumental ends, being means to ends, not ends in themselves. The German state, under Hitler, arrogated to itself, the judgement as to whether a whole people had the right to existence, and then based on that judgement, planned and executed the organized slaughter of a people.
ANd if we want to really take it a step further, we can throw Churchill and FDR in there as well for they were given proof and evidence of what was going on... had the power to stop it, and did nothing.... Why do you think Eleanor Roosevelt spent the better part of the remaining years of her life raising money for Israel?? ANd of course the world has learned from history as we see illustrated time and time again...
Sorry, fear is just to easy an excuse..
Fear is irrational, not well-thought and carefully considered. There was no rational reason for the lynchers in the south to fear black men, since they had all the power and the black men had almost none, and yet it was fear that they felt. Their hatred was borne of fear, and they lashed out with that hatred.
The expression "keepin' the n#ggers down", was their way of describing what they felt they had to do to prevent blacks form rising up against them. Again, based on fear.
The Ku Klux Klan rallies were largely fear-fests, in which the KKK's leaders whipped their followers into a frenzy by describing a racist's vision of a nightmare - an integrated America, with blacks and whites having children together. Their fear of this spurred them into action.
The Holocaust was the greatest evil of the 20th century, monstrous almost beyond words. And yet, in his twisted mind, Hitler thought he was protecting Christian civilization from the threat posed to it by the Jews of Europe. Yes, he was acting out of fear. His name for what he did, "The Final Solution", was a way to try to put a name on what he felt needed to be done to solve the "Jewish problem", namely that Jews were becoming too powerful and frightening. Sick thinking, but again, fear is irrational.
But my real point in posting was not to enter into a discusion of history, but to point out what I have learned, which is that a courageous life is a life well-lived, and that fear limits us far too much.
Jackvance, you are correct in your analysis. However, not all fear is irrational, but living them out is. The best one can do, IMHO, is to stick to whatever the game plan is, and let the fears dissipate as we lead our lives in our own way. Fear is never an excuse for committing an evil act. History is a glut of evil acts committed out of irrational fear. Ask Lt. Calley about My Lai.
You are right that fear is not always irrational. Fear can help us to stay safe, and is a perfectly rational response in many situations. But when we give in to fear, we become irrational -as you are referring to when you mention "living them out", another way of saying "giving in to fear".
Your example of Lt. Calley is an excellent one. He and his men definitely gave in to fear when they slaughtered those Vietnamese peasants.
Your comment about sticking to the game plan is right on target.
When I deal with fearful people, I do it in a process of several steps, which I have developed from my twenty years of experience and which have worked time and again. The most important of the steps is for them to regain a sense of control over what is happening to them, and the best way to do that is to have them focus on "the game plan", as you call it, and let this focus on the step-by-step actions they need to take begin to displace the fearful image they have in their mind.
My gut tells me that the arguement is not right, but you have argued effectively here.. Let me try another example that I think you will find harder...
Let's talk about Ted Bundy, or John Wayne Gacey... These men committed evil out of a drive of sexual perversion that they could not control.. For Bundy the act of killing was the only way he could achieve orgasm. It was this basest instinct for sexual gratification that drove him to kill, not fear...
You cannot generalize every act of evil and neatly package it with one explanation.. Fear does not explain the sadistic gratification that many who tortured people in the concentration camps got off on.. Sometimes there is no easy explanation..
Charles Whittman one day went up the stair to the tallest building on the University of Austin(I think it was Austin) and started to shooting college students.. Was it fear that explains that action? Actually a post mordem autpsoy found a brain tumor in his head that could have contributed to the violent behavior..
to think about how fear limits us, and to lead courageous lives.
Best,
Jack
Anyhow, I'm done with this one.
I'm feel reasonably sure that Bundy and Gacey were not acting out of fear, but rather some psychpathology that caused their brains to be wired differently from most "normal" people, whatever "normal" is. That's simplistic, but this forum is not one at The American Psychiatric Society so I'll let it stand at that. Besides, I'm not a trained psychologist. Bottom line, IMO, for these 2 is that they suffered from a large dose of AMORALITY, not to be confused with immorality. Immorality implies one knows the difference and doesn't care, amorality being the complete absence, for whatever reason, of any sense of right or wrong. These 2 guys were just plain sick.
Mr. Whitman, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. I remember the event, but know little of it's underlyings or aftermath. But someone who climbs a tower, or walks into a post office, and simply opens fire, is operating under some delusional system that I believe must include a great deal of fear. Probably something like a paranoia where the belief is that those he was getting rid of were out to get rid of him, or had hurt him in some way. It's a delusion of survival based on an irrational fear.
A clear example of the 2 combined, fear and amorality, mixed in with a dose of megalomania produced the ultimate evil---Adolf Hitler. Saddam Hussein is in this column as well.
All that said, can we now, in future threads, please get back to the purpose of this board, that is, getting laid, etc. LOL ;-D
F.
