No, it is too simple to paint evil actions as ignorant or subjects of pathological socialization. Acts are evil, actors do evil acts. One could call the great monsters of history ignorant or subjects of pathological socialization or just evil. In all cases it is severely incomplete. Evil is a process that combines all of those things and many others such as fear, instability and existential crises in ever new integrations. Consider evil like a great mirror ball with many possibilities, two of which are ignorance and pathological socialization. But the theater teaches us to analyze character and to understand the rites and rituals of civilization that define the corners of style. Sometimes the examination of evil disappears into simple habit or belief in a common good that was taken too far or applied in the wrong direction. For example, why is Mengele a monster for his experiments but the army doctors who gave smallpox and yellow fever to unsuspecting soldiers, scientists? Why is Frank Luntz OK saying it isn't the thing in itself but how you frame it that makes it acceptable? Goebbals said the same thing and his frames were accepted by simply the most sophisticated culture on the planet at the time. The evil I have seen is most often banal and ordinary and accepted by everyone. Evil is not a devil but an act, a belief like the "drunk Indian" or the "Negro shuffle" or the need to chop the arms and legs off of a truth because it doesn't fit an accepted story. In the face of such myths, the great Maria Tall Chief or the incredible burst of energy in the black community from the end of segregation to the present is helpless.
I don't believe that one can describe the Chomsky insight into the problems of the current system as paranoid since he is so often prophetic. On the other hand one cannot absolve the destruction of the blatent self-interest built into the system as ignorant or social pathology. I have analyzed too many works of art that disappeared in the hands of music theory and yet they were great works of art. I would suggest that both of you dig a little deeper. Just because you can't understand it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I think Karma is a good concept and I believe in the return of evil for evil done. REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "pete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 10:32 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its own > > On Sun, 11 Jan 2004, Ray Evans Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Arthur do you really believe there > >is no evil in the world and that pure self interest will rescue us all? > > I'm with Arthur, there is nothing about the world for which the > explanatory power of the concept of "evil" is not thoroughly > trumped by simple ignorance and pathological socialization, > and occasionally pathological genetics. There is something > philosophically fundamentally broken about the whole notion > of "evil" as a cardinal principle, wherein the "evil" actor > must necessarily have a perfectly functioning rational facility, > yet analyzes all situations, identifying the most wholesome and > beneficial course of action, and while fully understanding that > in all its implications, nevertheless chooses a narrow self serving > behaviour regardless of its negative consequences to all around him. > Sorry, but for me this doesn't compute, and the problem is in > the premise. The actor is defective, not capable identifying > the most beneficial course of action, and therefor his action > is made out of ignorance. "Evil" is just a crude pole point for > those who need to paint a world in primary colours to avoid > the complexity and ultimately the paradoxical nature of the > real thing. This is certainly not how I perceive you, so I > simply presume we are having a semantic failure of some sort > here, and by "evil" you mean something other than what I understand > it to be. > > -Pete Vincent > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
