Despite some cultural differences, good and evil is one of the underlying concepts of human reasoning since the beginning of civilization.
Our laws, social norms, education, upbringing, fairy tales, movies, etc. too often tend to make us unconsciously believe that good is strictly separated from evil.
However, good and evil are just two opposite ends on a continuous axis, with none of us really being on its absolute ends, nor even near them.
There are countless examples of evil sparkling even in the most esteemed people.
For example, when someone slips and falls, the vast majority of the people around him tend to laugh. The difference is that some people will smile happily even if the unlucky one gets seriously injured in the process, while some people will laugh only after making sure that the clumsy person is left unharmed.
Sex is another great example for this. Regardless if we do or don’t realize this, we all like both tenderness and aggression in sex up to a certain point. This is true because sex preferences, like good and evil, are not black and white – they are also found somewhere on continuous lines. That said, some people prefer to make love in a very emotional and tender way, while some prefer to cause significant pain to their partner.
Also, we all have prejudices up to some point. Some of us openly hate certain races, nations, religions, etc. Other, more liberal and tolerant people, claim that they have no prejudices and feel no hate - not realizing that they actually do, at least a little bit, hate conservative groups, unintelligent people, and pedophiles, for example.
The more our society develops, the more and more laws and social norms are being established. The more of these rules are rooted in us, the less free we are to express ourselves. As more and more needs and feelings are being stuck inside us instead of being released, we are falling into social anxiety, depression, anger, and deviant behavior.
There is at least some darkness in all of us, and, admit it or not, we all enjoy seeing other people suffering or getting humiliated up to a certain point. It is that certain point that really defines are we 80% good and 20% evil, or 60% evil and 40% good, for example.
To be complete, we must live through all our emotions without judgment, question reality in the shadow-lands, accept our dark side, love our selves without limits, and then we can go through the metamorphosis like a caterpillar and become our best versions. If we suppress our dark side it will work against us instead for us, and we will not be able to let go of it, forgive ourselves, and move forward.
Please let me know:
- Can you give me a personal example when you felt evil satisfaction or evil needs?
- If that’s too much to ask, another common example of little evil outbreaks will have to do.
Have a wonderful day, week, and life!
Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to the images used in this article. I just found them online and wanted to share them with you.
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Some thoughts I had on evil.
For instance hate is not evil in and of itself i.m.o. It becomes evil if there are deeds done that harm another.
I also think it has a lot to do with consent.
BDSM without consent would be torture.
Sex without consent would be rape.
Taking something from someone without consent is theft.
I personally consider this to be evil.
Hating someone or being envious or wishing someone a disease or so does not harm directly (it is in the thought realm) I think.
If someone hates me they don't harm me. If they do something to me by letting that hate manifesting as a hurtful deed, out of that hate then it's the deed that is evil and harming me in reality. People may hate me all they want they don't owe me anything.
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Nice thoughts about hate not being evil, thanks for sharing. I agree, it is just a feeling, if we recognize it, accept it, and handle it well, it will go away over time without us committing any harmful (evil) deeds.
@katarinamiliv explained in her comment how negativity can sometimes even result in something good - like a person with aggressive tendencies who becomes a surgeon, so he saves people's lives while actually immersing into his negativity somehow.
Of course, evil has a lot to do with consent, although consent doesn't necessarily means that we are doing a non-evil thing. For example, a child might accept some form of sexual activity (like touching) with a pedophile, not fully realizing what is going on until much later.
Cheers! : )
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I do not quite get the surgeon thing, I would not want to have an aggressive surgeon. I get some horror images lol. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.
But I can see that channeled, focused, controlled "aggression" of a person can help in some situations. Maybe that is what is meant.
With the consent of the child I get that. children are not fully capable to understand the consequenses of what they give consent too. On the other hand sometimes parents go way over the line with their children. Something like "give auntie a hug" (or even strangers for the child) when they clearly don't want to.
And they think thats learning social behavior. But it's not (of course in my opinion) if the child gives the hug it will not be genuine but out of obedience
And even worse, everyone constantly crosses over the childs borders (don't know if borders is the correct word)And you learn the child that if someone older says (maybe strangers) : give me a hug that they do that because they are taught to obey older persons (authority). Plus the child will never learn where his or her own borders lie. it's likely that such a person will grow up not being able to say no. There is always a nuance of course extremely shy children need help to be able to function in life. But of course these are my observations and look on things. I don't know all either. But sometimes it hurts to see how they treat children sort of like they are extreme dumb non-feeling robots who don't have ears.
I do also see great and lovely things that parents do. It's not all bad or so. :)
Cheers :)
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Yeah, that is what is meant. Someone who is completely non-aggressive and afraid of blood would hardly be a good surgeon or soldier.
Great example with forced children hugging! That is very other done by old women living in the same building as the child, at least where I come from. :D
The thing is that the vast majority of people is unaware that this is actually child abuse.
By the way, the authority that comes with age is one of the dumbest authorities if you ask me. Of course, someone aged 40 objectively has more authority than someone aged 5, but the problem is that this continues afterwards, and 30 years later, the person that is now 75 years old often is still considered to have more authority than the now 35 year old person.
Cheers! : )
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Oh I see, No it's not handy for a surgeon to be afraid of blood.
And a soldier, I agree also, you should be able as a soldier to, harrass and torture people on command, so I agree on the aggression part but as a soldier that is bombing innocent people from a plane or from behind a video screen to "protect your country" , shooting depleted uranium rockets (irak bosnia) on your peace missions and to spread democracy, etc. there the aggression part is not so important then we (the country) are more served by your ability to put your own moral compass aside to say " I just follow orders I just do my job" or a policeman "I don't make the law I just enforce it, So I agree on the aggression part, but ability to blindly obey orders is more important i.m.h.o. or else you get not very useable soldiers, and get what you have now with the american soldiers where there are more soldier killing themselves than that are killed in the war.
The age thing I also agree.
Cheers.
Edited some mistakes and added
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Thanks for adding the importance of "blindly obey orders" ability for a "good" soldier. The things that you've described are horrible and unfortunately true.
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I can't really think of my shadows as "evil" or bad. They are part of me, and I am a part of God, just like everyone else. Instead, there are thought errors or sicknesses that come from society that may cause us to experience negativity and pain.
I have a difficult time forgiving people sometimes. This is me being judgmental of the person that hurt me, but it is not me being bad... Judgement comes from pride, which comes from ego.
At the end of the day, everything comes down to ego. The more we work to reduce our ego, the happier and more peaceful we will be.
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Thank you for stopping by, @soleil-research.
I agree that is important to be able to forgive (to others as well as to yourself) but that our ego often prevents us from doing so. What we often don't realize is that forgiving actually usually benefits more the forgiver than the forgiven.
Cheers! : )
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Recently my brother was making a lot of money on some of his investments and he kept on boasting about it. I was getting so sick of it and although I didn't act out anything I had a desire for him to lose the money he gained.
This is a great post, thank you for sharing! I really love your perspective on good and evil. We often think that we have to suppress or ignore the evil but we don't realize that the evil is also a part of us. It is always good to accept it, understand it, and express it.
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Hello @eternalflow, I think that it's natural what you felt for your brother. We are much more easily irritated and dragged into a competitive attitude by people who are close to us and similar to us. This is because we can relate to them and compare ourselves with them much easier than with distant unknown people. Thanks for sharing the emotion.
I agree that we should accept, understand, and express all of our emotions - as long as expressing our emotions doesn't include serial killings. : )
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An interesting read, though I can't see any good definitions on what good and evil actually are.
Personally I do not really believe in good and evil as objective things and neither I do subjectively divide things into good and evil.
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I agree that good and evil exist only in our minds and depend on the point of view, thanks for pointing out! : )
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I do not know, maybe it gives me a little satisfaction to see how a person I do not like is doing badly. I think it's normal, but it's still wrong to feel good about other people's problems.
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Yes, it is wrong, but for some reason, it often comes naturally, especially when we don't like someone, as you pointed out.
Maybe it comes naturally because in every person there is at least something that we don't like, so we get a little satisfaction because of their attributes that we don't like, and we feel empathy because of their attributes that we do like.
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LOL! So true, my Dad used to tell me that I saw too much good in people, that they could drag me down if I was not careful. He was right, but I was too... Very Interesting. Following @lifenbeauty :D
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Took me a couple of second to understand this, great analogy! : )
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Laughing, it turns out, has a lot of power - we attribute to the person who laughs attributes of self-confidence, of social, of a person who is not afraid and stressed.
Better Management - Laughter and humor are a fairly effective management style.
That part of his ability to influence people and lead is in his sense of humor.
The power of laughter can also be used negatively - the social group creates tremendous pressure on the weak by "laughing at him."
Evil in the movies also laughs wickedly and only becomes stronger and increases our terror.
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Great thoughts about the completely opposite applications of laughing! Thanks for sharing, @nirgf. : )
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@lifenbeauty, I am really impressed by your way of thinking and observing the world!
About the personal example, I wrote about it in this text, that is also about little evils in us - https://steemit.com/psychology/@katarinamiliv/if-you-envy-envy-in-a-healthy-way
I would add that, besides recognizing and accepting the negativity in us, we need to think about the ways it can serve us and out environment in the best possible way. That is the real progress, from my point of view.
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Thanks for reading my article, @katarinamiliv, I'm glad you like my thoughts and observations! : ]
I agree with your addition; I think that one of the most common ways negativity can serve us and our environment is boosting our motivation and determination to succeed in something useful.
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Yea, or for example - what Freud names 'sublimation' - using some negative tendencies in a positive way, useful for us and the society. Like a person with aggressive tendencies who becomes a surgeon, so he saves people's lives while actually immersing into his negativity somehow. :)
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Wow, the surgeon example is quite interesting!
I guess that the same applies for police officers and many other occupations.
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yes :)
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If you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains
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If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains ; )
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Hello there!
This post has been upvoted as a thank you for supporting @sexywhalebot.
Have a sexy and profitable day! : ]
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What does @sexywhalebot this do exactly?
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