From “dragon’s”— “The Causes of Evil”.
"In the film, The Lord of the Rings, (and I suspect in the book as well, but it is so long ago that I read it that I cannot remember.) Frodo, a ‘hobbit’, and one of the ‘heroes’ of the story, takes pity on the creature Gollum, who is evil, one is lead to suppose, beyond redemption.
Gollum was once a creature not unlike the hobbits, but he came into possession of the One Ring, the Ring of Power, and it corrupted him till there was nothing of good left in him, there was nothing at all left in him but hatred and malice.
Frodo and Sam, his friend/servant, get lost trying to find their way to Mordor. Frodo has possession of the One Ring, and he is taking it to Mordor so that it can be destroyed. The pair are attacked by Gollum who wants the Ring for himself, but Frodo and Sam overcome him and take him prisoner.
This is where it gets interesting, for Frodo and Sam exhibit entirely different attitudes towards Gollum, and it is the effect this has on Gollum and his responses that are interesting.
Sam treats Gollum with distrust and derision. He watches him, suspecting treachery at every moment, and reading malicious intentions into his every act. He calls him ‘Stinker’, and expresses disgust at his eating habits etc. stc.
Frodo on the other hand, preferring to believe that Gollum is not beyond redemption, and recognising that he has suffered takes pity on him and is more sympathetic. He treats Gollum with respect, and remembering that he had once been a better creature called Smeagol, calls him by that name. He also gives Gollum his trust, and gets him to guide himself and Sam to Mordor.
Under Sam’s influence Gollum remains as treacherous and malicious as ever, but in response to Frodo he begins a process of transformation. Gollum enjoys the consideration, trust and respect he gets from Frodo, and in return he develops a sort of respect, trust and even attachment to him. Under Frodo’s influence Gollum begins to become detached from his evil side, to see it as not really him, and tries get free of it. He tries to become the creature Frodo treats him as, tries to become Smeagol.
If one is to abstract a principle, or moral, from the above story, it would be this:
People behave as they are treated."
Another one from the magical, topsy-turvy land of Britiannia, home of hobbits, elves, dwarves, kings and queens.
First off, lord of the rings is a fairy tale.
From my experience, it can go either way, people can reward, or take advantage of kindness, it depends on the person, and the person depends on the genes and memes it inherited from its ancestors, and the knowledge it acquires later on from experiencing and interpreting the world.
“Evil” is this —
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZRw0IYdf3g[/youtube]
A lion kills and eats his “step-cubs”, if you will.
He does this to ensure his own unborn offspring will be looked after exclusively by his new bride.
Thus, evil is rooted in the will to live, preserving and propagating the self, especially at the expense of another.
“Good” is this —
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49J6eh7kJMA[/youtube]
If Evil is rooted in the will to live, than naturally good, its symantec opposite, is rooted in the denial of the will to live, especially for the sake of another.
What’s interesting though, is good is ultimately rooted in evil, the denial of the will to live in the will to live.
Let’s introduce another concept, expediency, expediency is this —
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLa363Yf5Ew[/youtube]
Simple organism like flies take the path of least resistence, eating whatever shit comes their way.
Complex organisms like man, or so I am told, are more discriminating, and may hold out for better shit further down the line, real or imagined.
Sometimes, depending on the hindsight/insight/foresight and dicipline of the individual, man is able to save, store, or devout a surplus of his energies to commerce and industry, in the hopes of acquiring a greater return (profit), increasing his overall energies, minerals and vitamins. When these behaviors happen instinctively, naturally, we call them play and love, when they happen intellectually and artificially, we call them work and our public facade.
That’s why higher animals such as cats and dogs, are so active, where as lower animals, such as snakes and scorpians, are so inactive —
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFV3TosSE0s[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6W8zEwYSQ[/youtube]
Now some very “evil” and insightful men came along and devised a strategy, they said to themselves, look at all this surplus food and wine, gold and silver, we’d sure like to get our hands on all that.
One said, we could take it by force!
Another said no, there’s too many of them, and too few of us.
Two said, we could take it by stealth.
Another said no, eventually we’ll be caught.
Three said, we could convince them it’s always better to give than to receive?
The others laughed… and laguhed, and laughed, and laughed.
Three said, but what’s the worst that could happen, if we fail, at least we get to keep our heads.
The others thought about it for a moment, and then they agreed, and so the first political and religious institutions were born, and with their taxes, prisons, fairy tales and magick potions, Gods and monsters, heavens and hells, they’ve been duping the simpler men among them ever since.
Such is the origin of absolute good and absolute evil, and evil (life, order) rooted in good (death, chaos) metaphysics.
Without evil, not the world itself, nor the plants, animals and men in it, be at all possible.
And they’ve been laughing ever since —
