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The sad part is that there are plenty of good people. The problem comes down to the system itself. The system selects for crookedness and propagates it. Evil a

The sad part is that there are plenty of good people. The problem comes down to the system itself. The system selects for crookedness and propagates it. Evil always has the upper hand in controlling the system because evil people have access to a far broader range of tools and techniques to achieve their goals since they don't need to concern themselves with moral or even legal hurdles. Evil can pull the trigger with ease whereas good hesitates; that's why evil has the upper hand.

josephg 3y ago
Life isn’t like children’s cartoons, where there’s “goodies” and “baddies” and we need to figure out who is who, then lock all the baddies up in jail forever. To quote Solzhenitsyn, “The line separating good and evil passes through every human heart”. Your philosophy is shared by all the people who committed the most evil acts of the last century. All of them have tried to stamp out the “evil people” in their societies. They only disagree about who the evil people are.
- jongjong 3y ago
  I disagree. There is a spectrum and some people are much more evil (in the sense; more harmful to society) than others and the concentration of evil is higher near the centers of power. I suspect that many of the attempts at social cleansing are natural (though not necessarily just) reactions to other less visible evils carried out over longer periods of time by those in power. Clearly the Bolsheviks in Russia were not happy people... There was a process that had been occurring for centuries prior which made them unhappy enough to carry out a revolution. It is known that Russia's feudal system had been particularly harsh on peasants for centuries. The French royals were so detached from the misery which they caused that it seems somewhat unsurprising that they couldn't even keep their heads physically attached to their bodies in the end. Their metaphorical heads were already quite detached from reality before the guillotine made the separation literal.
  - josephg 3y ago
    > some people are much more evil (in the sense; more harmful to society) than others and the concentration of evil is higher near the centers of power. I’d similarly argue that some people are much more good (in the sense that their work actively makes society better). Their concentration is also higher near the centers of power. An awful lot of people go into government out of a genuine love of their country.
    - southerntofu 3y ago
      I understand your point, but strong disagree from experience. What do you think happens to people who want to do good by approaching positions of power? In my experience, friends who became teachers or cops, they either became evil/abusive themselves, or they were pushed into depression by social exclusion and either left or killed themselves. These are some of the jobs with the highest suicide levels, precisely because some people came to do good while realizing the systems in place made it entirely impossible.
      - DanBC 3y ago
        > These are some of the jobs with the highest suicide levels What data are you using please?
        southerntofu 3y ago
        Thanks for asking, made me check. It seems teachers suicide data is not as drastic as hearsay has it, although from anecdata i believe depression is very widespread: https://blog.francetvinfo.fr/l-instit-humeurs/2019/11/09/chaque-semaine-en-france-un-prof-se-suicide.html https://blog.francetvinfo.fr/l-instit-humeurs/2019/11/09/cha... As for the cops, there are a few statistical/sociological studies. I may have exaggerated claiming they are the jobs with the highest suicide levels, but they do have higher suicide level than the general population. https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/les-policiers-se-suicident-ils-plus-que-le-reste-de-la-population-20210609_BO232RNMJJAEXCTM7WCIXC45VQ/ https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/les-policiers-se-suicide... Anecdotally, what the article doesn't mention is that, at least here in France, it's not uncommon for cops committing suicide to actually kill their wife and children before killing themselves... which i believe is a rather unique feat of their profession, but as there are no official stats on the topic you should take this claim with a grain of salt.

josephg 3y ago

Life isn’t like children’s cartoons, where there’s “goodies” and “baddies” and we need to figure out who is who, then lock all the baddies up in jail forever. To quote Solzhenitsyn, “The line separating good and evil passes through every human heart”. Your philosophy is shared by all the people who committed the most evil acts of the last century. All of them have tried to stamp out the “evil people” in their societies. They only disagree about who the evil people are.

jongjong 3y ago
I disagree. There is a spectrum and some people are much more evil (in the sense; more harmful to society) than others and the concentration of evil is higher near the centers of power. I suspect that many of the attempts at social cleansing are natural (though not necessarily just) reactions to other less visible evils carried out over longer periods of time by those in power. Clearly the Bolsheviks in Russia were not happy people... There was a process that had been occurring for centuries prior which made them unhappy enough to carry out a revolution. It is known that Russia's feudal system had been particularly harsh on peasants for centuries. The French royals were so detached from the misery which they caused that it seems somewhat unsurprising that they couldn't even keep their heads physically attached to their bodies in the end. Their metaphorical heads were already quite detached from reality before the guillotine made the separation literal.
- josephg 3y ago
  > some people are much more evil (in the sense; more harmful to society) than others and the concentration of evil is higher near the centers of power. I’d similarly argue that some people are much more good (in the sense that their work actively makes society better). Their concentration is also higher near the centers of power. An awful lot of people go into government out of a genuine love of their country.
  - southerntofu 3y ago
    I understand your point, but strong disagree from experience. What do you think happens to people who want to do good by approaching positions of power? In my experience, friends who became teachers or cops, they either became evil/abusive themselves, or they were pushed into depression by social exclusion and either left or killed themselves. These are some of the jobs with the highest suicide levels, precisely because some people came to do good while realizing the systems in place made it entirely impossible.
    - DanBC 3y ago
      > These are some of the jobs with the highest suicide levels What data are you using please?
      - southerntofu 3y ago
        Thanks for asking, made me check. It seems teachers suicide data is not as drastic as hearsay has it, although from anecdata i believe depression is very widespread: https://blog.francetvinfo.fr/l-instit-humeurs/2019/11/09/chaque-semaine-en-france-un-prof-se-suicide.html https://blog.francetvinfo.fr/l-instit-humeurs/2019/11/09/cha... As for the cops, there are a few statistical/sociological studies. I may have exaggerated claiming they are the jobs with the highest suicide levels, but they do have higher suicide level than the general population. https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/les-policiers-se-suicident-ils-plus-que-le-reste-de-la-population-20210609_BO232RNMJJAEXCTM7WCIXC45VQ/ https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/les-policiers-se-suicide... Anecdotally, what the article doesn't mention is that, at least here in France, it's not uncommon for cops committing suicide to actually kill their wife and children before killing themselves... which i believe is a rather unique feat of their profession, but as there are no official stats on the topic you should take this claim with a grain of salt.