I'd now like to engage Leo's post on philosophical grounds.
I've been raised through Catholic education, so although I use words like "holy," and "evil," and "God," I use them for their basic positive philosophical meaning to accomodate Leo and others of a religious background. It is a force of habit that we use these words and my forthright intention to spin them.
Let me also offer the disclaimer that I am waxing philosophically, and am open to ideas that systematically contradict me, if they are sufficiently strong.
Originally posted by Leo Volont
Perhaps it is in your favor that you can be so naive, that you do not understand the core motivation of Evil, which is self interest. *Was Atilla the Hun or Genghis Khan \"weak\" because they lacked the Wealth that they could acquire by pillaging Civilization?...
Self-interest is part of everything that is holy! Self-interest facilitates self-responsibility. WIth mature self-interest you become interested in others because you need cooperation to survive. How are we to be our self if we are not interested in it? There is nothing wrong with it at all. It should be encouraged and nurtured everywhere.
You mean \"exclusive\" self-interest that is the heart of evil. The interest in self while excluding interest in others entirely is self-destructive. Those who do it hate others because others do not appear to fulfill them or make them complete. It is a myth that the selfish love no one but themselves. It's just the opposite - the selfish hate themselves. They see themselves as woefully incomplete, and that is why they are constantly hungry, constantly starving. There is another word for the self-interest you are speaking of, and that is self-hate.
Historical figures are dead. That does not mean we cannot speak of them, but they are many times removed from our experience, are most certainly not a danger to us now. The ones you mentioned had the power of their people on their sides, the power of their armies. But what if I say, Leo, that not only were they weak, but many of those whom they defeated were weak as well? That is what evil does - it hurts itself, it preys on itself, it preys on the weak.
Most crime is committed by the poor on other poor. In our society that has done much to throw away kings and lords, the poor are not as disadvantaged as they once were. A great number of poor people today are exactly that way because of their selfishness. Because of their overwhelming hatred for themselves - they think they are worthless, incapable of accomplishing their wishes, and most definitely weak. And while they succumb to that lazy temptation for excuses, they are right. And they succumb to evil.
I have not stated explicitly that weakness=evil, although I am quite close, and it is nothing but tradition that prevents me from using them interchangeably. Goodness is oh a little sacrificial lamb, all innocent and helpless, while evil is big and powerful. Lies. If we're going about this through the theistic approach, let's just put two and two together and be serious. If God is both benevolent and powerful, then his power is for his giving and our taking. Our owning. If you are given this gift and are not powerful, then quite clearly you are tempted to the offering of evil, of weakness of both mind and body, of sitting around and expecting others to serve you or think for you.
If you are weak then you reject self-responsibility, power, and strength, as well as learning, growth, and everything else that is truly good. If you are strong then you embrace power and responsibility, and all the other good things. Power is not a rival or excludable good. There is more than enough for everyone. That there is only enough power for a few people is an old, old, selfish, evil concept, and appropriately weak. That power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, is also an adage born from weakness.
And, of course, we must remember that, when we are looking for evil or weakness in the universe, those who die are not necessarily weak. When there is a murder or slaughter, who are we to say that all or any of those people were strong or weak? Good or bad?
Originally posted by Leo Volont
... One Party that favors a Planned Community and a fair and equal distribution of Wealth, and Another Party which favors the open competition of each Man for the enslavement and exploitation of all others -- One Group Good and the other Group Evil...
Both are evil, the second the because of the way you describe it, the first because it doesn't work. The methods of executing the first have been weak and relied on the weakness of people. The second is because anyone who enslaves others is practically as weak as those being enslaved. This is not a post about economics and business ethics, although that is certainly a topic worthy of discussion. It is about dreaming as it relates to the human condition. However, I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that it is an empirical law that no business relationships are strong unless all the stakeholders are winners. I'm confident that strong people will imagine and facilitate better and better ways of exchanging resources, like they always have.
People are not made instrinsically evil. Oh, sure, babies appear weak and helpless, but that is one of the greatest accidents of appearances. Their power is hardly matched. They are capable of seeing everything and everyone just as they truly are. They sleep soundly and peacefully. They laugh easily and experience the purest joy. Always experiencing the wonder of exploration. Of new things. They are capable of inspiring strength in those around them. They dream often. And they are capable of loving whomever they come in contact with, regardless of appearance and much else. Sometimes I do not think there are stronger people.
Yes, I quite think that I would throttle and flay Augustine for imagining the concept of original sin, if he were not already dead. What an asshole!
Then why do people grow up to be such assholes, like Augustine? They start to lose practice of these strengths as they imitate the people around them. But they never lose them. They are not born with evil inside them. It's not internal, it's external. They were simply just born here. While here, they are inexplicably punished, dominated, ruled, their freedoms taken for "protection," every horrible crime, all while they are young and too strong to fight. With all of those horrors, the very fact that people are still alive shows that they are strong.
For that matter, who knows what goes on the heart of one who finishes a suicide, and who knows what waits for them. They may have succumbed to weakness in one sense, but facing death with a willful intent is as strong as running away from problems is weak. Perhaps these things cancelled each other out, and they are truly gone! Perhaps not. Perhaps we are not accepting the strength to know.
I finish here because I tend to agree with Camus that the only true philosophical question is that of suicide. Nothing is so profoundly personal to all humans while so deeply paradoxical. I apologize if I've rambled. I bet you disagree with quite a bit.
But to go back and answer your original question, civilzation has withstood much and is quite alive today. Evil has done a poor job of holding it back, as to be expected. And, civilization is, of course, not finished growing! There will be new forms as long as people have the courage to build them. And they will, because while the temptation for weakness, to imitate to world, to imitate only what is seen is present, the one towards strength and goodness, towards our true selves, is always greater, and always present, so long as we exist.
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