Just How Evil Are We?
Suffer Little Children…
Friends, I just concluded my morning browse of the television. During the daily parade of bad news, one item caught my attention. It was part of a documentary taken by some South Korean film makers and it showed small groups, two or three, of starving people illegally crossing from North Korea into South Korea at night in the middle of winter.
What was extraordinary was that the night-vision cameras showed people stark naked walking across the snow and into the freezing river water carrying their clothes above their heads. Once over, shivering and shaking, they quickly dressed with the assistance of people traffickers who were waiting for them like predators. The women were spirited off to become sex workers or domestic help and the men I suppose were made to work in sweat shops.
And then, as if the Korean segment wasn’t horrific enough, another news item I saw showed mothers in Afghanistan who, in a state of poverty, were selling their children for a couple of hundred bucks each.
So first of all we have a country, North Korea, that, because of its excessive military spending, doesn’t provide sufficient food for its people. In desperation, some of its citizens flee to another country and waiting for them are human vultures who prey on the vulnerable, make them into slaves.
But that’s not the end of it, oh no! Then there are the people who visit brothels and misuse the imprisoned women or girls (who have no passports or other means of support) while others, entrepreneurs, use the free labour of the men to produce cheap goods which consumers like you and I buy.
Of course, this situation doesn’t just happen in Korea. Across the world, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, human predators, whole armies of them, are preying on the vulnerable and the weak. There are people traffickers, drug traffickers, child traffickers and, let’s face it, they are providing services that millions of people, seemingly ordinary people, want.
Now the question raised in my mind is one of apportioning blame. Is the world to blame because it allows people in some nations to starve thereby making them vulnerable. Or are the traffickers to blame because they are evil? Or are those who visit brothels, buy the drugs, sexually abuse the trafficked children (some men are willing to pay a high price to deflower virginal girls under ten, I believe) and women, purchase the sweat-shop made goods or keep unpaid female slaves to do the dirty work to blame?
What’s the answer? Just how evil are we?
“Oh brave new world,
That has such people in ‘t.”
William Shakespeare.
So no change then David? You know in a warped way it’s funny, the stark comparison between poor Koreans and Afghanis, and the members of the G20 guzzling down $5,6,700 dollar bottles of wine, and munching on quail and nice cheese.
And what does Rudd say,after some one sprung the menu on him? I forget the exact quote,but it was along the lines of “I’m am not here for a frolic”
Ummmmm indeed.
Now I don’t know about you David, but I have laid bricks and concrete for a living, and spent 10 hrs a day on a cement mixer,until my blisters have bled, so I could put braces on my kids teeth.I have been a soldier, and other things that I will keep to myself, legal mind you..I have also been a public servant,a good job if you can stay awake.
There is not a politician unless he has labored in some capacity, that has worked a day in his miserable life.Bored maybe,trouble staying awake probably,and have enough vocabulary to shout out the word shame,mug,or loser, and how to recognize the knifes and forks,and in what order to use them, on a dinner table, is probably the only prerequisite to do the job.Oh and I almost forgot, and how to bullshit in a credible fashion to baffle the most astute member of the media, or public.
Oh the irony!and now it is the affluent us or should that be effluent?that is going to suffer,and the mugs in the burbs still aint gettin it.
Still despairing.
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We are evil.
We are selfish.
Egocentric egomaniacs.
Arrogantly unaware of being purposeless.
We construct our artificial purpose around the little idea of Self and we neglect easily what does not encompass it, intimately thinking we re big and indestructible.
We all think we re somewhat special, and deserve some preferred treatment.
We are pitiless and pitiful creatures.
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Hey, Phill, great observation! I’ve had bleeding hands too from hard manual work. Puts a new perspective on things, doesn’t it?
Adina, pitiless and pitiful creatures just about sums it up for most, I’m afraid. If there weren’t the customers for the evil traffickers they wouldn’t do it!
Cheers.
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What about those Rothchilds? Re the photo you posted, what a beautiful little girl. I never heard about the video of the North Koreans’ escape you saw, David. That must have been devestating to view.
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She is beautiful, Swan, though the shadows under her eyes tell a story. I would like to get my hands on those who exploited her.
The video was rather surreal, all in green with ghostly images moving about. But sadly, it was no fantasy but is commonplace the world over!
Deep inside, I cry sometimes. Oh, brave new world indeed.
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Are Vigilantes Evil?
For the past few days I have been watching all of the episodes of the second season of Dexter. Not that it has been my choice but I have been chained to the heater and had my eyelids taped open and was told that I would not be allowed to have anymore chocolate unless I watched all the episodes. I have been subjected to 10 of them so far.
For those of you are unable to see this program or just had no desire to see or have perhaps never heard of it I will give a summary so you can understand the remaining scriblings of a 3 years old.
Dexter is a serial killer. He is not an ordinary serial killer. He was adopted by a policeman when he was 3 years old. Dexter’s mother was killed in front of him by drug dealers who left Dexter with his mother’s body in a freight car or trailer when Dexter was 3 years old. He was not found for two days until Police found him with his mothers body. Dexter was severely psychologically scarred. As he became older he exhibited many of the characteristics of a psychopath. Dexter’s father decided to channel Dexter’s desire to kill in to killing only murderers who have escaped justice because of legal technicalities such as an invalid search warrant or illegal wiretap or perhaps killing the witnesses to their crimes.
But now the program has reached a point in which Dexter must either frame a police detective for his crimes or get caught.
I asked a couple people who have also seen the program who they wanted to win this battle of wits Dexter or the Police Detective. Both replied Dexter. The reason is since Dexter is only killing other killers he is saving innocent lives.
I disagree however. Yet you the reader are not yet allowed to disagree. You can only disagree after I give you permission. I will give you permission after you consider the following scenario. You are working in the control room of your countries national railroad. Carbon monoxide has rendered the crew in the engine of a passenger train unconscious. It is racing for a head on collision with another passenger train. Your only choice for preventing this intercity express from smashing in to a full 1000 passenger commuter train is to direct the intercity express on to a track that has not been used in 3 years. There is a classroom a children taking a hike along this track which has steep banks along its sides. Then this unused track will merge into another track and the intercity express will finally be stopped when it collides with a freight train. The freight train has two cars loaded with 155mm artillery shells.
Now if you decide to divert the intercity express towards the freight train you would have enough time to send a radio signal and warn the crew to slow down so that they can jump off before the collision. But if they slow the train down then the trains will collide on the edge of a town. If the train does not slow down then it will collide at least 3.1 miles (5kms) from the nearest town. So you could “accidently”, in the stress of the moment, use the wrong call sign when you send out your radio transmission to warn the crew of the freight train.
Now another true story that you should be aware of before you rush to a judgment is a true story. In the second world war German scientists were attempting to build nuclear weapons. One of the things that they needed was heavy water produced at a hydro electrical power plant in Norway. A shipment of this heavy water to Germany had been set up. To get to Germany the heavy water had to be transported on a passenger ferry across a deep fjord before the heavy water was reloaded back on to rail cars. The allies ordered that the Norwegian underground sink this ferry as it crossed the fjord with the heavy water. The Norwegian anti-fascist resistance carried out their orders resulting in the deaths of many of the innocent passengers on the ferry.
Now before you rush to judgment consider this. Tomorrow you will be a passenger on that ferry because every Tuesday and Wednesday you are a passenger on that ferry. At 2:41 am an Alien or an Angle or a Boddhisatva, or Ferry wakes you up and tells you tomorrow you can get on that ferry and die, or you can not show up which would tip off the Gestapo that something funny is going on resulting in the failure of the mission and then this
Alien or whatever shows you what will happen in the future and the millions that will die as a result of the Germans being able to build nuclear weapons and prolong the war. Do you get on? Now say the the question is not whether or not you will get on but whether or not you stop your 15 year old daughter from getting on, or whether you allow her make the decision to get on. How much do things change if we change the age of your daughter to 23. How much do things change if we say that your 23 year old daughter has to bring her 1 year old child with her or else the Gestapo will be alerted that something is wrong and the mission will fail?
So keeping all that in mind how would you write the next episode of Dexter?
In my opinion vigilantism is only justified when the government itself has been taken over by criminals. In that case the society is really no longer governed by laws but is in a situation of chaos. This may seem like a string which would make vigilantism rare but when you think about it have not many governments been controlled by criminals in your life time? In any case I would write the story in such a way that Dexter stands trial. I made the point to those who favored Dexter that Dexter is bound to make mistakes and kill innocent people. I also pointed out that many vigilantes evolve into death squads where they end up killing petty criminals before they become major criminals. They made the counter point that Dexter is smart and if even one out of 10 people he kills are innocent he is still helping mankind because of the many potential victims he is saving by killing the 9 guilty ones. And since he is smart he will not evolve in to someone who will kill petty criminals before they become major ones.
Well I have to go now.
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I often think that about the huge number of people perfectly happy to buy goods made in China.
And not ask questions.
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The German people managed not to notice the death camps.
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I forgot to bring up a point about putting children, especially our own children at risk.
One of the major Muslim holidays is to celebrate the story in the bible of when I believe it was Abraham was going to sacrifice his own child for God. I have always found this story very barbaric. It is one of the reasons that I have never become a Muslim. For one if such a thing could happen it would be an unfair test. Abraham could have just as easily said the request that my child be sacrificed could only come from a demon, get lost you pretender to the throne. Also important is the fact that it was the father of the child and not the mother of the child that was asked to sacrifice the child.
But what if we do not think of God as some old jealous deviant white guy in the sky but as truth or justice. Who would be willing to sacrifice their child for truth or justice? Still no takers I imagine? But would anybody be willing to place your child at some level of risk for truth or justice?
Over the years in Mafia plagued southern Italy some state prosecutors and police officials have been blown up with their families in car bombings.
If no one is willing to place their own children at risk who would take such important assignments.
A less dramatic consideration is every time you give money to a charity or spend time on social or political activism you are taking away resources from your children that could be used by them in their struggle for survival in the very unfair environment you have brought them in to.
If making sure our own children get ahead in the world becomes the dominant principle of a society it seems to me that such a society is on the road to becoming a typical 3rd world dictatorship.
Since some people, such as the state prosecutors in southern Italy, or the leadership of the Iraqi resistance, have been willing to place their children at great risk in order to fight against forces of chaos is there some level of risk that the rest of us who are opposed to the forces of chaos should be able to place our children at to support those who are fighting for our well being? Some would say that it is only a fanatic that would place his child at any risk. I would say that your children are always at risk 24-7. Parents just can not understand all the risks that threaten their children’s future therefore to place our children at some level risk to serve justice or honor the truth seems to me to be a reasonable decision.
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Let me play Devil’s Advocate for a minute. Good and Evil are relative terms. They are usually defined in a tome of sorts, and there are very few rules that all can agree on. Killing may be evil, but is killing in self defense evil too? Lying is generally considered evil, but Muslims believe that lying to your enemy is ok. There are many contradictions between different cultures of where to draw the line between good and evil.
The argument here doesn’t seem to be about evil, however. The fact is that items mentioned above are primarily profit driven. The problems around the world aren’t necessarily good verses evil, but more often than not driven by greed. If we want to minimize ‘evil’ we must set our sights on the cause.
I don’t feel that people are inherently evil. We simply live in a society of moral ineptitude where people are driven by pleasure, or, more accurately, driven ‘towards’ pleasure. Greed is the primary cause, but, as David mentioned, if people weren’t visiting the brothels …
Unfortunately, there is little hope for this generation. It will take centuries for society to move towards a moral way of life. It is our job to ensure that subsequent generations are at least aware of their flaws.
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Crushed. I subscribe to your view. It is years that I consciously make my choice and read the label before buying. My family and friends couldn t care less, they only chose cheap. Luckily, already melamine story, children toy loaded with lead, animal food killing the pets show how far poor unscrupulous business (combine ruthless capitalism with amoral society and disaster is the outcome).. can cause death.Obvious death. Environmental death. and people lives.
There is a saying: i m too poor to buy something cheap.
Too bad this is a society where the hunt for cheap is perpetrated to the point that our mentality becomes cheap as well. To all of us..
Don t buy foreign.
Buy local.
Don t think global.
Think smart.
Don t buy cheap.
Be selective.
Don t be cheap.
that s all I can say..
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Some interesting thoughts are being expressed. A couple of observations.
Zhann, I feel very strongly that humans have an evil streak which, if the circumstances allow, will blossom. Some of the deliberate cruelty that humans engage in is not the result of greed or the profit motive!
Crushed, I’m going from memory here but I thought that Hitler hushed up the gas oven issue!
BLP, each human is at risk from the moment of conception. We cannot avoid risk for ourselves or our children – we can only lessen it. If we seek to advance noble causes or spread truth then our risk increases for ourselves and our children!
Adina, the hunt for cheap is by the capitalists who then import it and sell it with a 1000% mark up!
Cheers.
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I so whole heartedly agree that human nature only changes through evolution and the process of natural selection. All evil things we know, power hunger, evil, theft of material and spiritual, stem from the instinct to survive. As a species with language and logic we make a judgment that declares one thing evil and another good. Our most basic instinct, that of surviving to replicate our DNA is still on the same level as the herding animals of the African Savannah. Cybernetics tells of the ‘fight or flight’ mechanisms needed to survive. Notice that the choices are fight or flight, not love or stay. This is at this time, the natural order of things. If we don’t destroy ourselves or the planet first, we might stay around long enough to evolve and find a better model (better than fight and flight – from which spring evil). Think Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – a) physiological – food water shelter warmth, b) safety – security stability freedom from fear, c) love and belonging d) self esteem – achievement respect, d) self actualization.
Evolution though, works on magnitudes of 100’s of millions of years we have difficulty feeling attached to this process. Most of are just frustrated that it’s taking us so long to raise our collective consciousness because we can’t see change like that in the span of a human lifetime. I think we might ‘choose to believe’ that we can participate in some way to our own evolution. We have these big brains that we don’t seem to be fully utilizing. If we use it to consciously shift our awareness to look for ‘signs’ of evolutionary change and support those observations, we might feel attached to the process, motivated to resist fear and anger, and find other survival strategies more friendly to the growth of character and our own survival. Otherwise, why not be a giraffe or a stalk of celery?
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It’s funny that the survival instinct is the very thing that threatens our survival, Bruce.
We made nukes to protect ourselves and now we have enough to blow up a whole universe.
We are caught in negative evolution!
Cheers.
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Oh, crush, and how the Jews in occupied Palestine fail to care about their persecution of the Arabs of Palestine.
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Why not be a giraffe or a stalk of celery? Love this comment.
Compliments on your work Bruce.
It s amazing.
I also love this comment: We made nukes to protect ourselves and now we have enough to blow up a whole universe.
How true this is
I wish we could selectively blast the selfish arrogant power hungry corrupted …….individuals .. wanted to use an ugly word and call them something else, but refrained as a respect for this blog.
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Good and Evil… what an excellent philosophical question. My first reaction is to throw my hat in with David G. on this one.
But, does that not sell short, those that prefer to think sanely? Of course, those people seem to be so few and far between these days… sheeple are so easily led to the slaughterhouse.
And what of true education? Something missing in most US schools I admit, but there are pockets of real education in every country. And isn’t education, real and truthful education, the answer to self control?
For that matter, can’t “good” and “evil” be considered to be two extremes, both of which are the subsequent loss of self control?
One by an overwhelming sense of greed, avarice, sick sexual fantasies, etc., the other by a sense of wanting humans to live forever perhaps(?), or helpfulness or caring.
The enlightened ones who’ve walked this earth, have always spread a message of self responsibility, self education, self awareness, self sacrifice; one of believing you are god, as is your neighbor and all of the living things in this vast universe and so treat them as such. These few individuals make such an impact that the elite need to manipulate the message to one of control of the masses through the loss of control of our fears.
My point? Perhaps it’s best to walk that fence line. You will, as human beings, stray one way or another, but as long as you practice self control and always keep educating yourself, you will never be lost to the mind closing, thought ending, numbing effects of allowing our innate, base instincts to pull you one way or the other.
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