What is your definition of evil?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by akoreamerican, Aug 26, 2018.

  1. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    What's worse evil or a-moral? If you chose a-moral then what's worse, that or hate?
     
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  3. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    I had to give this some thought. Creating a World of lies is probably the worst evil we can bring on others, the worst legacy we can leave behind. Ideologies are often based on extravagant lies, which consequently move whole peoples to act.
     
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  5. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    “In my work with the defendants (at the Nuremberg Trails 1945-1949) I was searching for the nature of evil and I now think I have come close to defining it. A lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants, a genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow men.

    Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.”

    -- Captain G. M. Gilbert, the Army psychologist assigned to watching the defendants at the Nuremberg trails
     
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  7. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I would have to agree with that.
    The farther from our world people are the less we can empathize with them.

    We weep for the child in our neighborhood who lost her leg, but we feel nothing for the millions starving in Africa.
     
  8. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    who is more within your reach, the neighborhood girl or millions of starving Africans?
     
  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Exactly. People that are closer are people we care more about. People that are too distant we don;t even care enough to get them clean water so they don't die in infancy of dysentry.

    Frankly, helping 3rd world people is as effortless as a couple of mouse-clicks.
     
  10. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    We have been throwing money at that cause for years. What have we accomplished, honestly?
     
  11. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Wow.

    I guess we should pull out and nuke the place from orbit...
     
  12. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    like causing pain by giving someone a gift that they feel they do not deserve or are not worthy of, creating emotional pain of many different types ...
    sounds like pure evil !

    cancel all birthdays, Christmas, fathers days & mothers days immediately !
    no more surprise partys !
    no instant give-aways
    no lotterys
    no special sales prices that people just dont deserve.
     
  13. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

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    7,447
    throwing money at them in exchange for all their oil and minerals ?

    really ?
    it doesn't achieve anything !
    they appear to be no better off right !
     
  14. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    Would you choose to live in Africa?
     
  15. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    Where did that come from? My point is, throwing money at the problem doesn't seem to be working, at least as a charitable contribution. If you could resolve the political, social and economic issues of that continent, you would be the second coming of Christ for Africa. But such major accomplishments are beyond mine or your abilities. Perhaps helping that neighbor's child is within our reach.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2019
  16. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    That's going to be a hard thing to face, if you ever wake up.
    If it makes it any easier: the rest of us already know.
    Says the guy who voted to put them in cages for possible trespassing.
    Why not give it a try, first.
    Or did you think we already had?
     
  17. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    What do you know, Ice?
    Taking responsibility for thousands of children is a big job, Ice. Why don't you volunteer to help with their care rather than complaining about those who must?
    Do you think a $10.00 contribution will fix Africa, Ice? It might make me feel better.
     
  18. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    That you fit your own definition of evil, to a t,
    and that amnesia is not going to protect your ignorance forever.
    Pay me. Your mess, your bill.
    And you and your kind should pay for it. Your mess, your bill.
     
  19. Beer w/Straw Transcendental Ignorance! Valued Senior Member

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    Evil? Well I'd say an evil man is one who feels to subjugate of me at first look because of my courteous stupid nature.

    Nations though???

    I'd say, definitely, politics are evil.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2019
  20. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    I've created a world of lies?

    What ignorance.

    I'm willing to buy a wall.

    Again, we have a solution.
     
  21. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    Why yes. You put quite a bit of effort into it.
    You hadn't noticed?
    That doesn't pay your debt, for your past evils.
    Also: That's a lie.
    You are willing to make others buy a wall, and suffer the consequences of building it and living with it - not at all the same thing.
    See how it works, when you have become evil by your own definition? You get buried in a world of your own making, where you can't even see the real world. You believe yourself.
    No, you don't. You have a reaction, that does not even acknowledge the problem.
    And it's no good - it burdens others, and harms others.
    You don't get to skip on your debts because you have a crack-brained idea for hurting other people and making them pay.
     
  22. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    3,320
    Shorn of distracting and mutable specific details, the generic template probably boils down to what one "does not like" at the magnitude of either a very passionate emotional level or argued intellectual level. If the individual has merely adopted what's fashionable as "evil" in their mainstream culture/society, then that for what is "not liked". Or one selected from among the popular formulations for evil, should there be multiple ones of similar status at odds with each other on the moral and political markets.
     
  23. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    Wow, I suppose a crucifixion is in order for the sins of the world. No, I won't carry that cross for you, but you are welcomed to carry your own.
     

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