Is most Evil ideological or sadistic

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You may have a point there. Stupidity and lack of foresight seems to be the steady state.

ruveyn

being stupid is so much easier than being smart.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Yeah, being part of the problem is almost always way more fun, providing you have the mentality for it.

I don't entirely agree. You can be a part of something bigger than yourself, and still be doing evil. People honor soldiers because they are part of something bigger than themselves, but if the cause is not noble, and honestly it almost never is, it's still evil, don't you agree?

Look at the Nazis. Service to the State -- Glory to the Race.

ruveyn

Exactly! Selfishness can lead to evil, but altruism can as well.

I don't think most evil is sadistic, but I watched "Rango," and "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" which have Liberal values and lessons to teach you, and it read like a christian, good-vs-evil account, and seemed to frame evil as sadistic. People torture apes because they thirst for the cruelty they inflict, the power they gain, and are just selfish, or so the film would have you think.

In real life, I have encountered animal cruelty, and 80% of it is by humans who could frankly give a **** about the reaction of the animal. They'll cut its throat to bleed it out and let it hobble around in pain for a long time until it finally dies... while we enjoy a few cigarettes and catch up on sports and gossip. God has placed man above beast, we can't therefore be in error as this living thing exists for our use, its life is of no value but for our needs and wants. Or so the thinking goes. There is not an ounce of sadism involved... if anything, annoyance that the animal won't hurry up and die, or is being a pain the @$$

I can say that Mao was doing the best he could for the principle of Communism, not for the people whose lives it was supposed to better. Ideological pursuit of goodness, or good intentions can be a precursor to great evil. Nazi's were both Sadistic and ideological, and no movement of evil who is more animated by ideology is without sadism, but ideology is by far the greater human cause of unjust suffering and death.

There is no such thing as evil per say. It is merely the outcome of Malice.

what if one wishes their employer torture and death and never does either of them. Malice that lead to nothing.

what if you have to kill a few dissenters to collectivize, a benefit for the many. Great intentions that does great evil.

Like I said, its the outcome of it. You can wish that all you want but unless action is taken then nothing has really happened. You can be as malicious/evil/whatever in your thoughts and it means nothing unless you do or say what you're thinking.



the decision/act of killing those few dissenters is in itself an act of malice no matter the greater intentions of it.

I consider most evil to be moralistic.

Selfishness is quite easily directed towards productive uses.

Morality is not.

Hate and fear of the Other it turns out provides an evolutionary advantage. Those humans who were quick to attack that which they did not know, tended to survive better than happy go lucky optimistic folk.

In primitive times, being afraid of that unknown shape in the dark and being ready to attack or run was the correct strategy for living to see another day.

We live in different circumstance now and most humans live in a civil or social context. Unfortunately our built in fears and cautions (fear of heights and fear of snakes) are still operative and are difficult to overcome by reason and reflection.

In order for humans to become Good, we will need a few evolutionary jumps.

ruveyn

So the desire to harm may not include enjoyment of making others suffer?
What about desiring to harm the bad in the world? Is that malicious?
What if one has beautiful motivations to cause harm to a repeat child molester?


I hold the view that lesson the Germans learned from their Nazi past is not to fight evil, like other regimes who emulate the nazi's... but that fighting was evil.

Is causing harm evil? Does evil only come out of the desire to inflict it? Can beautiful intentions cause evil?

If you were to fit evil more into one camp or the other, between ideological and sadistic, is more evil-inducing malice ideological, or sadistic?

I assert that most people do not desire to commit evil, and ignorance is the largest contributor.

But ignorance is properly not the driving force, so why do we as most people do evil?

ignorance is in large part a driving force in why people allow themselves to do evil, they dont know better.
but i agree the actual reason for evil is pure unadulterated selfishness and a culture that applauds it.