Making Sense of Evil (Virginia Tech Massacre)

But clearly there are faces of mental illness that we have no "cure" or "treatment" for. Sociopaths are often incarcerated forever and ever because they simply can't tell the difference between right and wrong, and no amount of drugs will be able to treat this condition. They do have a point, though. Take selfishness for example. I have been trying for years and I still can't figure out how to convince one to stop being so selfish. In fact, the basis of our entire society is built upon the fact that people ought to be allowed to be selfish. Certainly, it demonstrates that there are certain inherent borderline evil tendencies that we as a society and individuals have accepted as an unchangable part of life. And selfishness is only a step away from what caused the holocaust to happen in the first place.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

I would argue that the two you described are inherently the same.Here, let me make it more obvious. I'm not gay, I just do gay stuff. I'm not straight, I just do straight stuff. I'm not American, I'm just a natural born American citizen and have been living in America all my life. I'm not black, my skin is just black and my parents are both Africans that's all. I'm not evil, I just do evil stuff. I'm not a fish, I just live in water and have gills to breathe in water that's all. I'm not a bird, I just have a beak, feathers, couple of wings, and couple of legs that's all. Our society have decided that people ought to have the right to being selfish. However, selfishness is only a step away from pure evil.

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

I'm sorry, but this is a rediculous statement. The nazis thought they were doing right in the great scheme of things by getting rid of all those they thought were inferior. I would argue that the nazis did evil things as well as being evil themselves. I honestly don't think any of the great evils of the 20th century ever considered themselves evil. Mao certainly didn't think of himself as evil and he ended up starving a tens of millions of his own people. I would argue that while he did not have evil intentions according to his own conscience, he was inherently evil for by simply not empathising with his people when they were starving.According to the way you define evil people (people who sit around consciously making plans and doing things they know to be evil), it is impossible to pin down anyone who's actually evil.

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!