Yes, exactly. People do ghastly things for "the greater good," sincerely believing they are improving the world. People are often horrendously wrong, too.
I think true evil would be more selfish in purpose, more sincere, and more pointless. You know, causing pain and destruction for the sake of it, because you actually enjoy to see others suffer. I don't know if Hitler liked gassing Jews, much as I don't know if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gets lulz beheading infidels, but I think you have a better chance to find the sort of evil I'm thinking of among the people who actually carries out these acts, the ones who apply for the job and very likely enjoy it. And I'm pretty sure plenty of the same types have been, and are, in the employ of "the good guys."
Then again, "evil" is a human notion. There's no "evil" in Maths, or Physics, it's just a label we use to refer to a human behaviour, so it all depends on whatever definition you have in mind. Me, I think of evil as a mental illness, a disfunction, that causes a few individuals to act in very counter-productive ways, from the perspective of humanity at large. Which is not to say I'd want us to go easy on them, hell no, they are a big problem for humanity, and we need to keep doing our best to either "fix" them, if at all possible, or get rid of them. Along with the Hitlers and Baghdadis that create environments in which they flourish.
Personally I think those are essentially labels as well. For me a truly evil person takes pleasure inflicting pain, suffering and death onto others, as it excites them when they know they have a life in their hands and they can do what they want with it. The ultimate god complex at the cost of someone else's existence. Hmm, a tough subject for sure.
There are still those with only self interest in mind though , so wouldn't they also be evil for only attempting to help themselves with no regard for others?
When you think about the concept of survival (self preservation), I am not surprised that some individuals have different levels of greed and self interest traits. Nature literally programmed these traits into us over millions of years. I wouldn't call those people evil, maybe greedy or egoistic, or just self absorbed assholes, but not evil.
Yes, exactly. People do ghastly things for "the greater good," sincerely believing they are improving the world. People are often horrendously wrong, too.
I think true evil would be more selfish in purpose, more sincere, and more pointless. You know, causing pain and destruction for the sake of it, because you actually enjoy to see others suffer. I don't know if Hitler liked gassing Jews, much as I don't know if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gets lulz beheading infidels, but I think you have a better chance to find the sort of evil I'm thinking of among the people who actually carries out these acts, the ones who apply for the job and very likely enjoy it. And I'm pretty sure plenty of the same types have been, and are, in the employ of "the good guys."
Then again, "evil" is a human notion. There's no "evil" in Maths, or Physics, it's just a label we use to refer to a human behaviour, so it all depends on whatever definition you have in mind. Me, I think of evil as a mental illness, a disfunction, that causes a few individuals to act in very counter-productive ways, from the perspective of humanity at large. Which is not to say I'd want us to go easy on them, hell no, they are a big problem for humanity, and we need to keep doing our best to either "fix" them, if at all possible, or get rid of them. Along with the Hitlers and Baghdadis that create environments in which they flourish.
So you would define evil as sociopathic or psychopathic? Interesting.
Personally I think those are essentially labels as well. For me a truly evil person takes pleasure inflicting pain, suffering and death onto others, as it excites them when they know they have a life in their hands and they can do what they want with it. The ultimate god complex at the cost of someone else's existence. Hmm, a tough subject for sure.
There are still those with only self interest in mind though , so wouldn't they also be evil for only attempting to help themselves with no regard for others?
When you think about the concept of survival (self preservation), I am not surprised that some individuals have different levels of greed and self interest traits. Nature literally programmed these traits into us over millions of years. I wouldn't call those people evil, maybe greedy or egoistic, or just self absorbed assholes, but not evil.
Yes, pretty much. I don't think Magneto is truly evil. The Joker is. Ha.