A counselor I once had doesn't believe in Evil.. just Ignorance.

[Flying Squirrel]

I disagree, I think Evil exists within a human being and it's made worse when that person knows better.

However, I think Ignorance is usually necessary for the commission of Evil on the part of a large group of people, such as a country.

Therefore, I believe that anyone who aids in the suppression of Truth, who aids in the spread of Lies, or who takes no action or says nothing when Truth is being suppressed or Lies are being spread, are therefore guilty of accessory to that Evil which is committed as a result.

Mainstream Media figures, I'm talking about you. You know who you are.

[iemitsu]

1. Yep, the pundits qualify.

And they profit handsomely for their complicity.

[RKP5637]

2. I disagree too. Your counselor IMO had a very naive approach to what is evil! There is

pure evil in the world, and there is no ignorance about it at all. And often IMO MSM reinforces that evil and are complicit and complacent with respect to that evil.

[MrSlayer]

3. Evil is subjective.

Just as "good" is. Evil is just a word some people attribute to things they don't like or that scare them.

What appears as evil to some is the ultimate good for another.

For example, a religious person might find the act of fellatio to be an act of evil while the people involved in the act most likely think quite the opposite.

Some people might find the murder of anyone to be an act of evil where as others may find the murder of a known abuser or pedophile to be perfectly acceptable, even admirable.

Feeding a starving kid is good, unless you are the person whose food was stolen to do it. Then it's not so good.

The Nazis, from their point of view, were acting for good. So too were the Crusaders. The opponents of MLK thought he was doing evil. So on and so forth.

Good and evil are abstract concepts and are simply matters of perspective.

[hobbit709]

4. I'd say your counselor had never encountered evil.

There's a lot of ignorance and even willful ignorance around but there is enough real evil too.

[Drale]

5. Ignorance follows evil

Rush, Boner and the Cock, I mean Koch brothers are pure evil, the idiots that vote them listen to them on the radio, vote for them, or follow their directions are ignorant.

[unblock]

6. i don't entire agree, but i think the concept of "evil" is just not very useful.

i think that virtually all "evil" is a matter of perspective.

mostly, the person committing "evil" thinks he is doing right by the circle of people he holds dear. his family, his country, his religion, his customers, his shareholders, whatever.

the people who find those same actions "evil" are convinced of this because those actions have negative consequences to the people THEY hold dear. the workers, the neighbors, the lower employees, the ex-employees, the people of a different country, etc.

yes, there are a few people whose circle is so tiny as to include only themselves. we call such people sociopaths or worse. but there i don't know that "evil" is all that appropriate either because i think these people have a mental illness and are responding to that illness. they are not moral agents committing acts of "evil" in that sense, they're just acting out based on the twisted logic the illness imposes on them.

anyway, i think good and evil are incredibly simplistic concepts, so overly simplistic as to be virtually useless. far more useful would be to talk about those circles, how many circles and how large those circles are. the "good" people are those with many diverse and large circles -- especially those who really stop to consider the perspective of people they will never even meet. the "evil" people are those with fewer and more narrow circles, who are more likely to try to gain a benefit for those dear to them at the expense of anyone outside their narrow circles.

[libodem]

7. Interesting

I do think that being aware of doing wrong makes it worse. And then there are the willfully ignorant.

[grasswire]

8. noted psychologist M. Scott Peck thought that evil could...

....be quantified as an illness that could be listed in the DSM. His book "People Of The Lie" is a classic on the subject of evil.