Comments | pfunkmaster: A grand project

pfunkmaster

A grand project

Jan 26, 2005 20:26

Alright, so I've started work on an inverse version of Plato's "The Republic." The premise is that I'm trying to figure out how to create the perfectly unjust state. There's a few things that are important to figure out in order to achieve this, so I intend to attempt using my LJ as a sort of discussion forum for the purpose of doing solid ( Read more... )

Comments 7

sekonretsu January 27 2005, 03:32:55 UTC

Such cheerful topics lately. Anyway, a formulation of absolute evil. Let's see...

1. The evil man must be completely aware of the repercussions of his actions; a child isn't evil if he doesn't realize what harm his actions will do to others.

2. The evil man must not gain anything from said act; pure evil is evil in itself and for itself, with no extraneous motives to pollute it. Note that personal pleasure also fits into this category; the murderer who enjoys collecting torsos is not as evil as the man who does it for no other reason than causing harm to others.

3. The evil man seeks to harm others while elevating himself, for the sole purpose of committing greater evil acts.

In effect, I'm seeing the evil person as a kind of Karmic abyss. Disasters lead to inspiring relief efforts, murders lead to the solidarity of a community's surviving members, terrorist attacks unify countries, if only temporarily. The evil man avoids this, causing only harm with no semblance of good in any form to counteract it.

pfunkmaster January 27 2005, 06:39:43 UTC

I understand and agree fully with your first and third points, but I believe I have to disagree with the second. I have a few reasons for this ( ... )

sekonretsu January 27 2005, 15:02:17 UTC

The 'desire to do evil' point is complex, so I'll put it off till the end ( ... )

pfunkmaster January 31 2005, 22:02:58 UTC

Excellent, I think we do agree. So, in effect, the Ingosocs from 1984 almost had absolute evil to an art form.

Thread 6

je_adore_moi January 27 2005, 04:02:09 UTC

Hmm... lets see evil...

Evil can be someone who is completely aware of their actions (like Cody said) young or old who is completely aware of their actions and the consequences of it and also absolutely no feelings of remorse or bad feelings for the forementioned actions. It makes them feel good. It gives them the power of a god. And why would you want to give that feeling up? You would keep doing it for the feeling it gave you... all-powerful, invincible, etc.

*I like this discussion. It's good to get my mind going on something. I might come back with more later.