This is kind of the crux of morality: when I want something I can go and get it but what when I come into competition with other desires? The problem of evil arises when we have the power to force our will on others.
There are many positive sides to humans for example Mercy where we allow our will to subside in favour of another's interests. We have this amazing ability to take another's place, not just theoretically, but genuinely let our own view point go and absorb into another's point of view. I think of an angry king over reacting to some insult, and then seeing the fear in the perpetrators eyes suddenly realising that the crime was only small and feeling their fear instead.
But we are easily blinded to other people. We see it all the time in the news. I think of the pilot of the Elona Gay who I bet would not even raise a fist to his children, but ever-the-less says he would do it again and incinerate 80,000 men, women and children apparently with no mercy at all. This is an extreme form of blindness, not of the eyes but of the heart and mind. This is pure evil, there is nothing more serious.
Traditionally the "self" sits in the middle of this battle between the wishes of others and the wishes of oneself. We would hope in a caring community that our own wishes would be considered by others so we don't feel defensive. But we live in a selfish world and many people do not grow up feeling that their wishes are taken seriously others. This leads to defence, and in extremes vindictive rejection of the wishes of others. A wall can form and people can become cut off from the outside world. They become negative and cruel.
But at the same time people with excessive desires may "feel" that their wishes are not taken seriously because they just have to many wishes. They say a poor man can live in a rich man's house but not vice-versa. People with many desires, the greedy, will find that other people simply cannot keep up with their demand. They will be perceived as demanding by others, and in turn they will feel that people don't care for them.
Jesus would be the archetypal opposite. Total self sacrifice may make you poor, but you will find the world very accommodating to you and you will live a peaceful life. Well perhaps not - Jesus was also demanding of the officials and the Roman Empire turned against him... but we imagine in the end he was peaceful and is certainly very loved for his sacrifice.
Obviously from this account the difference of whether you feel people take your wishes seriously or not is a lot to do with your expectations and how demanding you are. Demanding people may think they are getting a lot, but the reaction they experience for getting a lot is actually stress. Giving people may think they are losing, but the reaction they get is acceptance and peace.
In this way it is easy to see why the path of generosity, selflessness and giving is favoured by those who wish to live in community and peace. While those who wish to fight and have tense relations with people chose the path of taking.
But I wanted to examine some else. Nietzsche, the Libertarians and the extreme Libertines would argue to hell with that analysis. Our True Nature is to seek power and do whatever we want even to the expense of other people. If we are powerful then abusing that power is what we can hope to do. It seems bad people in the press mostly seek to abuse power. Someone has a car they want, lets just take it. Even if that means directly confronting them and even killing them, who cares lets just take it. This is like the crew of the Elona Gay : whatever the rational justification might be in a crime (e.g. they are rich they can afford it, they are worthless no one cares if they die, they are the enemy they need to die, by dying they will stop the war and save lives, I am under orders etc) this covers up the deeper issue that there is no mercy. Soldiers are actually trained not to have mercy, but this is what makes people into criminals. There is no justification for lack of mercy. The US talks such a load of nonsense. For example their argument for Hiroshima's destruction was that it would save lives by ending the war soon. If this is to be believed then had the Nazis gained the bomb first and bombed the US until it surrendered that would have saved lives too. Yet I don't think the US means this at all. What they meant by Hiroshima is that we have a chance to win the war quickly: in other words with the bomb they developed the power to gain their wishes at the expense of many hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. This is pure evil, the same that fills the news pages, and it is the issue of this post.
So here's the deal: when we find we have power what is to stop us from using this to get what we want, and to deprive others of what they want? This is the Devil's Question to us that Nietzsche and the Libertines like De Sade asked.
Well normally the question is not raised as what we want is roughly in line with what other people want. We would not steal from our friend because we value their friendship. But what if we start to dislike someone do we steal from them then?
Now I'm going to short circuit this with the truth as I do not have time to explore the ramifications of that question right now. The problem as with many posts here is to do with the self.
Someone once told me that the Ego was bad. I asked why. Their answer has proved to be excellent. The Ego is not the whole self, it is the part of us on parade: the self-determined, strong , independent, self-identifying, the bit that stands up and we show off to the world. Or if the World is not interested its the bit that stands in front of a revolutionary army against the world. However its not our whole self, and it quite often works in its own interests which often damage the whole self.
Beautiful examples are when we are angry. You have insulted me, I will take revenge. But often in our rage we make a fool of ourselves and end up being hurt even more. Violent offenders fit this category. It must have seemed such a good idea to "lose it" and go on the rampage. Not so smart on reflection when they wake up in prison or dead. Tho often people are so wrapped up in their ego that they refuse to accept they were wrong, digging themselves deeper and deeper into the falsehood.
So where Nietzsche and the Libertines are wrong is that the self which seeks to gain at the expense of others, is just a small part of our true self. That thought "lets just do what we want" is actually a mirage: there is no real gain here it is just an empty reflection on sand. The True Self is vast and unfathomable with tentacles that stretch out far into the world. When we act from the Ego those distant tentacles get cut and we end up isolating ourselves. Prison is not a conspiracy, it is a metaphor of what happens when our Ego takes over: isolation. A priest once explained to me that Hell is best explained as complete isolation.
The beauty of mercy and compassion is that they are antidotes to the ego, breaking through the mirage and giving us real water. With these "good" sensibilities we are reaching out into the world, into other people and breaking down the walls of our isolation.
Unfortunately this simple truth is rather fossilised in ancient teaching of the battle between Good and Evil which have rather lost their meaning in the modern secular world.
A search for happiness in poverty. Happiness with personal loss, and a challenge to the wisdom of economic growth and environmental exploitation.
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