UH'S PROFILE

post=123540
Lasik is something I've also been looking into.

I'm getting Lasik as soon as I can. Probably after I graduate.

Those are three excellent choices

seriously I think you're going to love The Chocolate War if you haven't read it already. The other books in the series are kind of out there though.

You have a very illustrative (for lack of a better word) style. Have you ever considered doing book illustrations?

Mog
Aha, so you are saying that no one person is concretely, unequivocally evil (assuming that such a thing objectively exists)?

Sort of, well yes, well sort of. It's hard to describe. "Evil" the way I hear it described is less like human behavior and more like the shark in Jaws. Mindless destruction of everything you know and love no matter what. Closer to psychosis than anything. "Evil" just has a lot of extra baggage tied to it that makes it a very unrealistic description of anything imo, and people who are influenced by the possible presence/threat of "evil" are just being manipulated the same way a child is when they're told that the boogeyman goes out prowling for kids who don't eat their brussels sprouts.

I do agree with you that even if "good" and "evil" were opposite ends of a real spectrum that just about everyone would be closer to the middle, though. I've done things others might consider terrible and don't regret them at all. I've also done really benevolent things. We all have :p

and the latter paints him as most people see him today, the epitome of evil in one person in modern history.

I think it's pretty safe to say that Hitler is a great example of what not to be and labeling him as evil is an effective way to convey that. I mean let's face it, he was a fucking punk. But the real engine of his terrible murder machine was his and his advisors' masterful manipulation of certain aspects of human behavior in a desperate environment with a very controlled flow of information that the world at large didn't even really understand until after it took the bulk of the world's efforts to dismantle it, not an inborn desire to destroy peace and prosperity.

That's getting off topic though

Couldn't you consider all of that the definition of evil, though?

I'm glad you brought this up, because without a concrete definition of evil we're really left to create one of our own.

edit: with that in mind, everything below is highly personalized and might not make sense to anyone else. That's cool; I'm sure we won't end up on opposite ends of a Crusade over it ;p

The way people talk, philosophize, and write about "good" and "evil" makes it sound like "evil" is a term used to describe people who always and consciously make "wrong" or "bad" choices over "good" or "right" ones with the aim of destroying all the happiness in the world. I don't believe this makes sense. Another popular perspective on evil is as applied to people or deeds that are destructive or cause strife to those who use the term. As a strong believer that winners can't exist without losers, this also doesn't ring true for me (although it does make more sense in that good and evil can potentially be applied to either side of a conflict, showing the flaws in such overly black-and-white viewpoints since the crux of "good vs. evil" is that one is inherently better than the other)

People who commit horrendous acts, if any attempt is made to understand them at all, should be understood for their own motives rather than lumping them into one all-inclusive "bad guy" definition that limits our understanding and opens the door for ignorance, which is often the first step to doing horrible things.

edit: I'm not trying to spout relativist "live and let live" bullcrap, I do believe in a diametrically opposed "us" and "them" and that "they" should be vanquished for the good of "us".