What is Evil? Part II

Part One

In part I we looked at how to define evil actions, and why corporations are unable to define evil the same way we do because of how they see the workers "beneath" them.

There are several kinds of evil in the world. There is the out-front-totally-whacked-psychotic-evil, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, you know the guys who come to mind. Then we see the more common everyday evil in such things as simple as bullying in the school yard, to abuse and discrimination in the corporate office and factory.

Its certainly tempting to rate certain types of evil as being worse than another according to the number of people affected and the severity of the effects of the particular evil. But all evil is the same in that there are several distinct core beliefs that make it possible to exist in the hearts of men. Here are what I consider to be at least part of those distinct beliefs:

1.One person or group is superior to another person or group.

2.The inferior people or group are not just inferior, they are sub-human, not deserving of respect or humane treatment.

3.Because they are sub-human, they do not feel, think, or need the same things as other humans.

You have heard these ideas in political rhetoric in the struggles between Hitler and the Jews, The European and the Africans, the Catholic and the Protestants, Clergy and the Laity, Management and Labor, on and on as long as the world turns.

How have people conquered these beliefs that cause evil and how can we change them now?

Continued in part III


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