January 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Definition of Evil
I think I’m with Granny Weatherwax on this one. Granny Weatherwax, amazing practitioner of head-ology in Terry Pratchett’s hysterical and poignant Discworld series, asserts that the worst sort of crimes are cases of “treating people as things”.
When you think about it, this simple comment really does cover a lot of forms of evil. From killing for the sake of convenience (in any of its forms) and slavery and controlling government to benign neglect or taking people for granted. It can all be construed as treating people as things. And I agree with Granny. It’s wrong.
Any other definitions of evil out there?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm and is filed under musings, somewhat political.
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Catching up on your blog—I think I went back to where I had left off. This is thought-provoking and I agree with it.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:16 amIf people are “things” you can justify doing whatever you want to them. There is no conscience involved.
As a person living in a foreign country, I have had the experience of realizing in different situations that I am not being perceived as a person. It is a feeling that is hard to explain or put into words. You realize that people believe no harm is being done to you ( psychologically in this case ) because you are not being perceived as a person. I am at a loss for words to describe this experience. It creates an incredible emotional dilemma because, intellectually, you realize that the pain being inflicted is not inflicted deliberately, because you are only a “thing”. Did you notice that I avoided using the word thing till now. I have not thought of these experiences in this way till now—it bears some pondering. I can only relate these experiences to having ones arms and legs bound, a gag in one’s mouth—in other words—powerless.
Or is it “I don’t exist”…
I’m also not proud to recognize incidents from my childhood, or even looking at suffering foreign people on TV and realizing that I did not perceive them as people. I am also guilty.