On Evil

[Kyuuketsuki]

So, if evil does not exist, what are such things as The Great Leap Forward in which hundreds of thousands if not millions died? I think to say evil does not exist in the human condition is a great cop-out.

As Ev has already pretty much said there are bad things, you can call it evil if you wish but it isn't EVIL in the sense of some kind of mystical mumbo jumbo concept ... it's just bad people doing bad things (and sometimes good people doing bad things).

Actually I think have such a mystical idea of evil is the cop out because it removes the specific need for personal responsibility. Let's take everyone's favourite example, the Holocaust.

Hitler is regarded by most as evil ... if he was possessed by an evil force (the mystical mumbo jumbo type of evil you appear to believe in) then he cannot be responsible for his actions because it was the evil and not him who did it but if he did it himself (as I believe he did) he can be held personally responsible.

I reject any and all notions of spiritual evil, I believe that morality is relative and that people can and should be judged against the morality and social standards of the society within which they are understood to have committed the crimes in question (and yes I know that idea carries its own set of problems).

Kyu