tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post7259813584303647000..comments2024-03-28T22:51:37.034+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond sneaks in a double serve of the bromancer for an evening reflection ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-26581708694254936482017-10-06T04:08:56.729+11:002017-10-06T04:08:56.729+11:00Maybe all of humanity is just somewhere on the Asp...Maybe all of humanity is just somewhere on the Asperger's Scale ?<br /><br />As best I can understand, "evil" is a confused and confusing concept and basically otiose. After all, if we do not accept an externally imposed definition of "evil" (and I quite agree as to the "banality" of the Catholic Catechism) then where does a belief in "evil" come from ?<br /><br />As far as I can see, the best humanity has ever managed is to incorporate some measure of a code of conduct into its dealings with itself - in short imposed law rather than inherent morality. See 'The Evolution of Cooperation' for example.<br /><br />And then there are those - Hitler, Stalin, Franco, Salazar, Mao Zedong, Henry VIII, Nixon, Trump et alia - who accept no imposed law except for that which they impose on everybody else. And then there are those - eg Eichmann - who apparently happily accept whatever it is that they think is being imposed.<br /><br />But evil ? Who believes in that ?GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-23134641053812818152017-10-06T00:36:02.987+11:002017-10-06T00:36:02.987+11:00 Hi GB,
It is indeed definitely time to resuscita... Hi GB,<br /><br />It is indeed definitely time to resuscitate Hannah Arendt but not so much for her ‘Report on the Banality of Evil’ which I would argue gives the perpetrators of genocide the excuse that they were so dull they were not responsible for their actions. <br /><br />Go down that route you would have to argue that all Nazis were just somewhere on the the Aspergers Scale?<br /><br />Arendt’s best work is ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ and is much more apropos to the current, and I quote ‘fucking moron’ , that is squatting in the White House.<br /><br />DWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-14875939342921990582017-10-05T21:36:28.500+11:002017-10-05T21:36:28.500+11:00"The United States has long had a problem wit..."<i>The United States has long had a problem with white terrorism</i>,..."<br /><br />Yeah, for instance in 1927 with Andrew Kehoe and the school at Bath, Michigan<br />https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1927-bombing-remains-americas-deadliest-school-massacre-180963355/GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-57996904401370646682017-10-05T21:35:01.753+11:002017-10-05T21:35:01.753+11:00Is it time to resuscitate Hannah Arendt yet again ...Is it time to resuscitate Hannah Arendt yet again ?GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-604361160833383882017-10-05T18:12:24.362+11:002017-10-05T18:12:24.362+11:00Hi Dorothy,
Oh Dear! Greg is evidently struggling...Hi Dorothy,<br /><br />Oh Dear! Greg is evidently struggling, like his US stablemates over at Fox News, to explain the appalling actions of a rich white baby boomer.<br /><br />Not Black, not Brown, not Muslim, not Poor, Greg and his fellow reptiles can’t shoe horn Paddock into their cosy certainties of what constitutes a terrorist. <br /><br />So how to explain 59 dead Country Music fans. <br /><br />Evidently by relying on this sort of bullshit;<br /><br />“Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.”<br /><br />DW<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com