Well anyway, in light of recent global events I've had a lot to think about, but one thing that has really bothered me is the concept of evil. It seemed to me quite ironic that the topic came up in my lessons and so I feel compelled to write down my musings on the subject.
You see, with in this class discussion the idea of evil being divided into two major types emerged one being natural forms of evil and suffering and the other being moral evil. Natural evil obviously relates to the destruction, suffering and chaos that happens due to the way the world is structured and works. While moral evil pertains to the harm and suffering caused by mankind.
Now within the latter there are many sub categories such as accidental evil, political evil, religious evil and -quite interestingly- necessary evil. I found this last one very intriguing as the concept of needing evil seemed -on first thought- absurd. However on reflection I began to see examples of this so called 'neccessary evil' everywhere. Now had I not been thinking about it I probably would not have counted these acts as evil, but I could not escape the fact that when you remove certain aspects apparently 'moral deeds' are much more sinister.
Which raised the question: Is evil necessary in some cases? If so for what?
Lets take the latter to begin with as in order to answer the former we must evaluate the evidence.
In what circumstances could evil or immoral acts be contrived as necessary or just? Well taking a look at current affairs can give us some answers, for example the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Though this is clearly a form of natural evil I feel there is some scope for necessity in that category. I mean you only need to look at the figures for the dead, wounded, homeless or missing to realise that this 'evil act' had a tremendous effect on the country. But when we look at these figures we must ask ourselves why are they so high? Is there nothing the governments, the people, the world powers could have done before and during to minimise the damage?
I wish to stress that I am not pointing fingers at anyone, I have the greatest sympathy for all affected and I understand that there was little more that anyone could do with the resources available. However it has been suggested that evil is necessary in order for humans to develop and progress so I wonder are evils of this nature needed so that as a race we can develop better warning systems, response systems and defence systems?
If as a result of this horrible disaster we develop better technologies and methods that will prevent anything like this from happening again well then the original evil would have been the cause and therefore desperately needed.
However in contrast should this evil be needed? I mean should over half a million people have to suffer greatly in order for leading scientists and world powers to get their act together and focus on prevention rather than cure? This would suggest that the need for evil isn't really necessary or at least not in a perfect world.
As we don't live in a perfect world it is hard to say that without this type of evil things would change, but I'm sure we would all agree the far more preferable option would be to not use a massive natural disaster as a wake up call to people. But instead have people moving forward from their own merit.
I've said a lot here and would really like to stress that I don't mean to say that the destruction and death can be blamed on anyone as natural disasters happen and cannot be stopped. I would like to also say that I really do sympathise greatly with the victims.
This seems to be a very long blog and will be continued, for now just think about the above. See you next time.
Jenni
Great post. Really makes you think.
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