What is Evil?

Hi Morgan! Thanks for the clarification. To discuss your question we have to distinguish thoughts and actions and intentions. In respect to fighting for one's own expresssion, consider the nuance of thought, action and intention. What Carse is suggesting, and what I agree with, is that it is not wrong to stand up and take action for one's own safety and expression, but it is wrong to attempt to silence another point of view, even in the face of discrimination, because it leads to perpetual war.

This is a classic argument on this subject " Well, what if someone is trying to kill me and I fight back? Is that Evil?"

The answer of course, is no, it is not evil. To stand up for our rights and soverignty is not evil. But the minute we think that their point of view is wrong, we are straying from the path of the infinite player.

The difference is nuanced, but the point is that we have to honor all points of view and valid, even if they oppose our own, and even if they by nature silence our own. We have to do our best to understand the complexity of why people feel the way they feel and come to a solution that is best for everyone.

America is unqiue that is has many cultures and races and points of view, which regularly come into conflict with each other. We all unanimously agree at this point that slavery was evil. Yet we still enslave animals to do our work and be our food. We thoughtlessly cut down trees with no sense that they might prefer not to be cut down. And even if we are not the ones doing the enslaving or cutting, we participate in the economy that allows for such things. We eat meat (some of us). We buy wood. We drive with gas that is fracked and destroys habitats, we use phones that have minerals that mined in a way that not only destroys habitat, but violates human rights. Again, we say slavery is wrong but happily buy products that we know are produced by what might as well be slavery.

The infinite player looks at all these paradoxes and trys to make better choices, but they do so without projecting any sense that others are evil, becuase ultimately we are all still making choices that contribute to the oppression of others.

In cases such as abortion or, say trans-bathroom rights. One side is the oppressor and one side is the oppressed, but regardless of the outcome, that paradox will always exist. To legalize abortion is to oppress the spiritual belief of anti-abortionists. To make it illegal is to oppress the right to a woman's choice. Liberal politics will have us believe that the rights should always bias the choice of the individual, but community does not work like that. It can't work like that. If it did, why would we bother paying for things when we can just steal them, or stop at red lights, or not piss on the sidewalk.

The point is, deciding what is right and wrong can only be directed toward the self, not others, because we don't have the authority to decided what is right for someone else. In other words, its an internal process. As soon as we externalize the process, we end up in war.

And on the deepest most fundamental level, we do have choice. The infinite player is not concerned with the longevity of the body, so death is not consequence. Examine all the actions you take on a daily basis that are bound by law or social ettiquite that might seem choiceless. Certain humans can choose their emotional states even in the most dire situations. This is the lesson of "Life is Beautiful" by actor / director Roberto Benigni. I highly recommend watching it.

And part of choice is that we are free to build a world that reflects our expression, every day, but the infinite player does so without making enemies of the opposition, and attempting in earnest to understand their point of view and love them for it, regardless of whether or not they agree with it.

Thanks for the discussion! Feel free to continue the dialectic.