All of the above is as good an answer as any in this case.
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My vote would go to the mass framing moral decisions as immutable human nature.
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Humans are instinctively selfish, just like other animals. If a serial killer kills for sexual gratification, that for me is an example of extreme selfishness. If you keep eating meat despite a conviction that the world would be a slightly better place If you became a vegetarian, then that, to me, is also an example of selfishness. Being stingy about the price of clothes when you know textile workers suffer is selfish. Democracies work for people because they let most people get what they want in a way that seems reasonably fair. But it also gives our selfishness a lot of freedom, f ex. to make choices that are good for our own comfort, but that will add to the suffering of other people or future generations. |
Well, sure you could debate the "nature of evil" or even whether it exists till the bovines find their way back to where they originally set off from, but that's not really the question. I framed this poll in a way that asks what do you consider to be the root of what is generally accepted as evil, and I gave examples. Sure, you could say (I disagree) that being a meat-eater is selfish - I like my meat and I HATE vegetables - but I didn't ask what's the root of selfishness? In the same way, not all evil is necessarily selfish. That's another question altogether. Selfish in one way, I guess, as you are satisfying your own needs - be they sexual, racial, territorial or financial - without considering those of others, but if I had time to think about it (about to make dinner so quick post) I would imagine there are examples of evil that are not driven by selfishness. So some of those examples you give would not, for me (and I think for most people) fall under the heading of evil as we understand it. I know you're changing the question to what is selfish, but I don't think that really helps, or applies here.
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Obviously whether what he did was even evil is a matter of interpretation. But for whatever category of behavior you categorize as evil there's gonna be a variety of potential sources and not one singular root of all evil. |
If you do "evil" for non-selfish reasons, then someone will probably think you're doing good. It becomes a matter of interpretation. Some see a terrorist. Others may see a holy warrior fighting a great evil.
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People thought the Nazis were good too. Why is it that if a different culture or whatever thinks it's good that's not evil but if it's just one individual psycho who thinks it's good then it is?
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If we’re honest about being members of the human species we need to face three aspects of this question.
1. Something termed ‘human nature’. 2. Religious & political systems and anything that can be categorised as ‘groupthink’. 3. The most complex of all, mental illness. Our greatest threat however is what we are. |
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