Define evil?

Question

What would your take on evil be? As C.S. Lewis once defined it:

The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint ... but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.

Answer 1

evil is anything that causes diminution of happiness

evil is any error in pursuit of your happiness

for instance, we humans have extreme injustice [ie, theft of earnings] - this causes extreme violence - so we humans are evil, ie selfdestructive

we practice extreme injustice, and we consequently continuously reap vast unnecessary suffering, and we cannot learn our lesson

everyone can see that taking 99% of income off 99% of people is going to damage happiness of everyone enormously - everyone can easily see that that is stealing, and that stealing makes people very angry, and inclined to hurt back in some way

yet we have this extreme injustice, and we dont understand we are hurting ourselves terribly

which is amazing and strange, because we all know how destructive it would be to take 99% off 99% of people - how much anger would be generated, how much fighting and danger would be caused

and yet we have 1% of people getting 90% of world income - US$70 trillion a year - US$70,000 per family in the world - huge inequality ie injustice ie theft

and yet we dont do anything about it - apparently we still think that injustice is good - this error is evil, ie wrong, ie selfdestructive

we mostly dont go for getting out as much as we put in to society by our work, but just as much as we can get, however much it is - so we are unjust, we act as if we believe that injustice is good - ie that we can take more than we give and not get hurt, ie that people who are left to take out less than they put in are not going to be angry

we have hourly pay from 1000th to a million times the average hourly pay - 99% are paid less than the average hourly pay - 90% are paid less than a 10th of average - 1% get 90% of wealth - and so of course 99% get 10%

limitless super overpay means limitless super overpower, which means no democracy, which means tyranny, fascism - and we just dont get it - we cant even think about it - we are evil, ie selfdestructive - and apparently for some strange reason, no words can get through people's heads about it

perhaps it is that people's thinking about money is governed by a very primitive part of the human brain [which is made out of reptile brain, wrapped around with a mammal brain covered with a thin layer of rational brain] - and people can only think: oh no, if i am just, i will get less, im never going near justice or fairshares!

if this simplistic thinking is going on in the reptile primitive brain and overriding the rational brain, then it is going to be as hard to get people to think rationally about money as to get a reptile to do math/s

in fact, 99% of people would get better pay with fairpay - with fairpay, every family IN THE WORLD working average hard would be on US$75,000 a year - with injustice we have 1% taking US$70 TRILLION A YEAR, or US$70,000 [average] from every family in the world

and we just cant get it into our heads we would be much happier with fairpay - like kids who might fight over the birthday cake and are told to share, who feel that if they didnt have to share, they would have the whole cake to themselves

whereas the truth is, that if everyone tries to get the whole cake, then everyone is grabbing cake off each other forever, or until the cake is ruined - the primitive brain doesnt remember that other people are going to try to get shares, if you take the whole cake - all the primitive brain in charge of thinking about money can think of is: the whole cake, for me!

if you ask people the cause of wars they say religion and race - they never say injustice or theft of earnings - whereas in every place there are religion and race differences without income injustice, there is no fighting - proving that religion and race are not the real cause of violence, war and crime - but sometimes economic injustice is along religious or racial lines [as in northern ireland and apartheid south africa]

there is something in humans editing out any idea of justice as a cause of happiness - instead there is this irrational absolute blind unthinking faith that injustice [grabbing as much of the cake as we can] is better than justice [taking one's fairshare, taking out of society only as much as you put in by work]

that primitive brain cannot compute the golden rule: if you take more than is yours, you will be followed by an angry person trying to get it back - which will involve you in unhappiness of various sorts: having to labour to keep hold of your overpay, having to spend your time and money and energy keeping hold of the overpay

rationally, it is obviously better to share and to have plenty for all and happiness peace and friendliness, than to have everyone grabbing off everyone all the time, no peace, no friendliness, no safety, no leisure

but humans cannot see this, so they are evil to themselves, selfdestructive - convinced that sharing would be worse when it would be 1000 times better

maybe it would help to get kids to try to grab the whole cake, so that they can see what happens, so they can experience that they get no cake at all, because every bit of cake is in motion constantly between people, and is being destroyed in the fight

so people are evil, ie, stupid, ie, selfdestructive - just dont have the brains - no more to blame than a crocodile for eating a baby that falls in the water - but just as evil

even the acceleration of violence to our present ability to destroy all life by nuclear winter has not been able to get people thinking - most people are no more worried about nuclear winter than crocodiles are

it is our misfortune that we have a few people capable of creating the technology to destroy all life, and at the same time most humans without the brains to see the giant unnecessary misery we cause ourselves -

we could all be on US$75,000 per family working average hard - peace and plenty and global safety and friendliness - all smiles everywhere - if we could just think that thought: taking out more than we put in is theft is violence is misery is extinction - but we cant - as simple as that thought is - despite the fact that everyone can understand that people get angry when they are stolen from

justice is the giant issue for humanity - and no one is talking about it as though it is the giant critical vital issue, absolutely essential for survival of the human species and for happiness - not even c s lewis did

all we are good for is grabbing as much as we can from others, and getting angry when someone grabs from us - we dont see any contradiction in that: we approve of our own grabbing from others, but we highly disapprove of others grabbing from us

and so we have been - virtually all humans, the respectable and the disrespectable - for 1000s of years

although it is no trouble for us to understand that all contribute to the social pool of wealth by their work, that slackers get fired most of the time, that everyone pulls their weight in work[plus or minus only about 10%], that no one can work much longer hours than the average [homemakers 70-90 hours a week] - we somehow manage to convince ourselves that extremely unequal pay for equal work is right and good and not destructive, that justice is somehow unjust and undesirable and wrong -

and we manage to completely dissociate ourselves from the obvious connection between injustice [overpay and underpay, theft] and violence

we do not think that someone being super-overpaid, being paid US$500,000 an hour average, is a thief - no, no, we are all in defence of the superrich - deserves whatever he gets

we do not think that someone being super underpaid, being paid $1 a fortnight, $25 a year, $1000 a lifetime is being robbed, no, no, that person is lazy, inefficient, stupid, something like that - deserves what little he/she gets

there is enough for every family to have US$75,000 a year - that is, every family working average hard produces US$75,000 of goods and services a year - and we starve 50 million people [1% of humanity] every year, in order to superoverpay a very few up to a million times the average hourly pay

absolutely mad-as - at the same time that we are intelligent enough to understand calculus and such things - and somehow the intelligence is unable to notice the madness - a very very curious reality

final irony: we sacrifice the happiness of 99% of people, we starve to death 1% of humanity every year, just so that 1% can be overpaid - and the overpaid get negative benefit from the overpay - because fairpay [US$75,000 per family for working average hard] satisfies virtually all desires - all needs, all major desires, millions of minor desires from tennis rackets to dolls - there is just very little, only very marginal desires that overpay can satisfy - whereas, on the downside, the danger of being overpaid among 99% underpaid is enormous - benefits, very small, disbenefits, very large - like having enough to buy more food when you have a full stomach all the time

teehee - very amusing, but tragic -

folly unbounded

evil - doing harm to self - like hitler: plunder europe, try and grab the whole cake, have to kill yourself - evil is just an error in pursuit of our happiness

Answer 2

There is a crowded mall. Someone has a little boy that is tired so everyone lets the mother go to the front of the line to buy the boy's lollipop. The little boy is happy and laughing and people smile. It is infectious, and there is a chain reaction as people smile and help each other more that day. There is a crowded mall. A mother with a little boy is not paying attention when the line moves ahead, and someone cuts in line. No one says anything but everyone frowns; they are bothered. The little boy starts crying because he wants his lollipop, and everyone is irritated as the boy continues to cry. Everyone who was in line goes through the day a bit more impatient to others than they would have been. There is a crowded mall. Some people are good, some are evil. But everyone is going about there own business, and no one is particularly worrying or noticing anything else. People do what they are told and wait in line like they are supposed to. Life goes on, but there is nothing particularly notable or exciting. Why does anyone even exist. Without goodness OR without evil is nothingness, without purpose. the expression of goodness and evil only exist in the interaction of things, not within the thing itself.

Answer 3

Evil is not defined by the action but by the thoughts behind it. When someone knows what they are doing is considered wrong and they have no justifiable reason for their actions then that is what i would consider evil.

Answer 4

An action deliberately undertaken which results in the deprivation of another person of their life, liberty or property.

Most actions of socialist do-gooders like Dickens will fall into this category.

Evil is impotent and necessarily derives its power from good people who do not understand the full consequence of their actions (the support of evil).

Tu ne cede malis!

Answer 5

Evil is a blatant and complete disregard for the well being of others accompanied with a deliberate tendancy to hurt, belittle, kill, or wound, be it physically or mentally. Evil is senseless and unfortunately powerful, but it can be conquered and overcome.

Answer 6

Hilary Clinton

Answer 7

No game of words. Anything that LIVEs longer is called Evil.

Answer 8

Huge question, but to stay in the spirit of the quote you offer, I would say that evil entails selfishness and sociopathy. Certainly applies to the terrorists of 9/11, London Tube, Madrid trains, Bali nightclub....

Answer 9

Evil is all things of a negative nature.

Answer 10

I admire C.S. but I think it's simpler than that. Evil is a human causing another human pain of any kind.

Answer 11

noting good come out from evil never good always baaad
EVIL BAD NEWS ALL-THE BAD THINGS IN LIFE