tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16416222972146058482024-02-06T23:32:29.675-08:00Now Don't Get Me StartedRandom thoughts on the Apocalypse.JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-47705460702009202862022-12-11T11:15:00.003-08:002022-12-11T11:15:49.826-08:00<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>The Charleston</b></span></p><p>By Jimmie von Tungeln</p><p>The younger girl held the matchbox steady as the older bored through one side and out the other an inch or so from the front. Using a rusted ice pick, she carefully pierced the cardboard without caving in the side. Her eyes narrowed from the concentration and her tongue curled against her upper lip. Together, they repeated the process at the rear and the girl held it up for inspection. “Now for the axles,” she said.</p><p>The younger picked up two slender twigs whittled to a near cylindrical shape and handed them to her sister. She stuck the twigs from side to side through the box. “Wheels,” she said. The other reached into her dress pocket and handed her four large buttons retrieved from a discarded coat. Taking them, she held them to the sky for inspection. There were four holes in each button, pre-cut for accepting thread. In the center, the girls had bored a single, larger hole. Through this hole, she pushed one of the buttons, then the rest, onto the sticks protruding from the sides of the box.</p><p>“Won’t be long, now,” the girl said. As she positioned each wheel, she stuck straight pins adjacent to the sides of the buttons to hold them in place. Finished, she held the completed apparatus up for inspection and then rolled it along the ground. The younger girl watched in admiration.</p><p>“Works good Essie,” she said. “Works real good.”</p><p>“We got us a wagon, Mabel,” the other said. She rolled the toy along the ground twice more and then held it up. “Now we’ll work on the tongue.”</p><p>“Let’s check on the team,” Mabel said.</p><p>“Let’s,” said Essie as she rose from her squatting position. She placed the toy wagon against a great oak tree rising from the front yard. She took the younger girl’s hand and they ran to a place under the porch of the house. There they had built a small lean-to a foot-square in the shade.</p><p>A woman in her mid-forties sat on the porch in an aged rocking chair watching the girls and moving in slow rhythm as she fanned herself with a fan that proudly announced its source as The Buie Funeral Home, Rison, Arkansas. The house was a modest structure of maybe 20 feet in width. Like many others of its type, it had three rooms, one behind the other with a back door leading to a well in the back yard for drawing water. Other than the rocking chair, the only embellishments visible on the front porch were a piece of broken mirror hanging from a string and a calendar by the door outlining the year 1924.</p><p>The woman stopped her rocking and fanning long enough to bend toward where the girls were crouched. “I’m a’tellin’ you girls them baby rats ain’t gonna live the day out so you moughts well bury them now.”</p><p>Neither girl replied. The had removed a piece of filthy blanket covering a small nest of hay and twigs that furnished the bed for four recently born rats. The tiny pink things were curled into tight balls and quivered as the air hit them.</p><p>“How long afore they’s big enough to pull the wagon?” asked Mabel.</p><p>“Couple of weeks, I reckon.”</p><p>“Hot damn.”</p><p>“I heard that,” the woman yelled from the porch. “Now y’all quit tormentin’ them babies or I’m gonna whup somebody’s ass.”</p><p>Essie giggled and covered the babies. “When we get the axles and tongue finished, we’ll start on the harnesses.”</p><p>“You still got them shoe laces?”</p><p>“All we’ll need.”</p><p>The girls withdrew from under the porch and stretched in the morning sun. Both were thin. Essie was six inches taller than the younger girl with jet-black hair that contrasted with the auburn hair of her sister. Both had bobbed coiffures, apparently fashioned at home. They each wore thin, simple dresses that draped over their bodies like clothes hanging from a line. Neither wore shoes.</p><p>“Mama, you said Uncle Frank used to make wagons out of match boxes and hook them up to rats. Why you fussin’ at us?” Essie said.</p><p>“Them rats was growed. He didn’t use no baby rats.”</p><p>“Ours gonna be growed in a couple of weeks if you give us some milk to feed them.”</p><p>The woman rocked back. “Now you girls shut up and come on around here. We got some washin’ to do.”</p><p>“Aw Mama. Can’t we play awhile?” Mabel said.</p><p>“You can play when I tell you to,” she said, but the girls didn’t hear. Their attention had centered on a distant sound, one unusual but familiar. They both walked to the edge of the cleared area that served as a front yard.</p><p>“Hear that?” Essie said nudging Mabel. “It’s car, and it’s headed this way.”</p><p>Mabel didn’t answer. She turned to look at her mother for confirmation. The woman had heard the sound as well. She raised a hand to her mouth and Mabel could see concern on her face. “Mama, somebody’s …,” she began but the woman motioned for her to be quiet.</p><p>“You girls come up here,” she said.</p><p>The girls obeyed and stood by their mother as the automobile came closer. They heard a rattling sound that seemed to echo from the large oaks that ringed the house. Had it not been for the fact that only one road led by their home, Mabel thought that it would have been hard to tell from which direction the sound came. It just came, that was all, growing louder until they could hear, among the sounds of the engine, the squeaking of the car’s body as it labored along the ruts and crevasse making up the dirt road.</p><p>“Reckon who it is, Mama?” Essie said.</p><p>“Hush now. You girls be quiet.”</p><p>Then there was a flash as sunlight bounced off glass and the girls could see snatches of a dark form moving through the woods like an animal on the prowl. The two moved closer to their mother.</p><p>The form then burst from the darkness of the woods and a complete automobile emerged. A faded black shape marked with large rings of rust and dents bounced into view and headed straight for the house.</p><p>Instinctively, the mother shooed her daughters behind her, ready to absorb the first shock if the shape didn’t stop before it reached them.</p><p>It swerved, though, just as it reached the edge of the front yard and came to a sudden stop parallel to the front porch. The front end dipped twice as if bowing in deference and then the entire apparatus was still.</p><p>Essie peered from behind her mother. “Look, Mama, it’s Carl and Fred.” She laughed at the thought of their being frightened. “It’s just Carl and Fred. They done got themselves a car.”</p><p>Those on the porch couldn’t see them well, but to the right of each of the men sat others who appeared to be female.</p><p>“How you, Mama?” Fred yelled.</p><p>The woman didn’t answer. She looked at the car and its occupants as if they had dropped into her yard from another world.</p><p>“We come by to see you,” the man said. “How you like my car?”</p><p>The woman looked the car over from end to end. “What you boys up to?” she said.</p><p>“I done told you, Mama,” Fred said. “We come by to see you.”</p><p>“Why ain’t you boys workin’?”</p><p>The man in the rear spoke to the other who replied and then turned to face his mother again. “We off today.”</p><p>“Who’s that in the car with you?” she said as if noticing them for the first time.</p><p>“They’s some friends Mama.” He turned to the passengers and said, “You girls git out and meet our mama.”</p><p>He turned to this mother again and opened the door of the car. “They comin’ around to meet you, Mama.”</p><p>With that, those in the car emerged one by one, straightening their clothes and slapping away the dust that had covered them. As the women came around the car, the girls stepped from behind their mother and stared.</p><p>“Would you look at that?” Mabel said.</p><p>“You girls hush,” their mother said.</p><p>The women did present a spectacle for two young girls in the backwoods. Both wore similar dresses that hung straight from their shoulders and ended midways between their hips and knees and were joined by a row of fringe that ended six inches above the knee. The girls watched entranced as the fringe jiggled as the women walked toward the front porch, each on the arms of one of the men.</p><p>Fred and his companion stopped halfway across the yard. Carl took an extra step as he and his bumped the other two from behind. Recovering, they all stood at attention as if on review before those on the porch.</p><p>“Mama,” Fred began.</p><p>“Where’d you git that car?” His mother interrupted him and glared.</p><p>“Hit’s mine,” Fred said. “I bought it last week. Now Mama,” he began. “Where’d you git the money?” she said.</p><p>“I hauled some hogs for old man Atkins,” he said. “Now Mama …”</p><p>“Hit must have been one big load of hogs.”</p><p>“Mama, this here is Adele,” Fred said, proud of his persistence. “And back ‘air is Bobbie June. They’s friends of ours.”</p><p>“Why ain’t y’all haulin’ some more hogs if’n it’s yore day off? Can’t you use some extra money? I know we could.”</p><p>“Now Mama,” Carl said from behind Fred. “That’s what we need to talk to you about.”</p><p>“Shut up, Carl,” Fred said. “Mama, can we come in and talk to you a minute?”</p><p>The woman deliberated, still ignoring the two other women. Finally, she turned to the door, “Come on in, then. You girls stay out here.” She didn’t specify which girls so the two younger ones remained on the porch staring at the two women. They heard a door slam in the back of the house and the Mabel knew they had gone all the way to the kitchen to talk. It must be serious.</p><p>“What’s your name, sweetie?” the one named Adele said to Essie.</p><p>“Esther Mae,” she replied.</p><p>“That’s a right pretty name,” Adele said. “And what’s yours?” she said, turning to Mabel.</p><p>Mabel didn’t speak. She just turned toward Essie who nodded. “Mabel,” she said, finally.</p><p>“Well I’ll swan. Ain’t you the cutest two girls in Cleveland County?”</p><p>Before they could respond, loud voices roared from behind the closed door. The girls could only make out a word or two but they could tell it had something to do with liquor. Before they could hear more, the woman named Bobbie June spoke in a loud voice.</p><p>“Hey girls, come down here and let us show you something.”</p><p>They looked at one another. Again, Essie nodded and the two descended from the porch, one behind the other.</p><p>When they reached the two women, the one named Adele placed her hand on Mabel’s shoulder. She started to speak but sounds of loud voices from the back of the house attracted their attention. Mabel only caught the phrase “comin’ in here drunk” in the mixed confusion.</p><p>Suddenly Adele spoke. “I bet you girls don’t know how to do the Charleston, do you?”</p><p>Essie and Mabel both looked at her. “The what?” Essie said.</p><p>“The Charleston,” Adele said. “It’s the latest dance. You do know how to dance don’t you?”</p><p>“No ma’am,” said Essie. “We ain’t allowed to.”</p><p>“Not allowed to?” said Bobbie June, moving to draw their attention away from the house. “Why, you should, and I bet we can teach you in a sec.”</p><p>“You bet,” said Adele. “We been all the way to Dallas, Texas to learn it. You know where Dallas is?”</p><p>“No ma’am,” said Essie.</p><p>“Well, it’s a long way from Cleveland County, I’ll tell you that. Come here and look.”</p><p>She led the girls a few steps farther from the house and then turned to Bobbie June. “Let’s teach these girls a thing or two,” she said.</p><p>Bobbie June began to clap her hands in rhythm and, much to the delight of the girls, sang in a husky voice.</p><p><i>“Five foot two…</i></p><p><i>Eyes of blue..</i></p><p><i>But oh, what those five feet could do…”</i></p><p>They giggled when Adele began to move forward and backward in pace with singing, placing one foot in front of the other and then in back of it with arms swinging in perfect rhythm.</p><p><i>“Turned up nose…</i></p><p><i>Turned down hose…</i></p><p><i>Never had no other beaus…”</i></p><p>“Now come on, you do it do,” said Adele, grabbing Essie’s arm.</p><p>When Essie drew away, Adele said, “Don’t be afraid. It’s easy. Give it a try.”</p><p>She continued to dance and motioned for the other two to join her.</p><p>“See, just put one foot here, one foot there.”</p><p>Bobby June was joining her now, continuing to sing.</p><p>“Now if you run into…”</p><p>Suddenly Adele cried. “Look at that child.”</p><p>Three of them turned to watch Mabel who was now beginning to move in perfect imitation of Adele. She stumbled once, missed a beat, but soon was bouncing on her feet in complete harmony with the music.</p><p>“Look at that bearcat go. Kick them gams, you darb you,” said Adele. She stopped herself and joined Adele in singing and clapping as Mabel began to move in frenzied ecstasy. He eyes grew wide and her face contorted from concentration. Essie looked at her in amazement.</p><p><i>“But could she love…</i></p><p><i>Could she woo…</i></p><p><i>Could she, could she, could she coo?”</i></p><p>Bobbie June stopped singing then. Mabel continued do pour every bit of energy into dancing though there was no more music. The two women had turned toward the house when Carl came quick-stepping through front door toward the steps. As Mabel raged forwards and backwards, sounds of broken glass flew from the house and Fred came running out, dodging blows from a broom wielded by his mother. He crashed into Carl, who was halfway down the steps and the two went flying together into the four standing in the yard.</p><p>Mabel stopped dancing.</p><p>“And take them whores with you,” her mother shouted.</p><p>She needn’t have worried. The two women were already in car by then and before anyone else could move, Fred had joined them. Carl was already in front of the car violently spinning a starting crank. The engine started immediately and he ran to the back door, crank in hand, and dove in as the car began to move. In a moment, they were gone.</p><p>Mabel and Essie didn’t move. They had seen storms before and knew that the best defense was no defense at all. Essie simply looked a Mabel in amazement. Without changing expression, Mabel winked at her.</p><p>“You girls start gettin’ ready,” their mother said. “We got to go pick up Mizz Reed’s washin’.”</p><p>The girls walked back to the house holding hands. Without speaking to one another, they walked to the spot under the porch where they had left the baby rats. Essie squatted and removed the cover. She watched the babies for a minute or so, it seemed to Mabel. The she poked them with a finger.</p><p>“Mama, I think our babies died,” she said.</p><p>“I done told you they would. Now you girls git rid of them and git ready to go.” She turned and, broom in hand, went back into the house.</p><p>“Bring me our wagon,” Essie said.</p><p>Mabel turned without a word and went to the base of the tree where the matchbox wagon lay. She picked it up and returned with it to where Essie still squatted quietly. She handed the box to her sister.</p><p>“We ain’t got time to bury them now,” Essie said. She folded the rag that covered the tiny creatures and placed it in the box as a liner. Then she picked up the tiny objects one by one and placed them in a row upon the cloth. She rose slowly and showed the box to Mabel who simply nodded.</p><p>Holding the box in front of her, Essie started walking to a copse of trees just beyond the edge of the front yard, in the direction from which the car had appeared. That now seemed like years ago to Mabel. As they moved from the clearing, the trees made shadows cross their forms and then they were in the cool darkness out of sight from the house.</p><p>Essie began to sing as they walked, and after a few more steps, Mabel began to sway with the music. Now Essie did the same, still holding the matchbox coffin before her as they walked farther into the cool, dark woods.</p><p><i>“Five foot two…</i></p><p><i>Eyes of blue…”</i></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-90225942538575104852022-11-13T11:02:00.002-08:002022-11-13T11:23:33.335-08:00THE ASSIGNMENT<p> <span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Truth be known, I didn’t want to do
the piece in the first place. Hell, I wasn’t even a journalist. I was a consultant,
a pretty good one, and should have stuck to it. But I had been doing these modest
little columns for a </span><st1:place style="text-indent: 0.5in;" w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Little Rock</st1:city></st1:place><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
quarterly that promoted historic preservation. I was acquainted with the
editor, I lived in a so-called historic district, and I knew most of the people
who lived there. So, I agreed to help.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a good fit. People associated living in
historic neighborhoods with eccentricity back in those days. Things that
supported that viewpoint were always welcome. So, folks liked my little “human
interest” pieces. As for me, I was happy to stick to them. There was no chance
of running out of characters, and I didn’t have to travel.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Then the
editor called me one day and asked me to stop by. When I got there, she up and
gave me an assignment. Just like that, like I was some cub reporter or
something. This posed a noticeable departure from the usual process whereby I
just picked out some local oddball and wrote about how they had adjusted to
living in an old house.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">This time she picked the subject.
Why? Beats me. Maybe I was getting stale, or she was trying to sell more copies
or something. Rather than speculate, I went along with her for the moment. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well guess
what? You never know what dish life is going to serve up and what decisions are
going to throw themselves in front of you, threatening your hemostasis like a group
of western bandits with their pistols drawn and ready.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Here’s how it started.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A local
banker, known to us all as a neighbor and a nice guy, had bought one of the
most historic homes in the city. It boasted such long-term ownerships that the
house and grounds came with a caretaker who had worked there since the Depression.
Mr. Pitts cared for the grounds and lived in a small apartment attached to the carriage
house, a.k.a. the garage. He was a quiet little man of advanced age who lived
alone and remained out of sight when not working. All the neighbors knew him to
nod at, but none of us had ever talked to him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The editor
explained the human-interest angle. Supposedly, a friendship had grown up
between Mr. Pitts and the banker’s young son Alfie—Alfred Chidester LaRue was
his full name—a little blond-haired kid from the high-rent side of life. Get
it? Old black gardener and white heir apparent, the image of an odd couple as
corny as it was appealing to our liberal audience. All I had to do was
interview the old man, mine a few historic nuggets and take a picture of him
and the kid together. It would produce enough “ain’t that cutes?” to make a
tough man buy a round of drinks. There was no Pulitzer looming, but it would
get me through until another deadline appeared like a hungry tiger emerging
from the mist. No problem.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Anyway, I didn’t have to. These
columns represented a public service for me. In other words, I didn’t get paid.
Seeing my words in print provided my only emolument. So, I had a degree of
leverage unavailable to a poor inky wretch actually writing for a living.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I could have refused the assignment
and interviewed, instead, a friend who was restoring a cottage near ours and
who looked more like Charles Manson than Manson did himself. He played cello in
the city’s symphony orchestra and would have been great material for a photo
essay, the research being carried out over a couple of beers. Why should I
spend a dry afternoon interviewing the town’s oldest gardener? It didn’t make a
bit of sense. “To hell with the editor and her aspirations,” I kept telling
myself. Was I my own man or what?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Naturally, I
took the assignment. I had to go through the banker himself and he pretty much
outlined what he wanted the piece to say. Alfie was an only-child and, having
few young friends in the neighborhood, he had taken up with Mr. Pitts. Followed
him everywhere. Shared secrets with him. Even helped with the yardwork. Well,
maybe a little. The important thing was the friendship that had developed
between man and boy. That was the angle.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sure. One
of the greatest and most persistent dreams of American Caucasians is that,
someday, an African American will love them. But I could pretend with the best,
so I pressed on to complete the assignment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I set up an
appointment for the next Saturday afternoon. It was a nice autumn day that
welcomed a person outdoors like an old friend wanting to show you his garden. I
grabbed an ancient Rolliflex camera that I used for such work, made sure I had
pen and paper, and walked the two blocks to the house.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The house sat on a half-block
facing one of the two main streets leading directly to downtown. When it was
built, wealth had followed the topography. The larger houses were on the
highest ground and homes fell off in size and value as the topography dropped into
the flood plain. It was never more than a short walk from the mansions to the
homes from which domestic help could be hired, for practically nothing, in the
good old days. In other words, urban form followed economic function. Households
weren’t separated by income as they are now. That’s how, thanks to the historic
preservation craze, I could afford to live near a bunch of mansions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Anyway, I
arrived. Mr. Pitts had dressed up a bit. He always wore neat clothes with a narrow-brimmed
dress hat. Today he had added a tie. He stood at attention with his hands to
his side and presented a smile like a boot-camper at inspection. Alfie was
bouncing a ball against a tree and the parents stood by with pride. All was set
for this to be a painless adventure. Wham, bam, thank you m’aam and I meet my
deadline.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I called
little Alfie over and made him sit for a picture with Mr. Pitts. As I lined it
up, I pulled a few grunts out of the kid to the effect that he liked Mr. Pitts
and enjoyed helping him with the yard work. Mr. Pitts sat smiling through thick
eyeglass lenses that distorted his face to where it looked like one of those
cartoon characters that has just seen something either real juicy or real
dangerous.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So far, so
good.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Figuring I
had about all out of Alfie I was going to get, I excused him with “Now Alfie,
why don’t you let Mr. Pitts and me visit while you get back to your yard work?”
In other words, “Scram, kid!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Alfie was
more than happy to be rid of adults, so he walked to beyond the garage. There,
someone had dug a shallow pit from which smoke was rising. Within the pit, I
assumed from the smell, were dead leaves, trash, and some sort of organic
waste. Alfie amused himself by kicking more leaves into the fire.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">His mother saw the opportunity and
appeared from nowhere with a tray of cookies and iced tea. She sat them on the
bench between us and asked, sweetly, and devoid of sincerity, the way only a
southern woman can ask, if we were comfortable. After receiving affirmatives,
she then swished away amid a crackling of petticoats and an almost audible
smile. I pushed the tray toward Mr. Pitts. He smiled and pushed it back toward
me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,
please, go ahead,” I stammered, fumbling for my writing pen.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thank you,
suh,” he said. He exaggerated the “suh” so I—so we both—would know he didn’t attach
any meaning to it. Then he took a cookie in one hand and a glass of tea in
another. He neither drank nor ate right away, though. He rested the arm with
the cookie on his leg and wrapped a hand around the glass of tea as if to keep
it from flying away. He smiled at me. His eyes looked even larger than before.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A breeze
filled the yard and blew smoke from Alfie’s fire toward us. As it did, Mr. Pits
finally raised the cookie in a soft arc to his mouth and took a small bite. He
lowered it and raised his glass with the same grand gesture and sipped his tea.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Hoping to
get started, I asked him how long he had lived around there.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Oh, I was
born around here,” he said. “I been here for as long as I can remember. We
lived on Tenth Street but it went for the freeway. House ain’t there no more.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He chewed
his cookie with what I thought was a grim expression. As he did, the smoke
circled us and I caught the pleasant smell of burning leaves punctuated by the
sharp odor of the other trash smoldering in the pit. Mr. Pitts stiffened and
his eyes retreated behind his thick glasses.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I been
here since when things were different than they are now,” he said. “Way
different.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Then, that far into the interview,
he stopped talking. His voice didn’t exactly trail away as much as it fluttered
beyond us like a feather caught in a whirlwind.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was
losing him. I hurried back to work.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Different
in what way?” I asked.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He just
looked at me. He seemed to struggle to respond and when he did, it wasn’t really
to me but, it seemed, to the trees and the garden and maybe to the city itself with
all its history and smoky secrets.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Way yonder
different. Folks weren’t as good to you then.” He took another bite of cookie
and drank from his glass. That energized him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“My folks had it hard back then.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I tasted
panic. Alfie had disappeared behind the garage and I felt as if I were on an
asteroid hurtling through space with an alien. This affair wasn’t going
according to plan. I nodded as if I understood and scratched on my pad without
looking up. He continued.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The worse
was what they done to Mr. Carter.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Mr. Carter?”
That was all I could manage.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Ain’t
nobody should have had that done to them. Nobody. I don’t care if he was
colored.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I gave up
and stared at my pad. What was he saying, and where was he taking me? I stared
right through my pad and into the ground. From therein oozed a memory. I met it
halfway and solved the mystery.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Back in the 1920s, there had been a
lynching in Little Rock, less than a half-mile from where we sat. It happened right
in the middle of what was then the center of the “colored” commercial area,
along Ninth Street.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“Oh my god,” I thought. “This is
where he is going.” I tried to raise my head but it took three attempts to
overcome the gravity created by that realization. When I did manage to look up,
Mr. Pitts was somewhere far away, and scared. I mean really scared. His hand
was shaking so much the tea was spilling.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I remember
that day like it was yesterday,” he continued. They made us all go inside, for
they knew there was to be trouble. I was just a child, but the oldest. My Momma
put the youngest under the bed and made me watch after them. She said the white
folks had done killed Mr. Carter and was draggin’ him down Ninth Street behind
a car. She was scared and she made us all cry.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“We could hear people yellin’. They
was honkin’ their horns and yellin’ so loud we could hear them in the bedroom. Wasn’t
no colored folks on the street, except Mr. Carter and he was dead. They hung
him and beat him and drug him up and down Ninth Street. We was all hidin’ and cryin.’
My Momma was tellin’ us to be quiet.” He stopped, looked away and back,
directly at me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“They shouldn’t have done that.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here I was.
It was a nice brisk autumn day and I should have been somewhere else, but I was
sitting in someone else’s yard listening to an old man reciting his version of
our city’s most awful moment and I couldn’t escape.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“They drug
him and drug him. All back and forth on Ninth Street. We could hear the cars and
them horns honkin’, the honkin,’ oh my lord, the honkin’. Ain’t nobody ought to
have that done to them. We was still cryin’ when they built a fire at Ninth and
Broadway and burned him up. We could smell the smoke and that made us cry
harder. My momma had some cookies in her apron pocket and she gave one to the
younger kids to hush them up. She broke one in half and gave me a piece. She
took the other half and then she started cryin’ too.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He looked
at the cookie in his hand, then returned to that awful day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Somebody
said they broke one of his arms off and waved it at the cars going down
Broadway,” he said. “I don’t know. Nobody looked out the window the whole time,
for we was too scared.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I pretended
to write something.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Too bad,”
he said so low I barely heard him. “Them was bad days. Bad for us all.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The smoke circled
us and I sat as still as I could. Mr. Pitts stopped talking and sat with his
hand with the cookie resting on his leg. As the fog of remembrance cleared, he
began to smile. He didn’t say anything. He was done talking to white strangers for
the day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>He sat there
proud and triumphant, a black-skinned Cicero having had his say, needing
neither accolades nor approval. I thanked him, not sure at all whether he even
heard me, and then eased away and headed home. I was all confusion, trying to
sort out what had just happened. I still had an assignment but what the hell
was I going to write? The truth about what happened? That would be the honest
thing. It might even be a good piece. Shake the readers up a bit. Let them know
that history wasn’t all about cute Victorian houses. Hell yes!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Back home, I
sat in the kitchen and stared through the window. When I tried, I could hear
the shouts on the street, feel the throb of the car engines running, and smell
the acrid smoke of man and wood burning.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Damn that old man!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Outside the afternoon was
dissolving into evening. The shadows got longer and darker the way our thoughts
will as we doze. Beyond the kitchen window, the air was still crisp and clear.
Inside, it was dark and gloomy. The evening sky changed purposefully that time
of year like a lover moving from caresses to kisses, and then to the dark
undertones of passion. My thoughts moved that way, too, as I reflected on the
day and what it was trying to tell me. Maybe it was trying to tell me to be
brave, or truthful …, or honest. Maybe it was suggesting that I approach what I
was doing with something a little deeper than just seeing my name in print.
Maybe it was just trying to tell me to say something else entirely, before
darkness came. Maybe. Maybe.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">After a time, I stood up and
retrieved a beat-up Remington typewriter and package of paper from a closet and
carried them, with as much gentleness as I could muster, into the kitchen. I placed
the typewriter on the kitchen table so I could see beyond it into the deepening
gloom. Then I slid a page of paper into it and turned the cylinder so the paper
positioned itself precisely across the top, aligned there neat and worthy of
higher-level thought. I drew and released a long breath of sad air—air that had
once moved through the city and down the streets and around the large oak trees
past the moving cars and quaint old houses and had once even flowed around the
twitching, smoking body of John Carter.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I didn’t want to, but I smelled that
smoke.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Click, click, I advanced the paper.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I was ready. My mind was as clear
as the way of a traveler making the last turn on the last curve before home. I
rubbed my hands. I thought how funny it would be to make the Sign of the Cross.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Instead, I started to type: “Mr.
Otis Pitts, age 70 and a lifelong resident of Little Rock, has a new best
friend who is only five years old.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>July 2009</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Revised 2017<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZLBFbwzGFWcty1mERC4k53RO6BXWbMbNDp4_VjhLXixsTaCjDLa01YF6SZ36KoRiR4yFyii0U6vQ_70H_T2YDYjkSSTTi_Pf86sy93CXfUlGBJpfvwdiitH5ju7EQHNjRszKqhRXeV7OFsblmTYE8mJMTsHUpYie7UPNJzeO6kKF_DTWdulP__2ViWw/s256/Young%20JV.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZLBFbwzGFWcty1mERC4k53RO6BXWbMbNDp4_VjhLXixsTaCjDLa01YF6SZ36KoRiR4yFyii0U6vQ_70H_T2YDYjkSSTTi_Pf86sy93CXfUlGBJpfvwdiitH5ju7EQHNjRszKqhRXeV7OFsblmTYE8mJMTsHUpYie7UPNJzeO6kKF_DTWdulP__2ViWw/s1600/Young%20JV.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-79592016440976019912022-07-19T07:14:00.007-07:002022-07-19T07:14:55.546-07:00CONTROL<p>It seems to me that extremist views are dominating
our essential dialogue in America. For example, in the Uvalde, Texas mas slaughter,
over 400 men with guns failed to stop the carnage. So yells about gun control reverberate.</p><p>Then in Indiana, one “good Samaritan” with a gun stopped an
episode before a more extensive e mass killing might have occurred occurred. (Yes,
one is too many). Extremists will yell, “Arm everyone.”</p><p> Truth is, reactions to
mass murders aren’t any more predicable than, it sometimes seems, reactions to
minor criminal offenses. Events occur. History marches past without having
consulted our opinion, and we beat on, “boats against the current.”</p><p>Consider:</p><p>Had Israel
B. Richards not been mortally wounded at Antietam while leading his division in
a charge on the sunken road, could the Civil War have ended on September 17,
1862? Some say yes. Some say no. </p><p>Had Gavrilo Princip lost his way on June 28,
1914 and not found the Archduke and his wife, could the world have avoided
World War I? Some say yes. Some say no.</p><p>If I strap on a pistol and happen to be
at the next mass shooting, will I (and I have been trained on weaponry from the
semi-automatic 45-caliber pistol to the M-60 machine gun to the M-79 grenade
launcher) stop the killing and emerge a hero? I can’t imagine anyone saying, “Yes.”</p><p>If I lead a life suggestive of the premise that disagreements are best settled
by thoughtful dialectics and compassionate dialogue, might the world emerge a bit
more stable. I think so.</p><p>Maybe it's not guns that need controlling but our national psyche. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQnDpd5WAs6-b-WZLgpZU3xurogULa7AaD-jqtLg_W5AF8vWUM4-rnuzFOkzRinGnWihxryphFZr7_FQRXXApWm3M-b1sRfpRP-oYUaPnJ3tgNVBFjBllpFztugPcRztbZT5YbzgU04KrjcJpZBSpQEP3WD08dVg8VLkYKqIsXts52bsDGqO4pLC28w/s256/Young%20JV.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQnDpd5WAs6-b-WZLgpZU3xurogULa7AaD-jqtLg_W5AF8vWUM4-rnuzFOkzRinGnWihxryphFZr7_FQRXXApWm3M-b1sRfpRP-oYUaPnJ3tgNVBFjBllpFztugPcRztbZT5YbzgU04KrjcJpZBSpQEP3WD08dVg8VLkYKqIsXts52bsDGqO4pLC28w/s1600/Young%20JV.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-38336694057956892222022-07-06T09:08:00.002-07:002022-07-06T09:08:41.585-07:00ASPIRATIONS<p> One statement that has impacted me more than most
this year, was from a pundit on the news: “We don’t elect aspirational voices
anymore.” How true. We elect voices that feed our niche. We elect voices that
hate the same people we do. We elect voices that support what got us here, not
what will get us out of here. We elect voices that promise to reduce rights for
our enemies. We elect voices that promise to increase the likelihood of religious
wars. We elect voices that feed our prejudices.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">I live in a state that ranks at or near the bottom
in every socioeconomic measurement of success. Our governor just announced the good news that the state is experiencing
a revenue surplus.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Will he have a “Cassidy Hutchinson Moment" and
turn from the Dark Side?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Will he announce investment of funds for the impoverished
Arkansas Delta?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Will he announce new measures to confront the drug
crisis that is crippling our families and communities?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Will he move surplus funds into an improvement of
education?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Will he work address crime and violence caused by
our love of guns?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Well, no to all of these.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">He plans to ask the legislature to cut taxes.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl065QJHCAq5QvciJRli0hhKVanhEfbuu4-QnNe0rI4A1Ebu5HwM6u-D_b-ZdljM1jKrCD0clhwBPnwBpo-2XFRAmODpQ8vqtkxj5Cwoh_-Hlp6vDA5DA9OMW_iK9RyrGCSdqVFgkZC2Ik66doH6Szz4lgg9lQHFuGQuJu22Au-0nJhg9sl5nYyVk4vg/s256/Cover_Art.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl065QJHCAq5QvciJRli0hhKVanhEfbuu4-QnNe0rI4A1Ebu5HwM6u-D_b-ZdljM1jKrCD0clhwBPnwBpo-2XFRAmODpQ8vqtkxj5Cwoh_-Hlp6vDA5DA9OMW_iK9RyrGCSdqVFgkZC2Ik66doH6Szz4lgg9lQHFuGQuJu22Au-0nJhg9sl5nYyVk4vg/s1600/Cover_Art.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-52747333910017898492022-07-04T05:58:00.003-07:002022-07-04T06:08:39.339-07:00FREEDOM DAY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">The darker angels of my nature offer a number of reasons
why I should stare at my Honorable Discharge today and wonder if it was worth
it. The voices of those who will most likely be elected to govern our state have
not uttered one note of aspiration, only hints of retribution and retaliation.<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The highest court in our land seems to hate everything
I thought was decent and worthy of service. I have friends today who stare at
their marriage license and wonder if it, unlike their love, will be everlasting.
I even have dear friends who want our beloved democracy to be replaced by a
bronze-age theocracy.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">I see teenagers walking to work in the heat while
televangelists ride in private jets at the taxpayers’ expense.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">I see the deterioration of neighborhoods addressed
by accusations on both sides, not acts by either.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">But I read history and have seen my beloved
country’s greatness spring from the darkest of swamps. It is stronger than
those who call me a sucker for serving her and so I will.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qqj714cTuWsjlQkvASd_szc1bMdlOxvTmmj-t8j84KD7Z9Q7wpww82HqU3xdjNOKmCFx8t_yqJjfOrqtPoerT24GmRUxwejJd3kJSK1AWK_xcbLcZem67EGMMB_Zf5lhQgvZyySYYIVWRRUS6DdueP0FEx5ynOHOvyxQqWYE4yuN3EScGli_difT9w/s256/Cover_Art.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2qqj714cTuWsjlQkvASd_szc1bMdlOxvTmmj-t8j84KD7Z9Q7wpww82HqU3xdjNOKmCFx8t_yqJjfOrqtPoerT24GmRUxwejJd3kJSK1AWK_xcbLcZem67EGMMB_Zf5lhQgvZyySYYIVWRRUS6DdueP0FEx5ynOHOvyxQqWYE4yuN3EScGli_difT9w/s1600/Cover_Art.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><br /><p></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-56241135626275741832022-06-30T05:49:00.001-07:002022-06-30T05:49:15.101-07:00UNDERSTANDING<p> A different kind of progressive, I understand why a dear friend who made a good living and amassed a small fortune crawling around in attics in Arkansas Augusts resents paying taxes when he believes a large portion of them go to support able-bodied people who won’t work. I understand. I know that his beliefs don’t take into account the many truths and complexities of socioeconomic factors in America. I know he doesn't know the truth about taxation.</p><p>But I understand his feelings and we talk. What I can’t understand is mean-spirited people who, in the advancement of mythology or politics—yes I repeat myself—refuse to consider the despair of a young woman who finds that the man who impregnated her with the promise of eternal love and support has eschewed the responsibility of fatherhood and fled.</p><p></p><p>I don't understand the cruelty of men who would pass laws mandating that a woman die rather than receive the medical care prescribed by her doctor.</p><p>I don't understand the mendacity of lawmakers who give the male of the species a free ride in the whole abortion issue.</p><p>I just don't understand. Do you?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZq8RG-SSPVUsh4Qh7zHni5zWZ143D7wQVd7_rxTUzBpQe-t8lesQIwotDWU8_iYyTUphTQRqIHUep7tfmw5zgjTk0XTcAFY6zE8_Mi7uyLwaHcH0F84qiKTN0DwTI4isJ4OCaOvIvMoo4qE3Ys-Ll-UeJXhCtbtL3m1TdierifLeftF26XLDjYuqLQ/s256/Cover_Art.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDZq8RG-SSPVUsh4Qh7zHni5zWZ143D7wQVd7_rxTUzBpQe-t8lesQIwotDWU8_iYyTUphTQRqIHUep7tfmw5zgjTk0XTcAFY6zE8_Mi7uyLwaHcH0F84qiKTN0DwTI4isJ4OCaOvIvMoo4qE3Ys-Ll-UeJXhCtbtL3m1TdierifLeftF26XLDjYuqLQ/s1600/Cover_Art.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-37968292619729760302022-06-29T06:45:00.000-07:002022-06-29T06:45:27.628-07:00PROGRESS<p> America seems to me to be entering a dark minefield. The fate of our country depends on passing through it in operatable condition.</p><p>In WWII, the American response to crossing a minefield was to halt progress while trained experts located and cleared a path, all the while under sniper fire.</p><p>The Russian Army used a different method. They simply marched troops through the field setting off mines until a path was clear. Their logic was the loss of troops by this method was about equivalent to the loss of troops through sniper fire and the method didn't require a halt.</p><p>I'm not sure what method is best for those of us who love our country. I do know that one side in the battle3 has no scruples about dignity or goodness while the other does. Thus the choice may be either to halt while the evil strongholds are eradicated one by one, or to assume the standards of the opposition.</p><p>What do you think?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhT6soA7MBRTO_ASXnAZ9VfzZSaol8jhiMRAL6dLhLTwdpJmnmT8lJMH9YbusulKx7HI8v9Ir_QCbByTsj24vsau1LA9P3m7NgFPi-6qpKIZl6gF4IA381jJZiAqghsuHjFre0BoU0jwB4ARzJcQLdr7WJs4otCcC3dnXLwxNVhEr8V81AoM5dn8xDMPg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhT6soA7MBRTO_ASXnAZ9VfzZSaol8jhiMRAL6dLhLTwdpJmnmT8lJMH9YbusulKx7HI8v9Ir_QCbByTsj24vsau1LA9P3m7NgFPi-6qpKIZl6gF4IA381jJZiAqghsuHjFre0BoU0jwB4ARzJcQLdr7WJs4otCcC3dnXLwxNVhEr8V81AoM5dn8xDMPg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-51204950731562265062022-06-26T11:57:00.002-07:002022-06-26T11:57:28.488-07:00Civil War Writings<p> I’m not expert on the Civil War. I don’t even
consider myself particularly knowledgeable about that sad affair. But I have
been interested in it since I was introduced to it as, I think maybe, an eighth
grader. Over the many years I’ve probably read close to 200 or volumes about the
war and its many battles, leaders, and settings.</p><p>From my latest binge, I’ve had
an epiphany, helped by some recent volumes. A thought emerged that if one were
to review the most famous works on the subject of the first 100 years after the
war, and those written during the last 57 or so, one would hardly recognize it
as the same historical event. It represents a bold example of a refutation of
the well-known saying that the history of wars is written by the victors. </p><p>Immediate
histories of the Civil War came from the losers, or at least those who harbored
a fascination with the losers. I’m not sure what this means or even if it is
true. I do believe that if one were to look at the first period, it would be
hard to find an account of how R.E. Lee’s army, during its two incursions into
the north, captured free Americans and transported them to be sold as slaves to
southern plantation owners. </p><p>I’m currently reading “The Myth of the Lost Cause
and Civil War History,” edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan. Hope for
some edification. Stay tuned.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-16092646818771127942022-01-01T06:53:00.001-08:002022-01-01T06:53:44.268-08:00A Study of Evil<p> <b>THE HARM</b></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">As is alarmingly clear at this point that defining
evil is a torturous task and even attempting it requires a high level of presumption.
In order to understand something, though, one must first define it in some way,
even if the definition is operational or simplistic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We have narrowed our definition of evil to actions
between individuals or groups of individuals. Unfortunately this leaves the
treatment inflicted upon the planet or our companion living species for another
day’s work. We are busy enough with, as the college students of old used to cite,
“man’s inhumanity to man.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;">Now what must occur to reach the infamous label of
evil? Let us assume, for our purposes, that evil includes, but may not be
limited to, the following necessary acts perpetrated against others by direct
action, orders, participation, or legality:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may inflict gratuitous pain on another;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may inflict physical or mental torture on
another for arguable purposes;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may set actions in progress that harm others
for reasons unassociated with the safety of the state or planet;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may murder for no biological gain;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may deprive others of one or more necessary
daily functions of life;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may, without gain or provocation, destroy the
stasis of another’s existence;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may establish organizations that inflict
evil;</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may, while possessing powers of intercession,
remain silent and inactive in the presence of the above; or</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>One may, in a profession, a daily life, or
position of authority, support or condone any of the above.</p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
We now turn to establishing “ground-level points” at which
one moves into a definable stage of participating in the above. Some prove
easier than others. For example, most would agree that:<br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Genocide practiced against an innocent people is
evil.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Preventable and senseless murder or maiming is
evil.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Physical torture is evil unless measurable gain
can be proven.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Mental torture is evil unless measurable gain
can be proven.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Abuse of a child is evil.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>A pursuit of greed that requires the impoverishment
of others is evil.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span>Enslavement of a people who posses no legal
rights against society or their masters is evil.</p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">The above represent examples about which reasonable
people would not argue, even (to most) when any of those occur through
religious edict. Even within those, however, levels of comparison exist. Comedy
sketches in popular film, for example, represent torture for gratuitous reasons
inflicted by means of tickling the feet of another. Some laws preventing or reducing
any of the above remain dormant due to the impossibility of enforcement. In the
minds of many, religion takes priority, for example, over legal protection of
children from many forms of abuse.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Finally, national mental states contribute to the relaxation
of measures of prevention. The “Dirty Harry” films that began during a period of
perceived high crime rates in America struck a responsive chord in a country still
existing under the so-called “frontier mentality.” Laws are still appearing that
empower vigilantism in our society. As a result, deaths and maimings in “but
for situations” still dominate our national news. Such laws seem to rely upon
the good nature of the populace, rather than its evil nature.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">That brings up a topic to which we shall return.
How are evil and goodness connected?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVVjtVToK8lWfJv3v7lQdt8jtTtZgmjWfsCdgZZuKwjXjtgkQIrdWeN4AB5kyybhsnEbJPnHuFadOdF1PuXsDYgUYTYR4G_Fs2CElcwkTQk-_Yoer9VwhIYcfrT8CuWGRS-4I4YfgzwJhVyY6UOUEKvbE_DMqcS_qDtcy6DK3GEpgPsbEAx7ItCeIC_Q=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVVjtVToK8lWfJv3v7lQdt8jtTtZgmjWfsCdgZZuKwjXjtgkQIrdWeN4AB5kyybhsnEbJPnHuFadOdF1PuXsDYgUYTYR4G_Fs2CElcwkTQk-_Yoer9VwhIYcfrT8CuWGRS-4I4YfgzwJhVyY6UOUEKvbE_DMqcS_qDtcy6DK3GEpgPsbEAx7ItCeIC_Q" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-67583165213227230102021-12-31T06:39:00.002-08:002021-12-31T06:39:48.974-08:00A Study of Evil<p><b> EVIL AND SOCIETY</b></p><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>Now we come to the moment of truth. We consider
the individual in terms of evil—not a multitude, not a cult, not a religious
sect, not an army, not a populace. We see only a person with a soul that
permits an act of evil against another person or group of persons. We don’t
deal with gradation. Instigating the murder of millions is evil. Remaining
silent during the execution of evil is evil. Numbers, as we have noted, only
tend to magnify, sanctify, intensify, and vilify evil according to its breadth
and scope. It all begins with an individual action.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let us begin by supposing that the act of evil deprives
someone or some group of something which is necessary to enjoy not a grandiose
life, but an average and acceptable condition of existence. That includes a
long spectrum, ranging from the ability to vote in an election to the ability
to breath, with the right to live free from pain and distress somewhere in
between.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Within that broad spectrum, it seems reasonable to
limit our search further. For example, here are some examples that may rise to
the level of sin<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> or illegality,<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
but not evil:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The procurement of sexual activity between two
consenting adults;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Activities relating to dietary laws;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Minor financial deceit;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Violations of religious edicts not otherwise defined
as evil;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Victimless crimes;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Failure to conform to societal or military edicts
or laws:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Public nudity; or<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Public profanity, as defined by someone or
something.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Moving up the scale one notch are actions
considered acceptable or normal in some sects but defined as evil in others.
For example:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The beating of children as a training exercise;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Domination and/or abuse of women by men.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Racial discrimination;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Masturbation;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Sex with minors;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Prostitution;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Polygamy;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Sex or marriage to close relatives;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Public execution of criminals or deviants;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Same-sex love and/or marriage, or homosexuality in
general;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Rape;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">War or aggression;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Tattoos;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Usery;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Contraception; or<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Unnatural sex acts as defined by the sect.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">This complicates things further, but wait. Some
among these have changed in context due to a sort of civil evolution. For example,
polygamy enjoyed approval and participation by Judo-Christian ancestors but
fell out of favor somewhere along the line, as did slavery among a large
segment of the population. The execution of criminals in America evolved from public
spectacles to near extension, now carried out in shameful quietude. Now to
lighten this depressing journey up a bit: As the old comedy line suggests,
masturbation has moved from an absolute, hell-promising sin guaranteed to
produce blindness to the prohibition of, “just until you need glasses.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">With that, we will close and work on a modest
definition.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimmMmsU_h3lySzRVvoc-TcI2Fn8MerLwKU3oJ8YYlqV-SE1T_ydTunigKtVh4pEgOmGSYuObxqnhtr-EVElPEHiCq08lu-nlwXo6dVKqWQHjnqSKOeij9AH57fU4VpJZIe3wq8FgTsy2jBn8UweV0UholkFhot1Cs1sfkzoZBe8uDdkCJ4um8N2V4daQ=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimmMmsU_h3lySzRVvoc-TcI2Fn8MerLwKU3oJ8YYlqV-SE1T_ydTunigKtVh4pEgOmGSYuObxqnhtr-EVElPEHiCq08lu-nlwXo6dVKqWQHjnqSKOeij9AH57fU4VpJZIe3wq8FgTsy2jBn8UweV0UholkFhot1Cs1sfkzoZBe8uDdkCJ4um8N2V4daQ" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Let us use: “Any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, degrading, shameful,
detrimental to order, or alienating by a defined religious or societal group."<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> As defined by appropriate
legal codes.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
From the film <i>Can I Do It Til I Need Glasses?</i> distributed produced by Dauntless
Productions and distributed by National American Films, 1977.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-8041933253838209512021-12-30T06:56:00.001-08:002021-12-31T05:07:24.201-08:00<p> <b>FOCUS</b></p><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">We have reached the point where we must assign some
value system to evil itself. Thus, we face the indomitable task of attempting a
definition. Does this represent a cosmic case of hubris or is it a necessary step
in understanding evil?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We gave narrowed our definition previously to the
point of limiting it to an act of a person or group of persons against another
person or group of persons. Eliminating the teaching or punishment to promote
evil by the spirit world removed a great percentage of the historical treatment
of our subject. We might term it “the great simplification.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We are free to focus on human interaction, with
perhaps some input from our biological cousins.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">This will be difficult to the point of impossible
one might say and that is true. Immediately, we find societal norms that define
the same act as abhorrent to the point of capital punishment to an act that is
lauded, even commanded by the polis.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Simply consider the act of same-sex love.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Or men’s dominance over women.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Or genocide.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Or the treatment of children, including the
implanting of a vicious primal fear in the minds of the young by force-feeding the
terrible prospect of being thrown into an eternal burning fire for the act of
not following parental teachings.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The last example becomes even more complicated by
the teachings of the cult that promotes it. The punishment described, or the
alternative—an eternity of undefined bliss—is not determined, according to some
writings of the cult, by one’s interaction with living creatures, but by a consistent
and fervent faith in an invisible being.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Complicating this particular instance further is the fact that the same
teachings that govern this cult suggest that salvation (an eternity of bliss)
is, conversely, obtainable by doing good.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let’s complicate things further. What about the fact
that some historical icons of goodness began life immersed in evil?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What about the former slave runner who repented
and fought against that evil trade, even to point of writing perhaps the most
beloved hymn in the protestant faith?<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What about the rounder and royal companion in mischief
who repented and gave his life in defense of his church?<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What about the Apostle Paul, considered by many to
be one of the chief architects of Christianity, who by his own admission, first
engaged in persecuting Christians before repentance?<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">So it goes. And we have yet to touch the broad
spectrum of evil. It runs from the murder of millions in an attempt to conquer
the world to the suborning or absolution of evil in order to get a favored
politician elected.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We have a rough road to hoe, as our rural
ancestors would note. But, next we try.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6tu7-NgrwV-GBhUsIeDUTFvxhBRCe5svZ6_h-csO_FaY7bqK_hrtZEuCzkXd1gKHmJi7d5gAeMW2ZCzWONNBECicX7dUYJKpbGEayPHAg_5YzuBbivCd6DUz97wfsiWt8bFWh6nCAIclY8O1_7UF7eNVz6y0b1x5_XDCVg27RmydJy4_BjNDXT8snUA=s256" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6tu7-NgrwV-GBhUsIeDUTFvxhBRCe5svZ6_h-csO_FaY7bqK_hrtZEuCzkXd1gKHmJi7d5gAeMW2ZCzWONNBECicX7dUYJKpbGEayPHAg_5YzuBbivCd6DUz97wfsiWt8bFWh6nCAIclY8O1_7UF7eNVz6y0b1x5_XDCVg27RmydJy4_BjNDXT8snUA" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
For a terrifying example, but one that will sound familiar to many Americans
who grew up in the so-called “Bible Belt, see the account of installing this fear
by James Joyce. (Joyce, J., & Deane, S. (1992). <i>A portrait of the artist
as a young man.</i> London: Penguin.)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Ephesians 2:8-9<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Romans 2:7<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Celebration Road Show
& Newton, J. (1970) Amazing grace Hymn .<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Thomas à Becket, Chancellor
of England (1155-62) venerated as a saint and martyr in the Roman Catholic
Church and in the Anglican Communion.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL_2.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Galatians 1:13<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-66660071626029757512021-12-29T06:27:00.002-08:002021-12-29T06:27:53.864-08:00<p> On the road and thinking today. More tomorrow.</p>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-16786350452527942222021-12-28T06:11:00.001-08:002021-12-28T06:11:41.015-08:00A Study of Evil<p> In modern times, we tend to cite the actions of
Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot as among the extremes of recorded evildoers.
At the other end of the spectrum, we find easily overlooked acts such as cruel
jokes, injurious falsehoods, and minor deceits. We also find evil exposed as
morally wrong but legally exonerated.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Speaking of legalities, it is for certain that,
given careful legal design, laws can, in fact, make evil legal and protect the
evildoers. Consider the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany, the Jim Crow Laws (which
seem to be reemerging) of the post-war South, and the arbitrary, but punishable,
laws promulgated in church-based states.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Media and entertainment sources even have us
emotionally lauding the evildoer. A popular film of 1974 in America was <i>Death
Wish</i>, based on novel of the same name by Brian Garfield. In it, Charles Bronson
played a mild-mannered architect who turns vigilante after the murder of his
wife and the sexual assault of his daughter. In short, he turns to slaying the
types of people who slayed his wife. The theme resonated with a public who saw
an increase in violence within the country.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In reality, Americans witnessed the dark side of vigilantism
in 2020 when self-style protectors of the law stalked an innocent man believed
to harbor an evil intent, resulting in the victim’s death. Lengthy prison
sentences communicated the dark side of evil for evil transactions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Do evil interactions predict increasing intensity
of evil? This is a controversial topic but some research in psychology and
criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals do not stop
there—many of them move on to their fellow humans.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This is not meant to imply that cruelty to animals is a lessor sin than cruelty
to humans, only that there is a correlation worthy of investigation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The we come to the “but for” instances in which a
person doesn’t set forth to do evil but commits it when it could have been avoided
had not the first steps been taken. Americans are still arguing over a case in
which two deaths and a maiming could be been avoided had the perpetrator, found
innocent in a court of law, simply not decided to travel to a particular
location in a particular state of readiness. In short, but for deciding to travel
to a particular site, tragedy would not have occurred.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Intent to perform evil is a tricky concept in
American law and an equally elusive issue in the pursuit of morality.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Even trickier is the concept of forbearance.
Writers including Elie Wiesel, Victor Frankl, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela,
and the recently deceased Desmond Tutu have all spoken eloquently and all agreed
upon the fact that forbearance of evil is evil itself.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">A 1996 book further argues that the German populace
was quite universally aware of, and tacitly condoned, the treatment of Jews
under the Nazi regime. The author’s explanation proved controversial, but the
facts were not. People knew and did nothing.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Picking one of the writers mentioned above, we
part with a quote from Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i>“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps
the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the
tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when
human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become
irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race,
religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center
of the universe.</i>”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-nE-nIBTaNVQ_1IeJvsKXheSz_51-wlcGEIDy7HEkVek-ZOjgaIzmS9ZZidLVNyqbT1BCWXdXVKK1tUJWrqBDebuDWSq1Mnq1HCR-Iruc9Fbbfkz5AzMFHZ7FnwgVhBu9eAsE_WLX_it7c9Lx2uBmUljwIuYEfvQE-FJGJb69skrNI4B_Eqz-D5jF8w=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-nE-nIBTaNVQ_1IeJvsKXheSz_51-wlcGEIDy7HEkVek-ZOjgaIzmS9ZZidLVNyqbT1BCWXdXVKK1tUJWrqBDebuDWSq1Mnq1HCR-Iruc9Fbbfkz5AzMFHZ7FnwgVhBu9eAsE_WLX_it7c9Lx2uBmUljwIuYEfvQE-FJGJb69skrNI4B_Eqz-D5jF8w" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Catherine A. Faver & Elizabeth B. Strand (2003) Domestic Violence and
Animal Cruelty, Journal of Social Work Education, 39:2, 237-253, DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2003.10779134<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Goldhagen, D. J. (1996).
Hitler's willing executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York:
Knopf.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech on December 10, 1986<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-62415492403547547272021-12-27T06:01:00.003-08:002021-12-27T06:07:12.269-08:00<p> One of the more argued aspects surrounding the
study of evil is the question of forgiveness, or even acceptance. Are there
examples of evil deeds that warrant understanding in context (UIC)? It seems
so. The state in which I live observed, for many years, a holiday honoring a
traitor who abandoned an oath he took to protect the United States of America
and, instead, elected to lead a vicious war against that country in an attempt
to perpetuate the institution of slavery. If a UIC can cause us to condone the
support of evil such as was employed against African Americans, what else is
eligible for redemption?</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What about a war against the most precious of
innocents, our children?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Jacob Riis was a journalist, photographer, and
social reformer during the late 1800s and early 1900s. In his classic work, <i>How
the Other Half Lives</i>,<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
he called attention to the neglect of the poor in our country, particularly the
child laborers. In his notes, he observed that child labor exists:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i>Wherever the street is the only playground of
the children;<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i>Wherever they are dragged into the police courts,
when they ought to be at school,<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i>There is the slum waiting to raise its head.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><i>Wherever men sell their votes and their
consciences, it is only just around the corner.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One child, under five years of age, when interviewed
and asked how long he had been working, could only reply, “since I was.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">He concluded, in a famous passage, “How shall the
love of God be understood by those who have been nurtured in sight only of the
greed of man?” An earlier philosopher, a follower of the same god, noted, “The
poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Many take this as a UIC, as an admission that some
forms of evil are so persistent as to justify neglect.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Others say, about an instance of evildoing, that “You
just had to have been there.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">During the winter months, we often note the date
of the execution of United States Army Private Eddie Slovik on January 31, 1945.
He was the only American soldier executed for desertion, some say cowardice, during
America’s involvement in World War Two. A month after Christmas, they led him
to a lonely garden in France, placed him in front of a stone wall, in order to
avoid stray bullets injuring someone, and fired 11 rounds of .30 caliber
bullets into him from 12 M-1 Garand rifles. From accounts, he faced the ordeal
with resolve, even bravery.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">As with many, if not most things in our country,
it remains a divisive issue. Some say it stands as an extreme case of cruelty,
i.e. evil, to have chosen one of thousands of deserters as an example. They argue
that he fit a handy profile, an admitted deserter with a former felony
background, no children, and a lackluster military career. He, himself argued, “They’re
not shooting me for deserting the United Stated Army—thousands of guys have
done that. They’re shooting me for bread I stole when I was 12 years old.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Others point out that Private Slovik was offered,
on multiple occasions, clemency if he would return to his unit for duty. He
refused. They also note that there was a feeling at the time among American
soldiers that the war was almost over and it wasn’t a good time to die. Morale
was lagging in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge in which a massive German
counter-offensive threatened to send the war into another long period of horror
for the entire world. The execution of one deserter, under clearly established
military law and a fair trial, in order to instill resolve and discipline in
others remains, in some minds a UIC.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The tricky point of UICs, some of which deserve detailed
analysis, is that unethical forces can use their false cousins for evil
purposes. The talents of Joseph Goebbels, and the efficacy of modern media
sources, support the contention that a large segment of the public falls prey
easily to constantly repeated entreaties by false prophets.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We need only ask the innocent victims of Baghdad,
or January 6, 2021.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JM4dlyV5l1ZqBIfrFY8dzvjSSyiQWl2bajkqH3zfHY3eYTamcNx6TIT4DgBSneV2_J80FX1Z1otzziRz7gfso0Op2RLOAu7RoiHO-OUvaB2eQ0sjR-OOUXh-YA1MlhCWMTP2L2Xbh3J2/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4JM4dlyV5l1ZqBIfrFY8dzvjSSyiQWl2bajkqH3zfHY3eYTamcNx6TIT4DgBSneV2_J80FX1Z1otzziRz7gfso0Op2RLOAu7RoiHO-OUvaB2eQ0sjR-OOUXh-YA1MlhCWMTP2L2Xbh3J2/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914. (1970). How the other half lives. New
York :Garrett Press,<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Matthew 2611 NIV<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-84218144902148891562021-12-24T05:54:00.001-08:002021-12-24T05:54:22.287-08:00A STUDY OF EVIL<p> <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>BUT FOR</b></span></p><h1 style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">I opened the door and walked into the back room of
the mess hall where I saw a shocking sight. A group of my shipmates, mostly
average, normal fellows but led by a sailor that had a reputation as a troublemaker,
chortled like children on a playground. They had an elderly, Vietnamese man in
black silks spread with his feet on a chair and this hands on the floor, making
him try to do pushups as some form of punishment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">His crime? He had tried to steal six oranges from
a garbage can in the kitchen of a mess hall in Camp Tien Sha, near Da Nang. He
was one of a group of locals allowed to work on the base and oranges were a
highly prized item for a people starved of its nutrients.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Mentally citing the “I have no authority. I only
came in to see what the commotion was about.” excuse, I muttered something to
the effect of “You guys are going to get in big trouble,” and left.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It was an act of cowardice equal to running away
in battle or abandoning a wounded comrade. I have regretted each day since, the
only faint solace being that I learned from it. At least I hope I did.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">I thought of the incident as I continued to peruse
the question of why people I once regarded as “normal shipmates,” so to speak,
now post slogans and perform acts that would have made Joseph Goebbels nod in
approval.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In the last chapter, we looked at the Milgram
experiments at Yale University indicating that ordinary people, if encouraged
by an authority figure, were willing to shock their fellow-citizens with what
they believed to be painful and potentially lethal levels of electricity.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Less than a decade later, another university experiment,
this one on the opposite shores of America shocked the academic, in fact the
whole, world. Called the “Stanford Prison Experiment,” it was a social
psychology study funded by the U.S. office of Naval Research. In it, college
students became prisoners or guards in a simulated prison environment conducted
in the basement of a building on the Stanford campus. As described in
Britannica:<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">“The experiment, … took place at Stanford
University in August 1971. It was intended to measure the effect of
role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behavior over a period of
two weeks. However, mistreatment of prisoners escalated so alarmingly that
principal investigator Philip G. Zimbardo terminated the experiment after only
six days.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It seems that things got out of hand, even in a simulated
experience. The prisoners became unruly and the guards became sadistic. All were
college students paid a stipend of (I seem to remember) $15.00 for their
participation. They had completed a questionnaire concerning their background, physical/mental
conditions, and other factors testing for normalcy. A simple coin toss determined
their roles as either guard or prisoner in the experience.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let’s just say that things went “hugely” awry. The
behavior of all participants was so extreme that the supervisors terminated the
experience, as noted, after six days of turmoil.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Much time has passed since the experiment became a
source of public examination. As with the Milgram experience, opinions abound. Interested
readers can <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1641622297214605848/8421814490214889156" target="_blank">find a fairly precise non-academic report</a> here.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">At any rate, the Stanford Experience initiated
much thinking as to how the granting of too much power can transform normal
individuals into sadistic monsters, or, as we choose to term it, converting the
terrifyingly normal into the efficiently evil.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Some understanding of the study’s meaning occurred
in 2003. That is when details of “enhanced interrogation” techniques employed by
average military personnel began seeping into the press from Abu Ghraib prison.
This was an American-run prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located some 20
miles west of Baghdad. There, prisoners detained as a result of America’s
invasion of Iraq awaited resolution.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Photographs snuck from the facility showed troopers—who
looked as if they may have been in one’s next-door back yard practicing basketball
a year before—performing acts on prisoners that would have made Tomás de
Torquemada smile. According to a report issued by U.S. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba
to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, these acts included:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Punching, slapping and kicking detainees;
jumping on their naked feet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Videotaping and photographing naked male and
female detainees.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually
explicit positions for photographing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and
keeping them naked for several days at a time.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s
underwear.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate
themselves while being photographed and videotaped.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and
then jumping on them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Positioning a naked detainee on a box, with a
sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to
simulate electric torture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Writing “I am a Rapest (sic)” on the leg of a
detainee accused of rape, and then photographing him naked.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked
detainee’s neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- A male MP guard having sex with a female
detainee.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to
intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely
injuring a detainee.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">- Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Heated debates still surround the issue. Many of
the prisoners, to be sure, harbored evil intentions not only against America in
particular, but against the non-Muslim world in general. Some no doubt harbored
information that, if disclosed, could save lives and prevent destruction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Many, though, suffered for undisclosed and
unproven claims. As with the Spanish Inquisition, rivals and seekers of gain did
not disdain from seeking to have their fellow citizens detained.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Opinions have become diametrically opposed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Opponents say, “America is better than this.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Proponents say, “Torturing one to save thousands
is not only justified, but imperative.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We are left to say, “What is normal and what is
not?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We might conclude that power is a societal gift
best granted with care, caution, and contemplation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnhA8BMyIkjwEpsGny4C6CpbCxr-vsraddk_BDlV7ussqoB3c9bB7x4gUCELHX5xc6fSTjMfrrtvN1y0Fw2WS68JUSdtEZWT9_xIMpGvtJlUiVACFkZbE0N4JHaDShgGsr6kpvCfN7eMMfcn4UQ8wH2e_E1gmiNcbWaCBNlJ2C-Xe0vPfBeR5jbKjq5w=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="256" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnhA8BMyIkjwEpsGny4C6CpbCxr-vsraddk_BDlV7ussqoB3c9bB7x4gUCELHX5xc6fSTjMfrrtvN1y0Fw2WS68JUSdtEZWT9_xIMpGvtJlUiVACFkZbE0N4JHaDShgGsr6kpvCfN7eMMfcn4UQ8wH2e_E1gmiNcbWaCBNlJ2C-Xe0vPfBeR5jbKjq5w" width="256" /></a></div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2020, May 5). Stanford Prison
Experiment. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Stanford-Prison-Experiment<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br />JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-26677732250426759882021-12-23T05:31:00.003-08:002021-12-23T05:39:19.468-08:00<p> <b>DEFENCES</b></p><h1><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p> Why do
normal people embrace evil? Setting aside the possibility of mental disorder, we
come to the so-called “Nuremberg Defense.” This emerged from the Nuremberg
trials following World War Two. In these surviving German leaders faced judgement before and International Military Tribunal (MIT) for horrendous crimes
perpetuated by Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">From the trials came the now-famous, and often
lampooned defense: “I was only following orders.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Later, In 1962, the concept arose again during the
trial of Adolph Eichmann, who was tasked with, and carried out energetically,
the “final solution” designed at the Wannsee Conference of 1942. Israeli agents
had captured Eichmann in Argentina and ferreted him to Jerusalem to stand trial.
While there, he wrote that he and other high-ranking officers were “forced to
serve as mere instruments.” Among the orders he followed, as such an
instrument, included directives to murder every last person in Europe
determined to be of Jewish descent as determined by precise laws established in
pre-war Germany. In Eichmann’s case, as has been mentioned earlier, the defense
didn’t work. His evil past hung with him as he hung from the scaffold.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">That same year, a Yale University psychologist,
Stanly Milgram, conducted a series of studies designed to test whether, indeed,
ordinary people, including our “terrifyingly normal,” would inflict harm upon
others when receiving orders from a higher authority.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
In other words, it was an experiment designed to test “Obedience to Authority.”
At the time, the results of the experiments indicated, rather alarmingly, that
ordinary people did, indeed, harbor a sea of evil potential.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The study has since enjoyed a great deal of
examination, criticism, support, and some refutation, What happened, though is
that test organizers convinced a group of student participants that they were
involved in a study to test the relationship between pain and cognizance. In
short, they were to apply electrical shocks, in increasing severity, to other
participants who gave wrong answers to questions in a highly controlled and
supervised situation. They administered the shocks, under the watch of variously
bedecked authority figures, to test participants in a controlled environment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reactions of the test victims were visible
and quite dramatic, as they should have been for they, and the authority figures,
were actually actors. The degree of electrical shock, at times theoretically
lethal, applied under orders didn’t actually shock the participants, but it did
shock the academic community when the results were published.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We’ll drop anchor for a short spell for the readers
to carry out some homework, under orders of course. Anyone interested in the
evil performed while following orders must read <a href="https://nature.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article35.htm" target="_blank">an account of the Milgramexperiments.</a> They still shock.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQ0pzQs1hBECeNO5TFagC94yyGt0huZc66jl8svW78m98qURgejFpmXlofvl1k0ov2AGJncpz6q8UhQj02mATTQDIk9ePvQTH4tBWi2vAS-kCeUDhU61mbX0-Kh-tDxpZtN8bTVcWMtHxMr7DaHj6pZ7DhmWgu3AtdsMcpgE7uxF5iMRCDfusvMmh-YA=s608" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="435" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQ0pzQs1hBECeNO5TFagC94yyGt0huZc66jl8svW78m98qURgejFpmXlofvl1k0ov2AGJncpz6q8UhQj02mATTQDIk9ePvQTH4tBWi2vAS-kCeUDhU61mbX0-Kh-tDxpZtN8bTVcWMtHxMr7DaHj6pZ7DhmWgu3AtdsMcpgE7uxF5iMRCDfusvMmh-YA=s320" width="229" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Introduction to the Holocaust.”
Holocaust Encyclopedia. <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust.%20Accessed%20on%20December%2023">https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust.
Accessed on December 23</a>, 2021.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Milgram. S (1963)
Behavioural Study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67,
371-78.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Brown, R. (1986). Social Forces in Obedience and Rebellion. Social Psychology:
The Second Edition. New York: The Free Press.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-11555192153370537162021-12-21T06:59:00.003-08:002021-12-21T07:02:26.923-08:00<p> <a name="_Toc90961646" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>ROOTS</b></a></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p><b>Mentality</b> Do those among us simply sit
around and think up evil deeds to perform? It seems that way sometimes. Let’s
look into the mental side of the problem.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The human genome includes all of the approximately
three billion base pairs of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that make up the entire
set of chromosomes of the human organism. It includes the coding regions of
DNA, which encode all the genes (between 20,000 and 25,000) of the human
organism, as well as the noncoding regions of DNA, which do not encode any
genes.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Researchers now know the entire sequence of the
human genome. What we may never now is how the unimaginable number of connections,
triggers, controllers, and inhibitors within a specific person operate. A minute
transaction may control how we determine a sexual mate. Another minor transaction
may determine our sense of gender. Another may control our ability to perform
essential daily functions. Another may affect our inability to perform music,
create art, understand mathematics, or billions of other mental and sensory
results.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Could such a connection, or combination of connections,
affect our sense of wrong and right? Perhaps. That is a question for more competent
minds.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We may note, however, that we do generally accept
the existence of persons who are pathologically prone to criminal or violent
behavior. Many of these fall into one of two categories. They may be classified
as a psychopath, generally considered to be born that way, or a sociopath, the
product of one’s environment. In other words, one is, or learns to be, that
way.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">The DSM-5<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
defines such antisocial personality as someone having three or more of the
following traits:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Regularly breaks or flouts the law<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Constantly lies and deceives others<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Is impulsive and doesn’t plan ahead<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Can be prone to fighting and aggressiveness<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Has little regard for the safety of others<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Irresponsible, can’t meet financial obligations<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Doesn’t feel remorse or guilt<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Psychopathy: Realizing the danger that
generalizations represent, we note that not all psychopaths or sociopaths represent
carriers of violent evil intent. Of the two, however, psychopathy ranks higher
as a dangerous disorder because its representatives experience less guilt connected
with one’s actions and a greater ability to disassociate from them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">A detailed discussion of these so-called anti-social
disorders (ADPs) lies far beyond the scope of this modest effort at examining
root causes of evil. Let us just say that some evil my flow from mental
disorders that are sometimes difficult to spot, either in children or as adults.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In addition to being among those we listed in
previous chapter as <b>Supreme Catalysts</b>, ones who conceive evil, persons listed
as ADP are also likely to be what we call <b>Takers of Advantage</b>, or the
ones who do the dirty work of evil intent. In this, many might be especially
prone to propaganda or selective reinforcement. We can only conjecture as to
the impact of hours spend, in an increasing state of agitation, watching or
listening to propaganda spiced heavily with falsehood, inuendo, and blame.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One only needs to remember the effect of hate-radio
upon the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 in which an estimated 800,000 were killed
in a space of 100 days. Of a far lesser case of magnitude, but nonetheless disturbing
to Americans, were the events of January 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It is crucial to understand the relationship between mental minefields and provocative catalysts.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj0rEFEGRGb1-2ElK-X320Zb87_zRp_QRkHavvTslgoiR5Gzv90bAcv97uUQ7LZk1x0BV3UOoWVSIJ3oskh3nLET82j6vkbDeYAD9lOiybL66tuT35Vl_rCEhtZfbssMvQlGtHzgHCHj6DC0hOzLC4Cqt79fHNvYHFIJGXY1mC30ROax_ns_An-0Pur9g=s256" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj0rEFEGRGb1-2ElK-X320Zb87_zRp_QRkHavvTslgoiR5Gzv90bAcv97uUQ7LZk1x0BV3UOoWVSIJ3oskh3nLET82j6vkbDeYAD9lOiybL66tuT35Vl_rCEhtZfbssMvQlGtHzgHCHj6DC0hOzLC4Cqt79fHNvYHFIJGXY1mC30ROax_ns_An-0Pur9g" width="256" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Fridovich-Keil, J. L. (2019, February 15). human genome. Encyclopedia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/human-genome<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
DSM–5 is a book prepared by the American Psychiatric Association that contains
standard classifications of mental disorders used by mental health
professionals in the United States.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div></div></div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-35553040509923519232021-12-20T07:06:00.002-08:002021-12-20T07:06:14.722-08:00<p> <b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">CAUSES</span></b></p><h1 style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Some of our greatest thinkers have studied the evil
done by evil people. But what causes a “terrifyingly normal” person to do evil
as one of the types covered in the last chapter? Let us steer carefully into
that whirlpool.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">First, we must mind a prevalent lesson from statistical
analysis. Perhaps the strongest correlation with evil to be found in historical
accounts is religion. Better minds than ours must attempt to determine if religion
is the cause of evil or if religion is simply the excuse. We’ll steer around
that question as best we can. We might note that one modern writer posits that,
given the limitations of direct personal control over others, a major function
of myth is to permit the control of many by a few.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Thus we veer toward correlation and causation merging in the case of evil.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">As a prelude to causation, in the last chapter we discussed
the types of evildoers. At the next level, now let us examine a litany of the
most common catalysts for evil in the history of our species.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Punishment:</b> This may be the most common
source of evil actions. Bart Ehrman covered this thoroughly in his work on
suffering (Ehrman, 2008). The use of evil for punishment by omnipotent spirits
is common in Hebrew literature. Disobedience is perhaps the most common
instigator. Examples include the imposition of the agony of childbirth<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
for the gender of a species. Perhaps the most virulent involved the near annihilation
of all species on earth.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Other religion-based punishments don’t involve a
particular motivating act, i.e. sin, by the victims. Consider the innocents of
the City of Jericho, going about their business.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Some examples involve actions on victims for deeds that we might view as
untoward but not worthy of violent punishment, say the acts of some young boys
in ridiculing a bald man.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Being torn apart by wild beasts would seem a little “over the top” by modern
standards.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Some societies attempt to create punishment that
equated to a crime. Thus, the punishment for the wanton murder of an innocent
is a long period of contemplation followed by the imposition of 2,000 volts of
electricity through the perpetrator’s body.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Revenge:</b> Again, this is a major determinant
involved in the imposition of evil. Sometimes the connection is apparent, say
Hiroshima and Nagasaki for Pearl Harbor. Other times, the connection becomes
skewed, say the bombing of Baghdad for 9-11.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The act of revenge can allow be personal. A young
Julius Caesar was once kidnapped by pirates. After paying off the ransom,
Caesar raised an army, captured the pirates and had them crucified.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Acts of revenge can also serve as acts of education.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Victory:</b> Nothing seems to motivate the evil
angels of our nature more than victory in war. Ask the Midianites who faced the
following wrath after defeat in battle: “Now kill all the boys. And kill every
woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has
never slept with a man.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
More recently, we might ask German families about the provisions of the Treaty
of Versailles following their country’s defeat in World War One.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Cleansing:</b> See Wannsee Conference.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This is, reportedly, from where the Final Solution to ridding Europe of all Jews
emerged.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Law:</b> The use of law to promulgate evil provides
an unusual difficult task. First, we are not legal scholars. Second, laws
derive from many sources, tradition, constitutions, statutes, and ordinances. A
particularly needling fact is that, increasingly, our national state, local,
and local laws emerge from iron-age writings by unknown authors in distant
lands. Third, power determines the validity and enforcement of laws. So, we get
the so-called “Nuremberg Laws” <a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
that legalized the persecution of Jews in Germany and the “Jim Crow Laws”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
that legalized the persecution of African-Americans in the modern South.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Guilt:</b> James A. Michener, in his classic <i>Tales
of the South Pacific</i>, recounts how educated military members noticed
curious phenomenon among South Pacific Islanders. These groups lived in what might
be described as “paradise on earth:” No disease, ample food for the taking, and
a moderate climate. In response, some had formed some of the cruelest religions
imaginable. They termed this “Paradise Syndrome” which has come to include
individuals of such great wealth and success that they feel they no longer have
anything left in life to accomplish. Perhaps this might account for the fact that
the poorest among us sometimes find a peace that eludes the better off, who think
up evil as a pastime. See: “Legislator.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9DvlCKbJYefQm1oiEzdega-A4xSt0pv7fqvDdOBp_C1wKc_VACVWnDzrwvHua2TaSCfGb4Uzc3T3JsrKqriD6YwC9_X4Am6ZimJPjsLoP5oTMEvUL4HN2U9aN9C8nUU_xfp58zKc_NGlDU_uRFP39Rtnj0VRxoOI5HD9l_VFOLLAZJfEeMqnM09f7qA=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg9DvlCKbJYefQm1oiEzdega-A4xSt0pv7fqvDdOBp_C1wKc_VACVWnDzrwvHua2TaSCfGb4Uzc3T3JsrKqriD6YwC9_X4Am6ZimJPjsLoP5oTMEvUL4HN2U9aN9C8nUU_xfp58zKc_NGlDU_uRFP39Rtnj0VRxoOI5HD9l_VFOLLAZJfEeMqnM09f7qA" width="256" /></a></div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Harari, Yuval N. author. ( 2015). Sapiens : a brief history of humankind. New
York :Harper,<b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Genesis 3.16<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Genesis 6-9<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Joshua 6:21-25<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> 2 Kings 2:23-24<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Britannica, T. Editors of
Encyclopaedia (Invalid Date). The Time Julius Caesar Was Captured by Pirates.
Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/story/the-time-julius-caesar-was-captured-by-pirates<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Numbers 31: 14-18<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Berenbaum, M. (2021,
January 13). Wannsee Conference. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wannsee-Conference<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Bradsher, Greg, The Nuremberg
Laws, The National Archives, Winter 2010, Vol. 42, No. 4<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Urofsky, M. I. (2021,
September 20). Jim Crow law. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Jim-Crow-law<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br />JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-85495615905654125772021-12-19T08:21:00.004-08:002021-12-19T08:46:05.250-08:00A Study of Evil<p> <b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">LEVELS</span></b></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Is all evil equal in scope? Hardly. Bearing false
witness may get one person sent to prison and another elected to high office. Each
day we overlook those who endanger others by careless and evil actions. There
are scales and degrees. Let us say levels of evil behavior.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">One can’t imagine or discuss, though, the Holocaust
without classifying it as one of the most evil phenomenon ever perpetrated by a
group of individuals. In a spirit not of simplification but of management, let
us use it, along with the cleansing of Cambodia, the purges of modern Russia,
and others as ore from which we might mine answers. How did those atrocities
occur in the presence of knowing witnesses? Who were the prime movers, who the
secondary, and who was further down the line? This will require a great deal of
value judgements, but that is precisely why we use these examples.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Following is a suggested order of the primacy of
evil phenomenon:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Supreme Catalysts</b>: Adolph Hitler, Joseph
Stalin, and Pol Pot come to mind immediately. Let us simply say that, at this
level of evildoing, the evil phenomenon in question may have never happened, or
at least would have never reached its level of ferocity had these individuals
died at birth or some point prior to the culmination of the onslaught of evil. In
History’s Gallery of Evil, they and their lot hold the highest of thrones.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Takers of Advantage</b>: Let us take Tomás de
Torquemada, (born 1420, Valladolid, Castile [Spain]—died September 16, 1498,
Ávila, Castile), first grand inquisitor in Spain, whose name has become
synonymous with the Christian Inquisition’s horror, religious bigotry, and
cruel fanaticism.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The Spanish Inquisition would likely have occurred
had Torquemada never been born. He was able, though, to attach it to a
disenoblement of human history, even religion, itself. (Yes, I know that’s
probably not a word, but it’s the only term I could think of.) His motivation
died with him but it is not hard to imagine that the enrichment of friends and
associates, or even himself, may have played a part.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The crew of sycophants who surround the Takers of
Advantage often seek advantage of their own. Hitler could not have conducted
his evil empire nearly as effectively without the support of those like
Himmler, Eichmann, Goering, Speer, and Goebbels. We only need to turn on our
TVs today to see the faces of modern sycophants seeking to ride the evil tide,
one created by their master, to glory, fame, power, or riches.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Closer to the historical home front, it makes us
shudder to learn that some of the financial leaders of New York City wanted to
recognize the Confederacy, and its evil purpose, because of their close association
with cotton producers.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
To paraphrase a modern idiom, “Money talks and honor walks.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Riders Along:</b> Moving a step down from those
who gain from evil, we find those who simply go along with for reasons hidden
from view. This begins what many now feel is the truly frightening levels of the
“movers and shakers” of evil doings. They enable evil before our very eyes because
we have classified them as decent, honorable people. Consider the American general
who allowed his troops to capture free Americans and transport them to slave states.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Continuing with the Nazi example, (perhaps the
most familiar to us) we find a scale of perpetuators ranging from the commander
of the submarine that sank the Lusitania to the Prussian general corps. They
allow the winds of evil to fill the sails of history.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Turners of Heads:</b> Even more frightening is
the group that sees evil and does nothing. We will seek motivations in the next
chapter. Let’s just say for now that these represent the rudders that are never
turned though the shoals are quite visible and dead ahead. Apathy destroys by
allowing evil to destroy.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Members of a Mob:</b> Of all the members of the
forces of evil, this is the only group that might ultimately express
repentance. Unable to deny participation, their only defense is having chosen
poorly because of the excitement and delirium of the moment. Sadly, they often
must stand before the smoldering ruins they have created when seeking our understanding
or forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Takers of Scalps:</b> The most disgusting
movers of evil don’t take part in its execution. They don’t claim participation
in any group associated with the damage it causes. When pressed, they deny even
being on the scene. But they were. They are like the nonparticipants who rush
onto the scene of battle after the warriors have left and proceed to scalp the
wounded and rob the dead. All they do, they say, is “report the facts.” Today,
as most of us know, facts are not “stubborn things,” as John Adams once said. Instead,
they are proprietary things, as owners of news channels use them. <o:p></o:p>Others claim to represent the Galilean while preaching
the opposite of his words like some religious episode of the comic book empire
of “Bizzaro World.”</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The flotilla of evildoers looms large. Do we dare
question their choice of courses to travel? Stay tuned.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2bqTKJCqXY7D4cN0Z-892TaP6PW60APSWPSx1vO-y4BrtwCVe2qEjecH548NDiKIq_6g6tVs3aC1e6dYoGZ-a5ZdqVtEemreWV9TK-UciwfFD9hcOrevT7p-9CGO7eMSsPDknJ8JE8UGy-yrUPbwzGCOBL_MyVTWkj_xHww_TyQ4kBa-WhNFWHQ-jNA=s1080" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="1080" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2bqTKJCqXY7D4cN0Z-892TaP6PW60APSWPSx1vO-y4BrtwCVe2qEjecH548NDiKIq_6g6tVs3aC1e6dYoGZ-a5ZdqVtEemreWV9TK-UciwfFD9hcOrevT7p-9CGO7eMSsPDknJ8JE8UGy-yrUPbwzGCOBL_MyVTWkj_xHww_TyQ4kBa-WhNFWHQ-jNA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2021, September 12). Tomás de
Torquemada. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tomas-de-Torquemada<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Widner, Ted. Lincoln on the Verge New York: Simon and Shuster, 2020<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-39063687392651819622021-12-18T05:56:00.005-08:002021-12-18T06:17:21.508-08:00<p> <b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Choosing
a Course</span></b></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>We have chosen to pursue a course that separates a
discussion evil from a concomitant discussion of religion. So far, this has
proven difficult, and will be more so, as we shall see. Disregarding the evil
done in the name of religion requires that we sail by some of the great evils
of history such as the Spanish Inquisition. That’s not a welcome task, particularly
when we note that some of the actions of the Torquemada Band may have been aimed
more at the accruing of wealth and the consolidation of power than achieving
religious purity.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">To maintain our intellectual rigging, we turn once
again to concept that evil is done by real people against real people.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">This leads into the choppy waters of free will. A
person or group of persons must consciously decide to commit evil. Or is evil
always a conscious decision? Let us postpone that discussion for the present in
favor of a consideration of free will, notwithstanding its source
or motivation.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">A detailed examination of free would take us into unknown
and perilous waters from which, like the Flying Dutchman, we would be doomed to
wander eternally and hopelessly with no chance for rest in a comforting port. <a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let us, in <i>arguendo</i>,<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
as our attorney friends would say, limit our concept to as sparse a concept as
possible, to wit:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">A person has some kind of power to control his or
her actions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">When a person exercises free will over choices and
actions, those choices and actions are up to them. In what way are those
actions up to them? (1) They are up to them in the sense that hey are able to
choose otherwise, or at minimum that they are able not to choose or act as they
do. (2) They are the source of their actions.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">In this “intellectually close-reefed” definition, we
are able to examine a brief sampling of actions from ancient history to present
times.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Adolph Hitler exercised free will when making
decisions that led to the Holocaust.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Joseph Stalin exercised free will in actions
that led to the death of over 20 million people, including entire families and
close friends.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Vlad the Impaler exercised free will in making
decisions that killed some 20 percent of the population of Wallacha. I spare
readers the details of the impaling, only noting that the same system was used by
members of one sect over another in the religious wars of Europe which
contributed to the mass migration to America and the insistence of its founders
that religion and government would always remain separate.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Pol Pot of Cambodia exercised free will in orchestrating
the death of around 2 million of his countrymen, about 25 % of the entire
population. Frightenly, one of the criteria for execution was the wearing of eyeglasses
which, as is well known, indicates a person of learning and intelligence.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">And so it goes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">On a minor scale, in an action of which most Americans
are familiar, the individuals who attacked our nation’s capitol on January 6,
2021, who defaced and dishonored this noble structure from which Abraham Lincoln
once appealed to, "The better angels of our nature,” threatened to murder our elected officials,
and slaughtered, or attempted to slaughter, its police force, exercised free will,
as did anyone who may have sought to motivate them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Feeling a little seasick? Let us go below and
rest.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjZT1zdZWFDrKyyGP9_FhK_N1XTr9dFY_7hmOZNFfnB-rERzJa7FzEvBfvC2afbACkGCjBiziMVcP1O0gHvBbkF7TRbDyEuuVJZYaxtxiAHWXLvYZXt-YR-Ewi5pt11DgK2r1R3ITj6q27bPwY3NE8VfPzd1tvLjbfo-R79ZMSQXmYVVFcN--W1JDeXw=s1440" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjZT1zdZWFDrKyyGP9_FhK_N1XTr9dFY_7hmOZNFfnB-rERzJa7FzEvBfvC2afbACkGCjBiziMVcP1O0gHvBbkF7TRbDyEuuVJZYaxtxiAHWXLvYZXt-YR-Ewi5pt11DgK2r1R3ITj6q27bPwY3NE8VfPzd1tvLjbfo-R79ZMSQXmYVVFcN--W1JDeXw=s320" width="240" /></a></div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2017, April 26). Flying Dutchman.
Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Flying-Dutchman<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> A Latin term meaning
"in arguing" or "for the sake of argument".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one assumes something arguendo, the person
is asserting a hypothetical or other statement for the purpose of argument.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
O’Connor, Timothy and Christopher Franklin, "Free Will", The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/freewill/>.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br />JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-40763171152138487572021-12-16T06:38:00.003-08:002021-12-16T06:38:47.675-08:00A Study of Evil<p> <b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Taking
Our Bearings</span></b></p><h1 style="margin-left: .5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>Now comes the difficult part of our quest. Our sounding
tells us we are in deep waters. In order to consider evil, we must, indeed talk
about it. It ranks at the bottom of the things about which we like to talk.
But, talk about it we must.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We eliminated evil spirits and such early on and pledged
to limit our discussion to acts of individuals, or groups of individuals,
against individuals, or groups of individuals.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What constitutes evil? It might be a simple act in
which perpetrators compromise the well-being of the victims. In ancient societies
(and some not so ancient) what we might call “the power force” denied certain
groups various forms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in myriad actions.
Sequestrations from the right to vote to the right to use a public restroom may
fall within this list. Oh, and what about the right of a happy couple to purchase
a wedding cake?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Some sociologists refer to this entry-level evil
as the imposition of social death. In America, we know of this primarily as the
avowed intention of the imprisonment of prisoners for crimes. One writer says
of social death that, “a unifying feature is that it is used to comment on the way
people may be regarded as if they are something other than human or no longer a
person.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We all know of actions at the top ranking of evil
acts and little reason exists in visiting them at this point. Discussions of
the gradations between the lower rungs and the higher could fill entire libraries.
And they have. To simplify our task, but to focus on severity, let us consider four
test cases.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case One:</b> Individual A and Individual B
have harbored bad relations for months. Individual A invites Individual B to
his house to resolve their difficulties. During the discussion Individual A begins
to taunt Individual B with a series of virulent and personal epithets. When Individual
B can stand the taunts no longer, he threatens to assault Individual B who, without
warning, produces a firearm from a coat pocket and places one shot into the
head of the other, killing him instantly. No signs of pain or prolonged
suffering appear. Individual A smiles, blows the smoke from the end of his
weapon, twirls it “cowboy style,” replaces it, and utters a simple “That’ll teach
you.” He then calls the police.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Two:</b> A group is holding a man
prisoner, demanding that he produce some information that is key to their
intentions. He goes without food or water and suffers daily beatings. Each time
he nears death, his captors provide a meager sustenance that keeps him alive
for another day. When they despair of meeting their ends, they cease the beatings
and the sustenance. The prisoner languishes in agony for several days. His groans
of agony and pleas for help resound through the building. When they know he is
dead, his captors burn his body and spread the ashes discreetly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Three:</b> A group is holding a man prisoner.
Though he receives food and drink, each day his captors enter his cell and remind
him of the exact day and time on which he will face execution. Day after day,
the ritual is the same. This fills the tiny cell: Days remaining, hours
remaining, minutes remaining, sometimes seconds remaining, and the exact method
by which he will face eternity. There is no hope for retrieve, his captors tell
him. Then they recite again the litany of time remaining. Each day his despair
and lack of hope hang heavier around his neck, invading and torturing him
mercilessly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Four:</b> A young child is cruelly damaged
by an evil source. A cure exists that will remove the child’s pain and agony.
As the child writhes in pain, caregivers withhold the cure, stating that the
withholding is in the best interest of the child. Though suffering greatly, the
child manages to survive the ordeal but with a terrible disfigurement that a
simple medical procedure could have prevented.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The attentive among you may have guessed by now.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case One</b>: Individual A acted totally within his legal
rights, according to some state laws, including those of my state of Arkansas.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Two</b>: This process is considered appropriate
by the military leaders of many countries, including some, blessedly not all, high-ranking
members of our own.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Three</b>: This ordeal faces every prisoner now
sitting on death row.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><b>Case Four</b>: Unless a “Saul on the Road to Damascus Moment”
floods our nation’s Supreme Court, every young girl in America may someday face
this ordeal.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Dealing with the concept of evil will not prove pleasant
sailing.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJ2ID2vid6lV9gJ3TmTlhfFrGDWcj5dOfKFUojps8G38XoH_oVphKDvsSSm4O8xCzRohY_ANNJEZCxAp2mmtWAVNdjeNJL6Cl4X8jPthd4q9dq-P6le6TYyJNs6Y1XT4p3Wid9Embwwbkr5wNHpG8vNDJx0P9q7U0Ue5UAlG9oQP8K_u3YmZck_6eDeQ=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJ2ID2vid6lV9gJ3TmTlhfFrGDWcj5dOfKFUojps8G38XoH_oVphKDvsSSm4O8xCzRohY_ANNJEZCxAp2mmtWAVNdjeNJL6Cl4X8jPthd4q9dq-P6le6TYyJNs6Y1XT4p3Wid9Embwwbkr5wNHpG8vNDJx0P9q7U0Ue5UAlG9oQP8K_u3YmZck_6eDeQ" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Borgstrum. E. Social Death. QJM” An International Journal of Medicine, 20017,
5-7<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-57656831271849544752021-12-15T05:54:00.004-08:002021-12-15T06:06:08.676-08:00<p> <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Becalmed</span></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>We find ourselves becalmed now in a sea of doubt.
If we are to study evil, we must tackle some headwinds in our pursuit of its
actual nature.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The first item we find floating past is the concept
of context. Anyone who has dealt with modern religious aficionados knows that
this is a common defense of doctrinal contradictions. The “taken out of context”
explanation ranks only second to the “his ways ain’t our ways” dodge.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Some modern “theologians” would no doubt find
themselves unable to speak if forbidden the use of the phrase “out of context.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">An anecdotal story from my own life can set the
stage for an explanation of how tricky the concept of context becomes when
applied to real-life situations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Someone who was very dear to me was taken from a
rural life on an Arkansas farm in the mid-1940s and mustered into the United
States Army to go and fight the Axis powers in Europe. There, he survived
unspeakable horrors before his side won. He would speak of artillery attacks in
which he, “would want to live one second longer, just one second.” He also
told of a stray shell, listlessly fired by Germans during the last days of the
war, taking off the head of “the shortest man standing in line for chow.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The Army disbanded his division, the 79<sup>th</sup>
Infantry, after VE day and he moved to the First Infantry Division.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Yes, that First Infantry Division: The Big Red One.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Remember that the U.S. was still at war with Japan
at that time, and that country’s leaders had vowed resistance to an invasion by
every man, woman, and child in the country, using every cannon, gun, plane, knife,
sword, implement, stone, and stick available. Not a pleasant scenario for a member
of a unit renowned for being assigned to “the first wave.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">When evil prevents evil, is evil sanctified by context?
Was the vaporizing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians through the
first use of nuclear weapons—an evil end that eliminated further resistance and
obviated the end of plans for further military invasions—justified?<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We will be debating that question when the remaining
homo sapiens take their last breaths, sigh and say, “Look what our hands have
wrought.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Spoiler alert: The man in question survived the war
and occupation, returned home, married, and helped produce a beautiful daughter
to whom I am still married after 49 years.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It gets murkier, not the story but the
consideration of context.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We drift along and encounter some complicated
concepts. They are far beyond the scope of this amateur analysis but deserve
mentioning.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The first is one currently in play with regard to
the idea of sexual orientation. We shouldn’t tack anywhere near that emotional
squall, or must we? We’ll see.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">The concept is one called “social constructionism.”
This is a theory stating that characteristics typically thought to be immutable
and solely biological—such as gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality—are
products of human definition and interpretation.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It only requires a look at how the female of our
species fares in an historical context to see the ideas creating social
construction as a valid concept. In early creation myths, woman is sometimes simply
a catalyst for the development of man.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Later, she becomes property, the earliest forms of marriage simply being a contract
by which a man protected his harem from theft or, uh, invasion.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
In some later societies, woman enjoyed the simple definition of a thing possessing
ovaries. We follow a tortuous path of supporting roles to modern times wherein,
as a social construction, we create “categories based on certain bodily
features; we attach meanings to these categories, and then we place people into
the categories by considering their bodies or bodily aspects.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Let us steer from the dangerous shoals and drop in
on the Wannsee Conference outside Berlin on January 20. 1942. There, with the
aid of a translator no doubt, we hear high-ranking Nazi officials determining
what some historians call “the final solution,” i.e. which innocent humans deserved
to be slaughtered by the regime and how. We hear them deciding if a person’s “Jewishness”
(a major standard for extermination) relied on a fractional portion of racial “blood”
or perhaps whether an individual considered herself, himself, or, one supposes,
their children, Jews. What is particularly terrifying is that their production
goal (11 million) relied on countries which they hadn’t yet conquered but would
get to as soon as they finished with Russia.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Those decisions were social constructs, not
fact-based. The evil was not that the victims were Jews. The evil was that the
Nazis slaughtered six million of them. Perhaps (almost) all of us can agree
that this was not an act perpetuated by “some fine people."<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Ahh. A breeze. Let us sail away from this dreadful
spot.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNHk7Oe0wlR4zYHkqxoSE_c5iMFBjVRSNj8V6Bl-wYqjUqE0vM7B91lEr5-veHCRRhmgWQyXlvWIuryxTTRPbHt1PQz8XUxBVkLxBvNg8niK_gSCHB3ODRRnHrB34Uau3bFePaj_qZypFzlAerY8kFUkOYc0-_qnxWSO0FOzdlY2U-5JLKG3Re_Ff0Dw=s256" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNHk7Oe0wlR4zYHkqxoSE_c5iMFBjVRSNj8V6Bl-wYqjUqE0vM7B91lEr5-veHCRRhmgWQyXlvWIuryxTTRPbHt1PQz8XUxBVkLxBvNg8niK_gSCHB3ODRRnHrB34Uau3bFePaj_qZypFzlAerY8kFUkOYc0-_qnxWSO0FOzdlY2U-5JLKG3Re_Ff0Dw" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
See: Hersey, J. (1946). Hiroshima. New York: A.A. Knopf.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Saraswati, A. P. L. A.,
Shaw, A. P. B., & Rellihan, H. (2017). Introduction to women’s, gender, and
sexuality studies. Oxford University Press.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Genisis: 2:4-25 NIV<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Durant, Will, and Ariel
Durant. The Story of Civilization. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Saraswati, et al, op cit<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-87122048098858277282021-12-14T06:00:00.001-08:002021-12-14T06:03:19.191-08:00<p> <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Traversing
the Narrows</span></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>In seeking a temporary working definition of evil,
let us first say that it is an act of humankind, to be distinguished from the mysterious
workings of a spirit, a phenomenon, or a god. As an act, it must be planned and
enacted by a person or persons. As an act, it must be planned and executed against
a person or persons. As an act, it must deprive a person or persons of the
ability to continue life in a state of well-being, safety, and opportunity. Finally,
as an act, it must involve intent.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Accepting these for the present, questions arise
immediately. If we accept the fact that evil thrives from the actions of a
prime agent, say an Adolph Hitler, are there attendant gradations?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Are those who support the actions of the prime
agent themselves the doers of evil? This becomes cloudy if the support falls within
the acts of nationalism. It can lead to what we might call the Nuremburg
Defense.” As mentioned earlier Adolph Eichmann used it later after being
captured by Israeli agents and put on trial in Jerusalem for his role in the
murder of millions of Jews and other innocents. As a primary functionary in the
Holocaust, he claimed that he was “only following orders.” His performance
during the trial prompted writer Hannah Eichmann to observe:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">“The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so
many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that
they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint
of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this
normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Are seemingly normal people who are drawn into evil
acts under the spell of a charismatic leader guilty of the evil acts resulting
from the following of orders? This question becomes a complex one when we consider
orders that aren’t given directly. Instead, they may be implanted by nefarious
sources and strengthened by repetition until the irrational among us assume
that they are called to an almost divine directive. The resulting rampaging mob
may not represent “some fine people” but it does contain, among its throbbing
mass, some who we had once considered “terribly and terrifyingly normal.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Speaking of following orders, at least one
religious figurehead ordained that we do not judge others in order that we,
ourselves, might not be judged.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
If we are to understand the nature of evil at all, however, we must resolve the
question of “moral obedience,” a possible one-time act that resulted from
achieving a stated end. Standing in opposition to this is the Kantian concept
of “moral imperative,” or conduct that is absolute and not dependent upon any
desire or end.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Further, though not
widely researched, evidence exists that German soldiers who refused a part in
the murder of the innocents were not punished but simply reassigned.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">There, at the end of the day’s cruise, we must, I
think, abandon the obedience, or Nuremburg, defense. The ashes of the innocent
that still cover the fields of Europe demand it of us.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilqY8JT-kM-kCSezBDAHsemXtmsF8rVAOTMqFpbcNor1WLcBnNUBU0cEDtMcBIZwLMqswwhV4GTH_oP-DauVWzdTmfjgcayDEblraBc2j0lnvfg-BK2RFFls4Zjmf87frsHXeU7kaXQwzGLv29ZDA5Osf8EHb4-oOBLX0Q6QuNEYQXFjSv-8oe9bEZ_g=s256" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="256" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEilqY8JT-kM-kCSezBDAHsemXtmsF8rVAOTMqFpbcNor1WLcBnNUBU0cEDtMcBIZwLMqswwhV4GTH_oP-DauVWzdTmfjgcayDEblraBc2j0lnvfg-BK2RFFls4Zjmf87frsHXeU7kaXQwzGLv29ZDA5Osf8EHb4-oOBLX0Q6QuNEYQXFjSv-8oe9bEZ_g" width="256" /></a></div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Arendt, Hannah, op cit<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Matthew 7:1 NIV<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Kant, I., & Beck, L.
W. (1956). Critique of practical reason. New York: Liberal Arts Press.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Goldhagen, D. J. (1996). Hitler's willing executioners: Ordinary Germans and
the Holocaust. New York: Knopf.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-16083644481503307782021-12-13T05:35:00.004-08:002021-12-13T05:41:03.383-08:00A Study of Evil<p> <span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">FROM
MYTH TO REALITY</span></p><h1 style="margin-left: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><o:p> </o:p>Now it becomes even more complicated. We can no
longer attribute the uncomfortable or disturbing to myth or to the “works in
mysterious ways” explanation. We now have actual figures from history burning
opponents alive, pouring liquid metal down the throats of prisoners, lowering followers
of different religious sects onto sharpened stakes, or hanging children for
petty crimes. We look for origins, sadly I might add.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p> </o:p>T.S. Eliot began his classic poem The Waste Land<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></a>,
with simple lines since borrowed by every cub reporter who has had the chance
to write an editorial about springtime:</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">“<i>April is the cruellest month …</i>”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">None bother to quote it with the next few lines.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"><i>“April is the cruellest month, breeding<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><i>Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><i>Memory and desire, stirring<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><i>Dull roots with spring rain.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><i>Winter kept us warm, covering<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: left;"><i>Earth in forgetful snow, feeding<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacingCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;"><i>A little life with dried tubers.”<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">So what do we have here?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">While offering no claim to be a scholar worthy of
analyzing Eliot, I did take the time once to follow the references that he
offered to understanding his poem. This led to a reading of the (abridged
version) of Sir James George Frazier’s monumental work <i>The Golden Bough, A
Study in Magic and Religion</i>.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
That work offers an interesting tack into the trade winds of history.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Frazier recounts how, in humankind’s quest for
explanations of the world, it shifted from magic to religion and, ultimately to
science. Of magic, he found two forms, one an imitative (replication the sounds
of thunder, for example) and one based on a sympathetic relationship between
causes, i.e. religion. He eventually discounts each as a false, “association of
ideas” and credits science with the best avenue for dealing with uncertainties.
Of course magic and science did not fail to intermix, as in the case of alchemy
for example.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Enough of that. What interests us here are the
sections in which Frazier deals with the fear that primitive societies held
that the world each fall and winter, requiring specific actions for a rebirth
in the spring.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">What could be a greater manifestation of
sympathetic magic than the sacrificing of strong and/or beautiful victims in order to restore the vitality of the Earth?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Who among us, though, could now doubt the evil in an act of
leading a beautiful young virgin, or the tribe’s strongest young male, to an
alter to be sacrificed, sometimes horribly, in order that the tribe might bring
forth sustenance for the community during the coming year? Of course if youth
and beauty were in short supply, as well as virgins, the burning of a man, say
a stranger, might suffice.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Yes, for some April was indeed the cruelest month in
light of the vegetation rituals that became, according to Frazier, pervasive throughout
the planet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Associated with all this is a companion belief
that the well-being of a tribe, nation, or society is equivalent to the vitality
of its king, or leader. Thus, we get odd, and some might say evil, practices in
some societies by which the aging king rules until a younger one murders him.
In fact, Frazier begins his lengthy work with a description of such a practice
in ancient Greece. The passage bears repeating:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span><i>“In antiquity this sylvan landscape was the scene
of a strange and recurring tragedy. On the northern shore of the lake . . .
stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Wood
[fertility goddess of Classical Roman tradition] . . . . [in] this sacred grove
there grew a certain tree round which at any time of day, and probably far into
the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn
sword, and he kept peering warily about him as if at every instant he expected
to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer; and the man for
whom he looked was sooner or later to murder him and hold the priesthood in his
stead. Such was the rule of the sanctuary. A candidate for the priesthood could
only succeed to office by slaying the priest, and having slain him, he retained
office till he was himself slain by a stronger or craftier . . . The post which
he held by this precarious tenure carried with it the title of king [King of
the Wood–Rex Nemorensis]; but surely no crowned head ever lay uneasier, or was
visited by more evil dreams, than his.”</i></span><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Here we find a reference to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shakespeare’s’ “Uneasy lies the head that
wears a crown.”<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It would appear then that some of the earliest
introductions to evil themes centered on the gaining of great power, either
that offered by nature or that offered by society.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">How did that shift into such a common practice, a practice
instigated by one individual against another, sometimes for no apparent gain?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Mind the helm.</p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Sh-tUWBYyVyVVaEA1zfbF-YqP7ca7sG4Ysw3gRErEDSi506ZWQYPmSt9vKQkBA2bdpuJrSZEMD7e-FRSJ0PzjIaIVpibVxMasjBu1aGG8UhkIp2xNSVCfOWdFxuccQ_7IEJxO70igtOtwNYJ6PbXd4WcAl4-9lcs-mOwZl-ZVP0Pzce1mVahYGjtbA=s1970" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1313" data-original-width="1970" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi2Sh-tUWBYyVyVVaEA1zfbF-YqP7ca7sG4Ysw3gRErEDSi506ZWQYPmSt9vKQkBA2bdpuJrSZEMD7e-FRSJ0PzjIaIVpibVxMasjBu1aGG8UhkIp2xNSVCfOWdFxuccQ_7IEJxO70igtOtwNYJ6PbXd4WcAl4-9lcs-mOwZl-ZVP0Pzce1mVahYGjtbA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Eliot, T. S. (2001). The Waste Land (M. North, Ed.). WW Norton.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Frazer, J. G. (1923). The
Golden Bough: A study in magic and religion. Abridged ed. London: Macmillan.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Frazier, op. cit. Chapter
One.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Henry IV, Part 2.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641622297214605848.post-80258540465524091152021-12-11T07:11:00.004-08:002021-12-11T07:15:17.769-08:00<p> <span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">I.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">DISTANT DRUMS</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 0.75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.5in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">Having hoisted anchor and set a course, let us
consider some of the earliest manifestations of evil, or how we might contemplate
it at this stage of our journey. In order to keep the search confined to familiar
waters, we limit our search to western thought. Fair warning, some accounts may
include references to concepts that we no longer call evil. Concomitantly, we
shall find some practices considered normal by our ancient ancestors, and their
gods, that we find abhorrent, if not purely evil, in our modern lives.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Early accounts emerge from literature, not
history. Possibly, the earliest literary source of evil resides in the Babylonian
creation myth called the <i>Enuma Elish</i>. It is a story ranging from classic
conflicts of “hatred, envy, envy, fear, and murderous rage, to grandchildren getting
on their grandparents’ nerves enough to generate murderous intent.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></a></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In other words. The Universe itself is a breeding
ground for evil.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Moving forward to a more familiar current, we come
to the account of creation in the first chapter of the Hebrew Bible. In contrast
to the percolating discord of other creation myths, the Genesis account is smooth
and swift. All is good, pleasant, and harmonious. Some modern adjunct contributors
to the scriptures even avow that dinosaurs were gentle vegetarians, somewhat
akin to pets, during that era.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
At any rate, all was calm. All was bright.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Until.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">It seems that the potential for evil lay not-very-well
hidden in the Garden of Eden. All it took to release its cosmic destruction was
a simple act of disobedience occasioned by a sweet talker passing through the
garden.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">And, as Dr. Bart Ehrman points out, disobedience weighed
heavily on the mind of the Hebrew creator of the world.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
In fact, much, if not most, of the Old Testament finds disobedience, and the punishment
for it, a central and dominating theme. As for the requisite punishment, the creator
doesn’t rely on “time outs” or withholding of privileges for a short time. No,
he isn’t above stoning an entire family—man, woman, children, and animals—because
the father disobeys an order.<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Nations can find themselves exiled into bondage and slavery for recalcitrance.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Here we fact a mental squall that will threaten us
for our entire journey: Is disobedience, or the chosen method of retribution
for disobedience, the true evil?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">In summary, the earliest entrances of evil give
birth to some interesting questions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Is succumbing to an implanted and appealing
temptation evil? In modern times, we might call that entrapment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Is disobedience of proper directives an evil in itself?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Is non-disobedience of proper directives an evil
itself? (See: Adoph Eichman.) Veterans of the Mexican, Spanish, Vietnam, and
Iraq wars would find this particularly interesting.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">At what point does “sin” become an evil? Are there
moral gradations and tipping points?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Are individuals to be punished for the sins of a
nation or cult?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Can history cleanse an ancient evil, such as the
eating of pork or shellfish as well as the ridiculing of a bald man?<a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Can history darken an allowed and ancient practice
such as polygamy or slavery and reclassify it as evil?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">We now find ourselves sailing into troubled waters indeed. Best gird with a lifeline. Meanwhile, all is peace and harmony in the Garden of Eden.</p><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtmk4k2PHDvAirr4b4vWLbSzNWMMoNIlelUtodcwEn6ntivAR2WdQOi5w7H10A9WHrnN4DDh2IA_UxkSPBdNbOz811Cigf2WU49n_ljAWkPl5Vh1hZfSan8X9gPm_BDyuaNGIvZ5ybZ7woERqqszCgYnUYidnCUJtW513iyQUyx1EhyhBz1JFKp66Adw=s1024" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtmk4k2PHDvAirr4b4vWLbSzNWMMoNIlelUtodcwEn6ntivAR2WdQOi5w7H10A9WHrnN4DDh2IA_UxkSPBdNbOz811Cigf2WU49n_ljAWkPl5Vh1hZfSan8X9gPm_BDyuaNGIvZ5ybZ7woERqqszCgYnUYidnCUJtW513iyQUyx1EhyhBz1JFKp66Adw=w320-h160" width="320" /></span></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpFirst"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Casey, Bary, Evil: Ancient and Modern Spectrum, May 1, 2018<o:p></o:p></p>
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<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> From the so-called “Creation
Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Ehrman, Bart D. God's
Problem : How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We
Suffer. Harper Collins, 2009<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpMiddle"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> See Joshua 7. Other
scripters in the Old Testament decry this treatment, creating one of many
contradictions therein.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteTextCxSpLast"><a href="file:///C:/Data%20Files_11.28.2021/Data%20Files/Jim's%20Files/Evil_Study%20of/A%20STUDY%20OF%20EVIL.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
2 Kings 2:23–24<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div></div></div>JimmieGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01715491235864541591noreply@blogger.com0