I've been reading Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States' over the past week, and while reading the second chapter I learned that most African slaves who were uprooted from Africa, were actually sold to Europeans by other Africans. Likely not a shock to many, but it got me thinking about the concept of evil and what it means. The only thing I can reasonably conclude is that 'evil' doesn't actually exist, and is instead just an arbitrary label that we apply to behaviours that we don't like.
If one looks at patterns throughout history most behaviours that are deemed 'evil' can eventually be reduced to a survival or adaptability motive. In other words, behaviour is by default self-interested, and any act can be explained by some kind of selective pressure.
For example, one of the reasons African slavery happened at all in North America was because European colonies had a desperate need for cheap labour to survive. Another reason it happened was because it was profitable for Africans to sell members of other tribes. If these pressures were taken away, slavery wouldn't likely have happened. It's easy to label this type of thing 'evil', but more accurate and practical to call it what it is: various factions attempting survival.
Then politically, if you make it easy for someone to survive, you take a lot of the danger away from that person.
If one looks at patterns throughout history most behaviours that are deemed 'evil' can eventually be reduced to a survival or adaptability motive. In other words, behaviour is by default self-interested, and any act can be explained by some kind of selective pressure.
For example, one of the reasons African slavery happened at all in North America was because European colonies had a desperate need for cheap labour to survive. Another reason it happened was because it was profitable for Africans to sell members of other tribes. If these pressures were taken away, slavery wouldn't likely have happened. It's easy to label this type of thing 'evil', but more accurate and practical to call it what it is: various factions attempting survival.
Then politically, if you make it easy for someone to survive, you take a lot of the danger away from that person.