Meanwhile, here in Big Bear...

[retrorod]

 

 

All I hear is about Mental Illness. When is someone that's gone bad just labeled "evil" anymore? Aster

 

 

You won,t hear that anymore unless they are thought to be 'conservative'....

[FirstMeasure]

You won,t hear that anymore unless they are thought to be 'conservative'....

You mean unless people are discussing politics, both sides get pretty grievous in their implications. But since Politics are against the forum rules would you mind not bringing them up in my thread. Thank you.

[Aster1]

You won,t hear that anymore unless they are thought to be 'conservative'....

 

Rod, I would be in that camp with your observation, so I don't have any prollem with calling things likes I sees them. Not politics, just values & core beliefs speaking here.

 

Good discussion M, Zig, & Stein! I do like to see as much "good" in everyone that I meet. In some, it just ain't possible I've found and you can feel it!

 

Aster

[milod]

Ziggie...

 

Yeah, I can get a bit dark - but doing some comparisons of differing cultures can do that if you try to be "scientific" about it.

 

My point, however, is that regardless, almost every culture has had a belief that there is "evil" whether or not they agree with a determination of another culture on certain sorts of activity.

 

Within a given culture, however, traditionally the "evil" is not a matter of clashing culture, but rather one of whether an individual cares one way another about his own culture's definitions. I can consider how a functionally neolithic culture such as the Lakota could have figured disfiguring dead bodies is protective in the next life. But they would likely be as horrified as "us" to see certain behaviors such one of their own skinning an enemy to wear his skin in a victory celebration.

 

In a sense "evil" tends to be defined as complete indifference to social norms. We tend to refer to such a person as a sociopath since by legal definition they are quite aware of social norms.

 

I'd also agree, however, that discourse in the U.S. tends to shy away from the term "evil" because of the baggage it might carry from various religious usages that are odious to certain political orientations.

 

Personally I think that's a shame. When I use the term it ain't in a religious sense nor with religious or political overtones. There simply are some folks to whom their own cultures' general values are irrelevant. In some cases that's political and Stalin may be an example. In other cases... even gangs in prison have rules rigidly enforced.

 

If there's a problem with my definition of "evil," it's that current "western" culture seems unwilling to take issue with those who ignore cultural imperatives - and are suffering from a splintering of national cultures even as those cultures attempt to deny the ensuing unintended consequence of drastic political polarities.

 

m