I have come to terms with the fact that this blog is going to be very random, thoughts, feelings and facts all in a blender together - and out comes idéa. As I write on I will probably find my angle- it's a sort of dadaistic search for truths and knowledge (and as far away from correct academic writing as possible!!)
Chapter one:
One of my favorite thinkers is Friedrich Nietzsche, a person who has written a lot about the concepts of human nature and the intentions of man. He is probably most famous for his definition of the übermench which is often described in reference as a superman, God or a fascist icon. However, Nietzsche has much more to his name than this and one topic that he often falls back to is the concepts of Good and Evil.
In On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic, Nietzsche argues that the concept of evil arose from the negative emotions of envy, hatred, and resentment. He contends that the powerless and weak created the concept of evil to take revenge against their oppressors. Nietzsche believes that the concepts of good and evil contribute to an unhealthy view of life which judges relief from suffering as more valuable than creative self-expression and accomplishment. For this reason Nietzsche believes that we should seek to move beyond judgements of good and evil. (this passage I took directly from Stanford.edu. A great website btw!)
I personally think that what Nietzsche ment by this was that it is dangerous to think in extremes and forget all the grey-zones of life. Which is something I won’t do in this blog – since I for a long time didn’t even believe in the common concept of evil. “Everything is relative!” I used to say, but when I started to see pattern of evil or wickedness around me I changed. It is not that evil doesn’t exist, it’s just that the definition is too simple.Of course, Nietzsche also meant that we tend to too easily throw around words as “crazy” or “evil” upon people we don’t enjoy or to justify our own evil actions. In criminology, the behavior of neutralizing one’s actions is called a neutralization technique. Let’s say someone takes your pen, so you take someone else’s pen- because, well, someone took your pen so it’s ok for you to take someone else’s.You can also take it to an extreme “or an evil”: you rob someone because they are rich and it doesn’t really matter because they can by a new phone or wallet. A neutralization technique is based around the concept of common moral. Rights and wrongs. Psychologically being able to do something bad because you have justified your actions to yourself by neutralizing it. However, there is a big difference in doing something bad or wrong and doing something evil, isn’t it? Or is it…
I am sorry if seemingly there is no red line through this text, but this is my first time blogging and I think I need to write a few post until I get a hang of it. Also, my mind is very fast- hence the short sentences and fast turnes. You better keep up!
Anyhow, in the first post I started to talk about interpersonal evil and the evil spirit. These are my own categories and honestly, they are quite simple. The interpersonal evil demonstrates evil as a person, a personality trait, an action- in relation to someone else. And the evil spirit is more often the supernatural kind or the unexplained, but as I see it also the aura of a person or a sence or a feeling of evil.
Randomly evil post
Allmänt KommenteraI have come to terms with the fact that this blog is going to be very random, thoughts, feelings and facts all in a blender together - and out comes idéa. As I write on I will probably find my angle- it's a sort of dadaistic search for truths and knowledge (and as far away from correct academic writing as possible!!)
Chapter one:
One of my favorite thinkers is Friedrich Nietzsche, a person who has written a lot about the concepts of human nature and the intentions of man. He is probably most famous for his definition of the übermench which is often described in reference as a superman, God or a fascist icon. However, Nietzsche has much more to his name than this and one topic that he often falls back to is the concepts of Good and Evil.
In On the Genealogy of Morality: A Polemic, Nietzsche argues that the concept of evil arose from the negative emotions of envy, hatred, and resentment. He contends that the powerless and weak created the concept of evil to take revenge against their oppressors. Nietzsche believes that the concepts of good and evil contribute to an unhealthy view of life which judges relief from suffering as more valuable than creative self-expression and accomplishment. For this reason Nietzsche believes that we should seek to move beyond judgements of good and evil. (this passage I took directly from Stanford.edu. A great website btw!)
I personally think that what Nietzsche ment by this was that it is dangerous to think in extremes and forget all the grey-zones of life. Which is something I won’t do in this blog – since I for a long time didn’t even believe in the common concept of evil. “Everything is relative!” I used to say, but when I started to see pattern of evil or wickedness around me I changed. It is not that evil doesn’t exist, it’s just that the definition is too simple.Of course, Nietzsche also meant that we tend to too easily throw around words as “crazy” or “evil” upon people we don’t enjoy or to justify our own evil actions. In criminology, the behavior of neutralizing one’s actions is called a neutralization technique. Let’s say someone takes your pen, so you take someone else’s pen- because, well, someone took your pen so it’s ok for you to take someone else’s.You can also take it to an extreme “or an evil”: you rob someone because they are rich and it doesn’t really matter because they can by a new phone or wallet. A neutralization technique is based around the concept of common moral. Rights and wrongs. Psychologically being able to do something bad because you have justified your actions to yourself by neutralizing it. However, there is a big difference in doing something bad or wrong and doing something evil, isn’t it? Or is it…
I am sorry if seemingly there is no red line through this text, but this is my first time blogging and I think I need to write a few post until I get a hang of it. Also, my mind is very fast- hence the short sentences and fast turnes. You better keep up!
Anyhow, in the first post I started to talk about interpersonal evil and the evil spirit. These are my own categories and honestly, they are quite simple. The interpersonal evil demonstrates evil as a person, a personality trait, an action- in relation to someone else. And the evil spirit is more often the supernatural kind or the unexplained, but as I see it also the aura of a person or a sence or a feeling of evil.