Reality
June 14th, 2009, 02:06 PM
When we think of these two things, we think of two polar opposites on the morality spectrum. We think of the "good" as those super heroes, and other protagonists in movies, books and video games. In real-life, the "good" are the people in the Fire Service, the Police, the Hospital and Ambulance crew such as paramedics and doctors, and also the people that serve in our countries militaries.
When most of us think of "evil", we think of monsters and egotistical "I want to take over the world" aliens or men, amongst various other things in movies, books and videogames. In real-life, the "evil" in our lives, are stereotypically the various criminals - murderers, rapists, theives, and gangsters, and we also think of terrorists and other extremist political views in the past - like Nazism, and Fascism.
But does "Evil" really exist in the real world? Or is that purely opinion?
To the USA, UK and most of the Western world, we tend to view people who use extreme violence to press their views on us. Like in 9/11, 7/7 and various other attacks.
However, when we look deeper into "terrorists" such as the Irish Republican Army, some of us sympathize with their motives. Originally, they freed Southern Ireland from British rule, but in the later year, bombed various places over Ireland the UK and killed thousands of people, to get their message across that the Northern Ireland should be united with the Republic of Ireland.
In WWII, most of us are from countries that were part of the Allies (UK, France, Russia, USA, Australia, Canada, etc), and when we look at the Germans and Japanese, we think they're such evil and horrible things. We look in disgust at the fact Hitler killed lots of Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities in the Holocaust, we also look in disgust at the Japanese who raped and killed various people in Asian countries like in the Philippines and bombed the US Naval base - Pearl Harbor, for apparently no reason.
But then again, are the "Allies", really all that good ourselves? The British Royal Air Force bombed thousands of civilians in the German city of Dresden, the U.S. Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on Negasaki and Hiroshima in Japan to end the war, in the process killing thousands of Japanese, and heavily polluting the area, with the effects of radiation causing cancer in some survivors, and children to be born deformed after the end of WWII.
We use the justification, "it was a war", "we saved many lives while doing this", "they did it to us". But does two wrongs really make a right? Are we really not "evil", also?
After the end of WWII, we put various Japanese and German politicians and military officials on trial, and executed some of them for "war crimes" and "attrocities". But if the Allies had lost the war, they would have put us on trial for war crimes.
I used the classic example of WWII to provoke thoughts, by the way. I'm not a secret Nazi sympathizer, I actually don't really support war anyway.
So, thoughts?
When most of us think of "evil", we think of monsters and egotistical "I want to take over the world" aliens or men, amongst various other things in movies, books and videogames. In real-life, the "evil" in our lives, are stereotypically the various criminals - murderers, rapists, theives, and gangsters, and we also think of terrorists and other extremist political views in the past - like Nazism, and Fascism.
But does "Evil" really exist in the real world? Or is that purely opinion?
To the USA, UK and most of the Western world, we tend to view people who use extreme violence to press their views on us. Like in 9/11, 7/7 and various other attacks.
However, when we look deeper into "terrorists" such as the Irish Republican Army, some of us sympathize with their motives. Originally, they freed Southern Ireland from British rule, but in the later year, bombed various places over Ireland the UK and killed thousands of people, to get their message across that the Northern Ireland should be united with the Republic of Ireland.
In WWII, most of us are from countries that were part of the Allies (UK, France, Russia, USA, Australia, Canada, etc), and when we look at the Germans and Japanese, we think they're such evil and horrible things. We look in disgust at the fact Hitler killed lots of Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities in the Holocaust, we also look in disgust at the Japanese who raped and killed various people in Asian countries like in the Philippines and bombed the US Naval base - Pearl Harbor, for apparently no reason.
But then again, are the "Allies", really all that good ourselves? The British Royal Air Force bombed thousands of civilians in the German city of Dresden, the U.S. Air Force dropped two atomic bombs on Negasaki and Hiroshima in Japan to end the war, in the process killing thousands of Japanese, and heavily polluting the area, with the effects of radiation causing cancer in some survivors, and children to be born deformed after the end of WWII.
We use the justification, "it was a war", "we saved many lives while doing this", "they did it to us". But does two wrongs really make a right? Are we really not "evil", also?
After the end of WWII, we put various Japanese and German politicians and military officials on trial, and executed some of them for "war crimes" and "attrocities". But if the Allies had lost the war, they would have put us on trial for war crimes.
I used the classic example of WWII to provoke thoughts, by the way. I'm not a secret Nazi sympathizer, I actually don't really support war anyway.
So, thoughts?