Is it possible to have power that isn't evil?
I reckon that power is merely a multiplier for whatever tendencies exist in a person already. And is there any person who is 100% good?
(Not sure if this is true or not but decided to post anyway as a conversation starter)
I reckon that power is merely a multiplier for whatever tendencies exist in a person already. And is there any person who is 100% good?
(Not sure if this is true or not but decided to post anyway as a conversation starter)
Does power multiply evil more than good?
Is it more likely to attract people the more evil those people are?
Is it more likely to attract people the more evil those people are?
There are a few things about evil that make it easier to have thrive than good.
Foremost among them that to do good usually requires wanting to do the right thing and making sacrifices to that end, whereas to do evil requires nothing more than acting in your own self-interest. Not all acting in your own self-interest is evil, of course, and not all evil is even self-interested, but the fact is, good requires people to not do things they might want to do and to do the things they might not otherwise want to do -- to choose to do the right thing, whereas evil allows people to do what they want to do and not do what they don't want to do regardless of the consequences. Without the check valve that is conscience, it is inevitable that evil is easier because you don't have to force yourself to do something you don't want to do or not do something you do want to do.
Next is the fact that it becomes incrementally harder to do good where you've already done what you can, but you can often add to the evil in the world without assistance. I've started picking up litter on the way to the park. Even if I care a lot and pick up all the litter, all I can pick up is the litter that exists. Someone who doesn't care about the state of the community can come right after me and make things worse than they ever were just by throwing some trash out the window of their car. It's infinitely easier to do great harm than to do increasing good.
As well, there's the fact that someone's good works can be turned easily to evil. As an example, many donations intended to help starving Africans get food end up in the coffers of warlords who are directly responsible for those people starving. Someone who wants to do good has to be careful about how they apply their good works. For example, let's say you find a man dying in a gutter, and so you lift him out, heal him up, feed and clothe him, and he goes on to be Pol Pot. You can say you were trying to do good, but the outcome is obviously evil. This appears to be a hypothetical that would never happen, and moreover it appears to be something outside of your control because how could you possibly have known. The selfish nature of evil means that when you offer help, the selfish are much quicker to grab for help than the selfless, and so many of the hands reaching out are just people who don't care and want free stuff, or even people who want to actively do harm and want you to pay to have them do it.
One final attribute of evil that makes it easier than good is often evil can paint itself in the imagery of good to trick people. Whereas good wants to be honest, evil has no qualms about being dishonest, and so can appear good. Rather than talk about modern politics, let's look at the classic movie "American Psycho" where the main character is a psycho, and we learn he is truly psychopathic and evil, but he pays lip service to the highest moral talking points of the day (In the movie, it's intended to be a reflection of the 1980s)
So why can good exist when evil is so much easier? The simple fact is, good is generally constructive or preservative on a long time horizon, and evil is generally destructive on a long time horizon. So while it is easier to to be evil than good in the moment, if you are consistently good you will find yourself with more then if you were consistently evil, and that's a pact and promise you make to the universe and uphold faithfully, because in the short term good wins out because it has built something and maintained things, while evil wins in the short term but tears apart everything it sees.
That being said, it must be said that we have the capacity for both good and evil because we require both to survive. We can't be purely good in this world. We can't be purely evil either. We need to find a balance that's hopefully more on the preservative and constructive side of things than the destructive and short-term side of things, but we must always remember the light can't exist without the dark.
Foremost among them that to do good usually requires wanting to do the right thing and making sacrifices to that end, whereas to do evil requires nothing more than acting in your own self-interest. Not all acting in your own self-interest is evil, of course, and not all evil is even self-interested, but the fact is, good requires people to not do things they might want to do and to do the things they might not otherwise want to do -- to choose to do the right thing, whereas evil allows people to do what they want to do and not do what they don't want to do regardless of the consequences. Without the check valve that is conscience, it is inevitable that evil is easier because you don't have to force yourself to do something you don't want to do or not do something you do want to do.
Next is the fact that it becomes incrementally harder to do good where you've already done what you can, but you can often add to the evil in the world without assistance. I've started picking up litter on the way to the park. Even if I care a lot and pick up all the litter, all I can pick up is the litter that exists. Someone who doesn't care about the state of the community can come right after me and make things worse than they ever were just by throwing some trash out the window of their car. It's infinitely easier to do great harm than to do increasing good.
As well, there's the fact that someone's good works can be turned easily to evil. As an example, many donations intended to help starving Africans get food end up in the coffers of warlords who are directly responsible for those people starving. Someone who wants to do good has to be careful about how they apply their good works. For example, let's say you find a man dying in a gutter, and so you lift him out, heal him up, feed and clothe him, and he goes on to be Pol Pot. You can say you were trying to do good, but the outcome is obviously evil. This appears to be a hypothetical that would never happen, and moreover it appears to be something outside of your control because how could you possibly have known. The selfish nature of evil means that when you offer help, the selfish are much quicker to grab for help than the selfless, and so many of the hands reaching out are just people who don't care and want free stuff, or even people who want to actively do harm and want you to pay to have them do it.
One final attribute of evil that makes it easier than good is often evil can paint itself in the imagery of good to trick people. Whereas good wants to be honest, evil has no qualms about being dishonest, and so can appear good. Rather than talk about modern politics, let's look at the classic movie "American Psycho" where the main character is a psycho, and we learn he is truly psychopathic and evil, but he pays lip service to the highest moral talking points of the day (In the movie, it's intended to be a reflection of the 1980s)
So why can good exist when evil is so much easier? The simple fact is, good is generally constructive or preservative on a long time horizon, and evil is generally destructive on a long time horizon. So while it is easier to to be evil than good in the moment, if you are consistently good you will find yourself with more then if you were consistently evil, and that's a pact and promise you make to the universe and uphold faithfully, because in the short term good wins out because it has built something and maintained things, while evil wins in the short term but tears apart everything it sees.
That being said, it must be said that we have the capacity for both good and evil because we require both to survive. We can't be purely good in this world. We can't be purely evil either. We need to find a balance that's hopefully more on the preservative and constructive side of things than the destructive and short-term side of things, but we must always remember the light can't exist without the dark.
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