https://essaysonattentionpaid.com/categories/evil/ en Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:07:50 -0400 https://essaysonattentionpaid.com/2025/06/22/070750.html Sun, 22 Jun 2025 08:07:50 -0400 http://mbkriegh2.micro.blog/2025/06/22/070750.html <blockquote> <p>The principle of evil consists in messing into other people’s affairs.</p> </blockquote> <p>&ndash; Ezra Pound via The Gift, Lewis Hyde</p> <blockquote> <p>Civility requires working on yourself, not just leaving things as they are, but making them over. It involves a struggle to reshape ourselves.</p> </blockquote> <p>&ndash; A Secular Age, Charles Taylor</p> <hr> <h2 id="i-think">i think&hellip;</h2> <p>has evil ever been defined so succinctly…</p> <p>as Ezra Pound did</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>evil is not&hellip;</p> <p>a foundational condition of the universe&hellip;</p> <p>but a capacity of intelligence</p> <h2 id="i-wonder">i wonder&hellip;</h2> <p>is evil&hellip;</p> <p>a bug…</p> <p>or a feature</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>can messing into others affairs…</p> <p>ever be justified</p> <p>to stop…</p> <p>destruction of others…</p> <p>or self</p> <p>to stop…</p> <p>selfish exploitation</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>who decides…</p> <p>what is acceptable messing into</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>if there is no level at which a being can choose&hellip;</p> <p>do evil and good exist</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>what is the role…</p> <p>of religion&hellip;</p> <p>of government&hellip;</p> <p>in circumscribing evil</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>what is the inflection point&hellip;</p> <p>between…</p> <p>greater good and tyranny&hellip;</p> <p>between…</p> <p>benevolent authority and despotism</p> <h2 id="i-believe">i believe&hellip;</h2> <p>that…</p> <p>civility intercepts evil</p> <p>but&hellip;</p> <p>we have to agree to civility</p> <p>and&hellip;</p> <p>when we have&hellip;</p> <p>maintenance is required</p> <p>that…</p> <p>desire for power…</p> <p>invites evil to walk abroad</p> <p>that…</p> <p>ignorance…</p> <p>is a vacuum…</p> <p>into which evil easily expands</p> <p>that…</p> <p>accumulate power&hellip;</p> <p>creates a differential space&hellip;</p> <p>into which evil easily slips</p> <p>that…</p> <p>accumulate power…</p> <p>of individuals…</p> <p>of corporations…</p> <p>of institutions&hellip;</p> <p>compromises civility of society</p> <p>that…</p> <p>accumulate power…</p> <p>of an ignorant majority&hellip;</p> <p>is no less prone&hellip;</p> <p>to breaching the civility membrane</p> <h2 id="i-think-1">i think…</h2> <p>that…</p> <p>much of what the people argue about&hellip;</p> <p>is the messing into their affairs…</p> <p>by government…</p> <p>by institutions…</p> <p>by corporations…</p> <p>by powerful individuals</p> <h2 id="i-see">i see…</h2> <p>technologies…</p> <p>that…</p> <p>facilitate messing into people&rsquo;s lives…</p> <p>on an unprecedented scale</p> <p>that…</p> <p>victimize…</p> <p>through technological bait and switch&hellip;</p> <p>offering tenuous, addictive, chimeras of community&hellip;</p> <p>in exchange for the datapoints of our existence</p> <p>that…</p> <p>we have given a great power differential…</p> <p>to the collectors…</p> <p>managers…</p> <p>and exploiters of our data</p> <h2 id="it-is-time">it is time…</h2> <p>to stop…</p> <p>the techno-fascist juggernaut&hellip;</p> <p>by choosing friendship and hugs…</p> <p>over click warfare</p> <p>to return…</p> <p>to the civility&hellip;</p> <p>of face-to-face, respectful, discourse&hellip;</p> <p>of knowing our neighbors&hellip;</p> <p>of coffee with friends&hellip;</p> <p>of potluck suppers&hellip;</p>