Posted by Adam on October 2, 2001, at 17:44:59
In reply to Evil?, posted by Adam on September 27, 2001, at 14:39:13
I have read all your posts with great interest, and thank you all for the intelligent and enlightening discussion. I guess Mitchell gets the overachiever award for his illuminating didactic. I will follow the links hungrily.
Reading the above has confirmed two hopes/assumptions: "Evil" is a tough concept to pin down, and at least some people appreciate this.
I am interested in the use of "evil" in the current rhetoric; Tony Blair, who I consider to be a bit more cerebral than his American counterpart, has also inserted the word into at least one speech recently,without a hint of irony. Interesting move for "new Labor". Old alliances may be thicker than ideological blood; or perhaps I'm to cynical, and Blair really thinks there is such a thing as "evil" too.
I really wish I could get into a Bush's or a Blair's head to see how much of this evil buisness resonates on a personal rather than a rhetorical level. As for Bush the senior, I've never had much of a sense of his theology or what-have-you. I've been a bit interested in his old ties to the purportedly cabalistic "Skull and Bones". That association may be as important, if not more so, than the uberblue-blood lineage.
I'm particularly interested in a statement that galtin made: If evil is really a personal rather than universal concept, are we really in trouble? Must there be a universal standard? Could such a thing exist, even in a godless universe?
poster:Adam
thread:11828
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010927/msgs/12017.html