A quick thought on evil… LoL!
Towards the end of class today, (before we were so rudely interrupted by the bell) a discussion regarding the role of the word ‘evil’ in today’s society was sparked. Needless to say, the concept of evil doesn’t play as much of a significant role as it used to, and the question is ‘Does our society need the concept of evil to help keep people in line, or can we do without it?’ I’ll be honest: With all today’s technology and new explanations for even the most horrendous actions of humans, I almost feel silly using the word evil. I think many psychologists/psychiatrists feel the same way. Referring to something as ‘evil’ is admitting that they don’t fully understand what they’re dealing with. Although it makes sense that society would use something like evil to help keep its people “in line”, it still doesn’t feel right to me. I owe this thought to my very logical personality.
So, in a nutshell, my gut says we don’t need the concept of evil in our society, as we have logical explanations for what we used to consider ‘evil.’
September 14th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
I’m not sure how technology eliminates the need for evil–in fact, I’d say that technology makes evil easier. I’m playing with this theory that genocide could only really start to happen on a large scale in the 20th century because of the technology required to kill people in quantity, not to mention processing records, identifying people of certain ethnic groups, etc. The theory’s probably full of holes, but that’s kind of where I am right now.