Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2003 5:08 am
I think evil has much less to do with actions than it does with emotional states. To me, evil is the state of taking pleasure in the suffering of others. Not just hurting and killing; a two year old who hits his chum is not evil, though he has left the other child in tears. It's liking it. Hitting him again because you like the way he cries. In a word, Cruelty.
Or take it one step farther to include wanton disregard of others suffering. The more you like it, the more evil you are. Take, for example Saddam Hussein.
*Hey! Who threw that?*
We can't know if he personally enjoys the suffering he inflicts on his people. But let's say he does not. He just doesn't care. He signs the order to gas thousands of Kurds and loses nary a wink over it. He is still evil, because it is his will that those people be killed, and their blood is on his hands. But the soldiers who carry out the order are not necessarily evil. How can they be, if they are forced into sevice with threats to their families and their lives? They have done great wrong, but no evil. They take no joy in it.
Foul, on the other hand, is quintessentially evil. He has had eons to practice his arts. He has invented thousands of tiny little ways to torture anything he touches. He loves it. His greatest joy is making good people destroy everything they love with their own hands, because he knows there is no other way in which to inflict the purest, most exquisite pain. And he does things like warping the ur-viles for fun.
At least, that's the best definition I've been able to come up with.
Or take it one step farther to include wanton disregard of others suffering. The more you like it, the more evil you are. Take, for example Saddam Hussein.
*Hey! Who threw that?*
We can't know if he personally enjoys the suffering he inflicts on his people. But let's say he does not. He just doesn't care. He signs the order to gas thousands of Kurds and loses nary a wink over it. He is still evil, because it is his will that those people be killed, and their blood is on his hands. But the soldiers who carry out the order are not necessarily evil. How can they be, if they are forced into sevice with threats to their families and their lives? They have done great wrong, but no evil. They take no joy in it.
Foul, on the other hand, is quintessentially evil. He has had eons to practice his arts. He has invented thousands of tiny little ways to torture anything he touches. He loves it. His greatest joy is making good people destroy everything they love with their own hands, because he knows there is no other way in which to inflict the purest, most exquisite pain. And he does things like warping the ur-viles for fun.
At least, that's the best definition I've been able to come up with.