EVIL

[Pacifist Patriot]

Unfortunately, this symbol has become the property of the right wing. Liberals have ceased to use it with any conviction. But it exists.

It is EVIL when a power company defends the position of its new coal plant by assuring local residents its stacks are 700 ft. high guaranteeing the crap coming out of the stacks will fall on OTHER people.

It is EVIL when a corporation provides its criminal board of directors with golden parachutes while screwing the rank and file out of its pensions.

It is EVIL when an administration sworn to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution signs laws into being with signing statements exempting them from the dictates of the law.

It is EVIL when scientific advancements make cost-efficient renewable sources of energy possible and oil companies quash research.

It is EVIL when corporate taxes are an infintessimal fraction of what they were twenty-five years ago and corporations have the benefits of citizenship but none of the responsibility.

PROPHETS: Sing!

PEOPLE: March!

[BelgianMadCow]

1. Interesting definition of evil

and one that focuses on where the true evil lies.

Proud to be the first to K & R

[DemoTex]

2. Sounds to me like the GOP is the personification of EVIL.

I, especially, can wrap my head around: It is EVIL when a corporation provides its criminal board of directors with golden parachutes while screwing the rank and file out of its pensions. My company terminated my pension on 3/31/2003, then fired the CEO a few months later with a $10-million platinum parachute.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. As a minister, I can't put it that way...

from the pulpit. But I can sure as hell say it here.

[readmoreoften]

3. You got it. Evil is cold, calculating, and dead. You see it in their eyes.

It's funny, how they define love as evil; rape and murder as unfortunate but necessary; theft, the death of hope, and war profiteering as the greatest good.

They are completed inverted from reality. Up is down. War is peace. Hate is love. Death is life. Destruction is a new beginning. We have to kill them to set them free. We have to steal from them to affirm the notion of opportunity.

A complete reversal of values. Bizarro world. Evil.

[LWolf]

4. There is a reason why evil is the property of the right wing.

Evil is a tool used to generate fear, and to rule through fear.

Keeping attention focused on "evil" multiplies it, and gives those controlling through fear more power.

I'm really not interested in honoring evil by giving it so much space in my thoughts, feelings, words, or actions. I prefer to dis-empower evil by relegating it to the domain of the weak.

I prefer my party, and my representatives, to focus on, and therefore empower, positive action and results.

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. Bingo!

Evil is a symbol. That's why it is important not to concretize the symbol.

[deaniac21]

7. Can a word be a symbol?

sym·bol ( P ) Pronunciation Key (smbl)
n.
1. Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible. See Synonyms at sign.
2. A printed or written sign used to represent an operation, element, quantity, quality, or relation, as in mathematics or music.
3. Psychology. An object or image that an individual unconsciously uses to represent repressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses: a phallic symbol.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Yes. All word are symbols.

That is the essence of language.

tree, árbol, arbre....

The word isn't a tree. It's a symbol that represents the idea of a generic tree.

Look at definition 1.

Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention

[deaniac21]

9. Why didn't you just say the word had been taken over?

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. Splitting hairs? Because words are symbols.

It's self-defining. I'm sorry you have a problem with it. I've heard "evil" used all over the place, but as a symbol I've seen it consistently misused. Feel free to replace my choice of the word "symbol" with "word" and then run with it from there.

[deaniac21]

11. I'm sorry. I'm just not very smart.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. What in the world would make you say that?

Makes you smarter than the average bear just to be here. ;)

Cheers!