I really dislike the word evil.

[cali]

I don't believe in evil.

Or more accurately, I believe the word evil is one of the most dangerous words and concepts in any language. I haven’t used it in years. What we don’t believe is the negative space that defines our world view as much as what we do believe.

Absolute evil. True evil. blah fucking blah evil, evil evil.

Evil Bad, Must Destroy.

Both the word and the concept(s) attached to the word have been the excuse for a thousand wars and countless horrific acts. Describing someone or some institution as evil, doesn’t tell me shit about the person or the institution. Nothing, except that the utterer thinks said person or institution is bad BEYOND DESCRIPTION.

Our ideas about what constitutes “evil”, vary wildly. Historically, the concept of “evil” is freighted with the supernatural- a concept (or not) that I don’t think belongs in the political lexicon. No wonder politicians ride it hard. Hey, want support for your war or your brutal policing practices, or whatever? Depict the forces you’re fighting (and trying to enlist others to fight) as EVIL. You don’t have to explain shit.



I’ve had this conversation with a fair number of people over the years. What about Hitler, people ask me? Nope. Still doesn’t tell me much. Caligula, Attila the Hun, and modern iterations like Hitler and Stalin, are people who did horrific things. Unremarkable except for the scale of the horror and terror they unleashed.

People aren’t monsters. They are all too human. In part, by using the word evil or deeming someone a monster, we distance ourselves from the horror that they are human- that we are human.

What bothers you more? The torture and death of one child or the death by push of a button in the California desert that kills 47 members of a wedding party in Afghanistan? My answer would be that I’m more viscerally horrified by the former but far more troubled and scared by the latter, because of its banality. It’s the cruelty masked by “good” intentions that is so pernicious, that persuades regular people to support the most awful actions. The banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt described it.

<snip>

Evil skeptics give three main reasons to abandon the concept of evil: (1) the concept of evil involves unwarranted metaphysical commitments to dark spirits, the supernatural, or the devil; (2) the concept of evil is useless because it lacks explanatory power; and (3) the concept of evil can be harmful or dangerous when used in moral, political, and legal contexts, and so, it should not be used in those contexts, if at all.

<snip>

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concept-evil/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/21/-sp-the-truth-about-evil-john-gray

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_spectator/2011/09/does_evil_exist_neuroscientists_say_no_.html

[relayerbob]

1. This all assumes "evil" is a noun - a thing, an object, a trait

IMO, however, it is not. It is a verb. It's the action of instilling, using and manipulating fear in people (or animals) for personal gain or pleasure. Are people evil? There are absolutely people who are perfectly fine with manipulating others through fear, so therefore are evil.

[cali]

2. It's more about the damage that labeling anything or even any human action, evil.

[Lint Head]

3. Evil spelled backwards is live.

[Calculating]

4. Evil to me

Is when somebody deliberately takes an action which harms another individual for no good reason. Obviously there's a scale of sorts. A high school bully isn't really on the same level as Hitler, even though his actions are still what I'd consider to be evil.

[Igel]

8. I think of that as just being cruel.

I think of evil as being when people do bad things, things which harms others, and convinces people that this is actually good and shoould be emulated.

In other words, what's worse than being unnecessarily and pointlessly bad is being bad in a way that you can convince others is actually good and so they do likewise. That's worse than just being bad; it's being corrosively, corruptingly bad.

The OP should also take issue with "bad" and other adjectives that just label. It doesn't. The problem is that evil, which predates Xianity, has become associated (in the minds of some) with religious usage. It just means "really, really, bad, bad in all sorts of ways and I don't have a better word for it." If you're religious, it has a religious meaning; if not, then not.

[backscatter712]

9. I like Phil Zimbardo's definition of evil from The Lucifer Effect:

"Evil is the exercise of power to intentionally harm (psychologically), hurt (physically), or destroy (mortally or spiritually) others."

And yes, Trump and his ilk engage in a shitload of evil.

[Vattel]

5. I think the concept is fine.

Evil skeptics give three main reasons to abandon the concept of evil: (1) the concept of evil involves unwarranted metaphysical commitments to dark spirits, the supernatural, or the devil; (2) the concept of evil is useless because it lacks explanatory power; and (3) the concept of evil can be harmful or dangerous when used in moral, political, and legal contexts, and so, it should not be used in those contexts, if at all.

One can believe in evil without believing in dark spirits, the supernatural, or the devil. The argument that the concept is useless because it lacks explanatory power makes no sense. Some actions are extremely morally reprehensible. They are evil. The term "evil" is useful because it can be used to aptly describe those actions. The concept can be misused but there are plenty of similar concepts that are waiting in the wings to be misused in the same way if "evil" goes out of use, e.g., "horrific", "inhuman," "monstrous", etc.

[canetoad]

6. A thousand recs, if I could.

Agree on all points. 'Evil' has become a thought-terminating cliché.

[cali]

10. exactly. well put- "a thought-terminating cliche"

The material at the link is pretty interesting stuff.

[ismnotwasm]

7. I don't dislike the word -Its a very good discriptor

Anecdotally, I've seen it and experienced it. I don't have the luxury to decide whether it actually exists.

It certainly can and is overused however.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. I think it's a useful word for some people.

It just gets used far too often. It's especially troubling when people use it to describe a wide group of people, like how Ann Coulter describes liberals.

[Brickbat]

12. Agreed. It's a distancer.