No, not the usual problem of ‘Why is there Evil in the World’, but a different problem altogether.
I am starting to see the dichotomy of Good/Evil everywhere - TV, Movies, Online Flame Wars, etc. The ‘Problem’ as I see it is with the view that ‘Evil’ is a category which we can place events/people. It is something ‘out there’ for us to rail against and ‘fight’. The demonization of ‘The Enemy’ seems so harmful, and I see it causing so much suffering. Separation/Alienation and lack of empathy/connection appear also to be fostered in so many ways/places.
To give you some background: I’m a Caucasian Los Angeles Native who grew up in a low rent non-religious household. I’ve considered myself many things over the years - Atheist, Agnostic, Deist, Non Practicing Zen Buddhist, and more recently Quasi-Buddhist. I hold admiration for the simplicity and practicality of the Four Noble Truths, as well as the ‘Everyone Wants to be Happy’ paradigm that the Dalai Lama puts forth.
I don’t really have an ‘Answer’ per-se but this ‘issue’ doesn’t seem to leave me for long.
Anyone care to debunk, add to, or enlighten?
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I believe that it is in the nature of the beast to categorize things, to separate and compartmentalize everything we perceive. Having tagged everything as being in one group or another, we then develop preferences and opinions about the different groups. Some we see as being good for us, others are bad for us. We want to eliminate the things that are bad for us. Sometimes we need help doing this.
If I wanted to get some large group of people supporting my cause to stomp something I personally didn’t like, or which threatened some group of things which I did like, I would find some way to categorize it as something a great many people would want to stomp. So I define it as Evil and tell everybody it’s Evil, and here’s why, let’s go stomp it. If I defined it as Red, or Tall, or Oblong, people would just look at me funny and not help stomp it.
Well, yes, it does tend to feed on itself. If the thing I want to eliminate is perceived as a good thing by other people, then my eliminating it is an Evil thing to do.
One man’s Mede is another man’s Persian, as they say.
Yes, but I’m thinking more along the lines of the ‘Drastic Measures Must Be Taken’ attitude that ‘Evil Stamper-Outers’ tend to adopt. That attitude often can foster atrocities, not just harm the ‘thing’ that is perceived as evil.
One other piece is when (on an interpersonal level) one chooses to paint with the broad brush of ‘Evil’ the painted lose all humanity. ‘He/She is bad/evil/worthless’ is usually a dangerous statement (in my mind). Without knowing the background/causes one cannot learn from the situation(s) or interaction(s) with those one initially thinks ‘Evil’.
On a small scale I’ve seen it in my own life. Where I held the belief that a person or group was inherently evil and that belief either caused distance or negative interactions fed by my beliefs. With the passage of time, or the acquisition of experience/knowledge, I had an opportunity to re-examine my belief that they were ‘Evil’ and found that I was mistaken.
This scales upwards (or one could say downwards) to encompass so much of the serious problems I see all around.
I think that people want to feel like they have some control over the situation. One way to do this is to create a scapegoat. The problem comes from an easily defined, easily eliminated problem. The scapegoat can be a person or group of people, or an institution such as a government or a religion or a method of education. We see that all the time, where the news media tries to point the finger at violent video games or raunchy movies or lax laws for social problems. The problem is with them, not us, and if we can eliminate them, we’ll be fine. Things seem more managable and less scary.
Also, from a social psychological perspective, there’s the fundemental attribution error, or self-serving bias. If we do something wrong, it’s because of some external factor. If someone else does something wrong, we assume it’s an internal factor. We’re late to work because of traffic, but they’re too irresponsible to leave early enough. We lashed out in anger because we were provoked, but they just have no self-control. There are several reasons proposed. We see the external factors in our own life, but not in others’. But I think we just don’t like admitting that we’re wrong. Since there is evil in the world, it must be someone else, preferably not someone too close.
In any case, I agree that it is a dangerous phenomenon, and contributes to problems in interpersonal relationships as well as on a larger scale such as wars and racism. If you categorize someone as evil, how can you have empathy for them, or care about hurting them?