No One is (really) Evil
NSQ episode about evil led me to thinking about this.
Takeaways from the episode
- Evil is attributed only to humans.
- If an animal attacks and kills human(s) we do not label the animal as Evil.
- Intentionality matters.
- Accidental killing/death does not mean Evil
- People do bad things because their brain is not “well”
- Amigdala is the part of the brain that is responsible for fear and morality.
- Should bad people be locked away longer (cause they may be threat to the society)
- Phil zimbardo prison experiment
- Bad barrel (Vs Bad Apple)
- People become evil due to surrounding 1
- Stanley Milgram Experiment
- People are OK doing bad things if
- They are in position of power and
- Are told by their superiors to “punish” others
- 2 out of 3 volunteers shocked the (the actors playing) students upon giving wrong answers, because they were “instructed” to do so 2
- People are OK doing bad things if
My thoughts
- Only movies/TV has pure evil person
- In good movie/TV, they have some explanation about why the person become “evil”
- When people do bad things to you, do not hate them
- Consider some of the points above.
- What made them behave the way they did
- (Most of the times) it is not personal [^3]
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One can choose to become Oskar Schindler in Nazy Germany. Do the right thing even if the surroundings are wrong. (But takes courage) ↩︎
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No one was actually harmed, but people giving electrocal shocks didn’t know. Actors shouted, mentioned heart attack, begged to stop, but “shocks” continued. [^3] That does not make it better, but helps avoid hatred ↩︎