From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Thu May 08 2003 - 00:14:46 MDT
Harvey Newstrom writes:
> I don't know why humans have a tendency to reduce everything
> down to absurd extremes, but we all do it. Rationally, we must
> see the world as it really is, and realize that there are combinations
> and subtleties.
It was thinking about this in relation to some recent posts where the
word "evil" was being used.
Maybe us "homo saps" with our language and reasoning would have
sometimes gotten ourselves into a sort of evolutionary "paralysis by
analysis" if we'd always stopped to consider is this person or creature
threatening me actually genuinely "evil"?
Genuine "evil" seems, from the comfort of safety to be pretty rare, hard
to explain intellectually and perhaps even absurd. We are all, after all
"animals" (in part) locked into contingencies that involve resource
competition at times. Adopting the "beyond good and evil" perspectives
might provide useful insights for solving problems sometimes but more
often for most of us such a detached view could merely added more to
the chances of ending up as food. "Evil" is simple and easy and clearly
to be avoided. Seeing predators (human or otherwise) as "evil" may
historically haved save us enough time to stop us from becoming prey.
Brett
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