What is your definition of evil?

river said:
yes I know

but some psychopaths have no restrain to killing a human being
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Well that's why we have laws and police. Psychopaths make mistakes like everyone else, and like everyone else, is doing evil if they knowingly ignore their mistake. Being a psychopath does not automatically make you Evil.
 
akoreamerican said:
Well that's why we have laws and police. Psychopaths make mistakes like everyone else, and like everyone else, is doing evil if they knowingly ignore their mistake. Being a psychopath does not automatically make you Evil.
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but being psychopathic is a dangerous mind set . To themselves and others .
 
Jeeves said:
Cowardice is a weakness - not evil. (And it's easy to call other people cowards when we don't know how well we ourselves would do in their situation.)
Complicity for personal gain is quite another matter. Evil in the big leagues (gangland, political faction, business, religious hierarchy, dictatorship) usually relies for its success on many like-minded supporters.
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Yes, Cowardice is a weakness, and Complicity for personal gain could be evil but only if you know it would cause harm to someone else. If I were to wake up late one morning because I want to sleep a little longer. That would be wrong but not evil, but in cases where complicity is evil, like not pressing the open door button in an elevator for someone, for who you know you could let in but don't bother to, it's cowardly evil.
 
akoreamerican said:
Yes, Cowardice is a weakness, and Complicity for personal gain could be evil but only if you know it would cause harm to someone else.
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That's what complicity means: helping someone accomplish a bad deed; being an accomplice.
[ - the state of being involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing. Syn: connivance, collusion, collaboration]
Compliance just means following orders, with or without approving of them; with or without knowledge of the wrongness of one's action.
Obviously, there are circumstances in which the true intent is kept secret from underlings, and circumstances in which the people who carry out the orders cannot help knowing the wrong they're involved in - thus the assessment of degrees of complicity; whether the underling is an accomplice or a mere patsy.
in cases where complicity is evil, like not pressing the open door button in an elevator for someone, for who you know you could let in but don't bother to, it's cowardly evil.
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That's not complicity, since no other wrongdoer is involved.
It's not evil, since no harm comes to another person as a result of your inaction.
It's not cowardly, since you have nothing to fear from pushing a button.
That's just inconsiderate an rude.
 
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akoreamerican said:
It's wrong because I know I have things to do. It would wrong me. It would be like lying to myself.
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Life is a compromise between competing needs. Extra sleep is one.
Guilt is a wasted emotion. If you felt the need to get a little extra rest, and you were willing to pay the price of putting those things off till later, there is no reason why you couldn't do that. Own it.
 
Jeeves said:
It's not evil, since no harm comes to another person as a result of your inaction.
It's not cowardly, since you have nothing to fear from pushing a button.
That's just inconsiderate an rude.
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I'm not talking about people who just noticed you were walking up and failed to make the last minute button press to save the door close. I'm talking about someone who deliberately did not push the button, who knows you, and is looking right at you as the elevator closes. Is this not a little evil? Of course I would never know for sure if it was intentional or not, but in that persons mind, if that person had intentionally not pressed that button, it was evil.
This is the most pervasive of evils because it is so well hidden. This is the same sort of cowardly evil that sits in the White House. It's the evil that hides in plain sight.
 
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akoreamerican said:
I'm talking about someone who deliberately did not push the button, who knows you, and is looking right at you as the elevator closes. Is this not a little evil?
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Not evil; selfish.

Selfishness is a tried and tested survival strategy. Likewise, excessive altruism can be detrimental.

Game theory shows that, generally, the best strategy is a balance of cooperation and selfishness - albeit leaning more toward - but not all the way to - cooperation.
 
akoreamerican said:
I'm talking about someone who deliberately did not push the button, who knows you, and is looking right at you as the elevator closes. Is this not a little evil?
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Yes, that is, a little bit evil: there is intent to hurt your feelings.
Again, you have motives, actions and results, and each one can be placed on a scale for case-by-case judgment.

This is the same sort of cowardly evil that sits in the White House. It's the evil that hides in plain sight.
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Not even eligible to compete in the same arena!
What you were talking about above is childish spite that can cause one person a few minutes' emotional discomfort.
World politics cause millions of people lifelong hardship and sorrow, grievous injury and death.
 
Jeeves said:
Not even eligible to compete in the same arena!
What you were talking about above is childish spite that can cause one person a few minutes' emotional discomfort.
World politics cause millions of people lifelong hardship and sorrow, grievous injury and death.
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Same sort as in cowardly and hiding, not in quantity
 
akoreamerican said:
Same sort as in cowardly and hiding, not in quantity
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Neither is either.
The elevator guy closed the door in your face, making no effort to pretend he didn't see you.
The other one is aggressively out in the open, strutting on stages from Montana to Singapore.
 
Jeeves said:
Neither is either.
The elevator guy closed the door in your face, making no effort to pretend he didn't see you.
The other one is aggressively out in the open, strutting on stages from Montana to Singapore.
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Hiding, as in you cannot tell if it was intentional or not.

We've all done something like this atleast once in our life, but when someone like trump hones this sort of behavior as their main MO, I can't help but say they are evil.
 
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Im sorry, I might have gone a little overboard in calling trump evil. I would rather not say someone is evil, but rather say that they are doing evil.
 
akoreamerican said:
Im sorry, I might have gone a little overboard in calling trump evil. I would rather not say someone is evil, but rather say that they are doing evil.
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Okay.
Everyone has some evil. Everyone does some evil.
If you think someone is doing substantially more harm than good, on purpose, to serve their own ends at the expense of others, you may consider them evil.
If you think someone is doing more harm than good because they don't know any better, you may consider them deluded.
If you think someone is doing more harm than good because they're afraid to disobey an evil master, you may consider them cowardly.
If you think someone is being forced to do more harm than good by another person, or by a brain disease, you may consider them unfortunate.
You wouldn't be the first to call trump evil, but you may also consider the other options.
 
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