I'm really exhausted and may be babbling. I'm okay with that.
A long time ago, some really unpleasant shit happened around me. Most of you already know about it, so I don't feel the need to go into it now. But after it happened, I got some counseling. As an unintended side-effect of the horrible shit and the counseling, I discovered my QUIET place. It's a glass hallway, from which I can clinically look at all manner of carnage (Desert Storm, Tucson Moments, etc) without sicking up or going bugshit. Needless to say, I didn't see the need to tell the military shrinks about the QUIET place, because it worked just fine and they'd just try to find a way to fuck with it, because it ain't exactly factory issue, and military shrinks are pathologically incapable of leaving well enough alone.
I've been in and out of that QUIET place for 27 years or so now, and it's where I go when I write. On one side of the glass hallway is the regular world we all have to put with, with all it's callousness and mundane, tedious, small e evil. On the other side is whatever I'm writing about. Usually other versions of our world, where the evil at least has the decency to be capital E Evil. Widescreen evil, not the horrible dribble of cold pus we get treated to in THIS world, by bankers and political fixers and preachers and thieves.
Because I don't know about you, but I'd prefer to live in a world where evil was Evil, 2-dimensional perhaps, but quantifiable and identifiable. Not fuzzy at all. Dr Fu Manchu, Dr No, Dark Empress Nigel and her self-directing flensing dress. That sort of thing. Battle-suited pyschopaths are, to my mind, utterly superior to poison gas in the trenches and the "showers". Mr Remorse and Mr Regret are preferable to a black bag on your head and a C130 flight to Egypt for some blowtorch & pliers business.
But why is that? I think it's because it's some muhaha Jeremy Irons bad guy doing the Evil, instead of our elected governments doing the evil. The G-Men. The people that were supposed to be the good guys. Us. And while we do it, we mumble shit about "terrorists" that nobody believes anymore. Not even the far right.
And it occurs to me, here in my clean and QUIET glass hallway, that maybe all that is needed to tie off the bleeding stump of the 20th century is to get people to examine the fact that they don't believe in any of that shit anymore. That our bad behavior is just a habit. A reflex. To remember that it is not only possible to be a good guy without wanton killing and torture, but that it is a REQUIREMENT that we do not do these things. An evil person is a person who does evil things; An evil nation is a nation that does evil things. The reasons why evil things are done is immaterial...The ends never justify the means.
More on this later, but now it's time for you to get out of my nice glass hallway, and go back into the muck outside. It's time for me to dance, and I kinda prefer to do it alone.
Or Kill Me.
An Evil that is singular, a thing, no matter how monstrous, has nads you can squarely kick.
An evil that has no center and no boundaries has no nads.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on May 15, 2014, 04:17:51 PM
An Evil that is singular, a thing, no matter how monstrous, has nads you can squarely kick.
An evil that has no center and no boundaries has no nads.
That's basically the gist of it.
Also, you get what you put up with. This can make you yourself evil, even if you don't actively do bad things.
This worries me, when I consider I am an American citizen living in 2014.
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on May 15, 2014, 04:17:51 PM
An Evil that is singular, a thing, no matter how monstrous, has nads you can squarely kick.
An evil that has no center and no boundaries has no nads.
Permission to steal this out of context?
Roger, as always OP is A++ grade TROOF. One of the things that rattles around my brainmeats a lot is the difference between "identifying as a good guy" and "doing good."
Feel free to yoink.
:lmnuendo:
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 04:47:25 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
This is an interesting topic, because having taken an enjoyable detour from my grim reading list and reading a couple of amusing books about biology, after I finish up the one about epigenetics I just started I'm about to go ahead and delve into a deeper examination of Zimbardo's research, and after that I'm reading Waller's "Becoming Evil", which comes highly recommended.
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 05:22:21 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 04:47:25 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
This is an interesting topic, because having taken an enjoyable detour from my grim reading list and reading a couple of amusing books about biology, after I finish up the one about epigenetics I just started I'm about to go ahead and delve into a deeper examination of Zimbardo's research, and after that I'm reading Waller's "Becoming Evil", which comes highly recommended.
Is that layman-friendly? Because I'm downloading it if it is.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 08:58:11 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 05:22:21 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 04:47:25 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
This is an interesting topic, because having taken an enjoyable detour from my grim reading list and reading a couple of amusing books about biology, after I finish up the one about epigenetics I just started I'm about to go ahead and delve into a deeper examination of Zimbardo's research, and after that I'm reading Waller's "Becoming Evil", which comes highly recommended.
Is that layman-friendly? Because I'm downloading it if it is.
Yes, I'd say that it is, from what I've thumbed through so far. Zimbardo's book is called "The Lucifer Effect" and it's an in-depth exploration of his Stanford Prison Experiment, related to other case studies.
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 09:34:30 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 08:58:11 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 05:22:21 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 04:47:25 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
This is an interesting topic, because having taken an enjoyable detour from my grim reading list and reading a couple of amusing books about biology, after I finish up the one about epigenetics I just started I'm about to go ahead and delve into a deeper examination of Zimbardo's research, and after that I'm reading Waller's "Becoming Evil", which comes highly recommended.
Is that layman-friendly? Because I'm downloading it if it is.
Yes, I'd say that it is, from what I've thumbed through so far. Zimbardo's book is called "The Lucifer Effect" and it's an in-depth exploration of his Stanford Prison Experiment, related to other case studies.
That sounds great. The downside of a Nook is that I have now read every book I've been trying to find for decades (at $0.99/per, still racking up a bill), and this sounds like it's worth reading.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 09:38:19 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 09:34:30 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 08:58:11 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 05:22:21 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 15, 2014, 04:47:25 PM
Quote from: All-Father Nigel on May 15, 2014, 04:37:46 PM
You know, I think the OP is something that is worth saying, and if necessary, worth saying over and over and over again. Because I think that it's RIGHT, especially that second-to-last paragraph.
Many evil people don't know they're evil because they lie to themselves. But MOST evil people don't know they're evil because they've forgotten that there are any alternatives.
This is an interesting topic, because having taken an enjoyable detour from my grim reading list and reading a couple of amusing books about biology, after I finish up the one about epigenetics I just started I'm about to go ahead and delve into a deeper examination of Zimbardo's research, and after that I'm reading Waller's "Becoming Evil", which comes highly recommended.
Is that layman-friendly? Because I'm downloading it if it is.
Yes, I'd say that it is, from what I've thumbed through so far. Zimbardo's book is called "The Lucifer Effect" and it's an in-depth exploration of his Stanford Prison Experiment, related to other case studies.
That sounds great. The downside of a Nook is that I have now read every book I've been trying to find for decades (at $0.99/per, still racking up a bill), and this sounds like it's worth reading.
Oh, absolutely! I just ordered Stanley Milgram's book as well, it's called "Obedience to Authority" and it's a particularly important piece of the puzzle. When I get through a few more of my pile of books I plan to order this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Individual-Social-World-Experiments/dp/1905177127/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1F3ANYNEGFFP49NY4CZ8
You could also try "Eichmann in Jerusalem" by Hannah Arendt (1963).
I feel a need to read those, as well.
One of the reasons I am not a fan of modern TV shows is that writers are now using that slow-creeping evil that desperately tries to justify itself. I just can't stand it. I have no sympathy for such villainy and it does not fascinate me in the least. I want stories where, as is said above, evil gets kicked in the junk, and we're done with it.
Yeah, I know real-life evil isn't like that at all. But I like my escapism. I like to root against Cobra Commander and those poor schmucks who try to outsmart Joe Friday. I know they will fail but will entertain me anyway. That's all I want, man. To be entertain while I cower in my cave.