NationStates Jolt Archive

Can, and have humans ever achieved Ultimate Evil? Have they done acts so horrible, so heinous, it's no doubt that their soul is as black as a black hole? Also, how would you describe Ultimate Evil? Is it someone without a conscience, someone who'd kick puppies and then laugh about it?

For me, I think very few humans have ever achieved Ultimate Evil, Hitler would be one of them, Pol Pot another. However, to achieve it, you pretty much have to get rid of having a conscience, and basically see no wrong with what you're doing. Basically your moral compass shouldn't have that little arrow.

Let the discussion begin!

I don't know if it's right, but I can't help but see good in everyone. There might not be much in some people, but I can't bring myself to completely condemn them.

I don't know if it's right, but I can't help but see good in everyone. There might not be much in some people, but I can't bring myself to completely condemn them.

So...what "good" do you see in Hitler?

I don't know nearly enough about him to find any. From my perspective at least, he is fitting of your "ultimate evil". For clarification, I'd much rather not see good in everyone. It's just that I can't.

He built some of the best roads in Europe, and it was his policies that turned the German economy around?

So...what "good" do you see in Hitler?

His mustache reminds me of Charlie Chaplin.

That's about the nicest thing I can say about Hitler.

For me, Pol Pot is on a level all on his own. I mean, at least Hitler did good things, or intended to do good things, for his own people. Pol Pot just killed everything.

For me, Pol Pot is on a level all on his own. I mean, at least Hitler did good things, or intended to do good things, for his own people. Pol Pot just killed everything.

Being a mass murderer is bad enough, but to be entirely useless on top of it is just awful. Pol Pot sucks.

If by "evil" you mean cruelty, then I'd say that people can be very cruel. However, there is no "ultimate" cruelty that surpasses regular cruelty. There's only one species of it, whether you do it to some people on rare occasions or to a lot of people all the time. No one has a black soul because no one has a soul.

So...what "good" do you see in Hitler?

Hitler was a vegetarian, and he never cheated on his wife.

Advocates of vegetarianism and fidelity, take note.

Can, and have humans ever achieved Ultimate Evil? Have they done acts so horrible, so heinous, it's no doubt that their soul is as black as a black hole? Also, how would you describe Ultimate Evil? Is it someone without a conscience, someone who'd kick puppies and then laugh about it?

For me, I think very few humans have ever achieved Ultimate Evil, Hitler would be one of them, Pol Pot another. However, to achieve it, you pretty much have to get rid of having a conscience, and basically see no wrong with what you're doing. Basically your moral compass shouldn't have that little arrow.

Let the discussion begin!

I don't know about that, I know there are people walking around all over the place who would do the same thing as Hitler or Pol Pot if they had the power. "ultimate evil" I guess would be the will to kill a lot of people and the power to do it? It's really the lack of power to do it that stops some people from destroying everything.

So...what "good" do you see in Hitler?Snappy dresser? Punctuality? Attention to detail?

Seriously though, there's people whose good is so scarce that it's basically lower than the margin of error for a typical poll, and worth as much. I can think of a couple people that way right now.

Ultimate Evil? Don't you have to be Super Saiyan before you get there?

the ultimate (and only real) evil, is to knowingly and willingly cause avoidable suffering and harm.

the most harmful force (though by no means only, thoughtlessness is another, and also demonstrates the lack of a conscience) in all of existence, is the aggressiveness of gratuitous pseudo-conventionality.

in cameroi we hold THESE truths to be self evident: that no hierarchy, regardless of ideology, economics, or belief, is inherently moral. only the avoidance of causing suffering and harm is.

social organization is useful ONLY: when it is used to create and maintain, in harmony with nature's cycles of renewal, useful, tangible, infrastructure, that is directly useful, or its direct services are, to everyone; and/or: to protect everyone from freezing, starving, or beating each other over the head.

Can, and have humans ever achieved Ultimate Evil? Have they done acts so horrible, so heinous, it's no doubt that their soul is as black as a black hole? Also, how would you describe Ultimate Evil? Is it someone without a conscience, someone who'd kick puppies and then laugh about it?

For me, I think very few humans have ever achieved Ultimate Evil, Hitler would be one of them, Pol Pot another. However, to achieve it, you pretty much have to get rid of having a conscience, and basically see no wrong with what you're doing. Basically your moral compass shouldn't have that little arrow.

Let the discussion begin!

Evil is merely a concept in the eye of the beholder, does not actually exist as a measurable quantity of anything, and therefore is only useful for philosophical debate, and even there I question its value given how each individual could define evil differently.

Further, I reject the idea of "ultimate evil" and the idea that somehow if someone is "evil" one can never transition to/back to "good" as it seems most people view this.

Finally, I must say that rather than trying to define people as "good" or "evil" we should be more concerned about simply changing behaviors and viewpoints so that people become more tolerant and cooperative rather than xenophobic and competitive. (Competitive and cooperative in this case referring more to the sense of war versus peace than, say, a contest to decide who is better at basketball or some such.)

Ultimate Evil? Don't you have to be Super Saiyan before you get there?

It's over nine thousand!

My Dutch class teacher of my previous high school.

I'm pretty sure she was pure evil incarnate.