How evil are we??

I think I'd like to moot a potentially shocking social experiment here, after seeking the approval of the mods, and after some of the intellectual and moral heavyweights that frequent these pages have weighed in, of course. 

I'd like to pose the question, for anyone who cares to answer, "what is the worst thing you have ever done?"

And by creating a short term identity here, with a published password allow people to reply in complete anonymity...

Now, the very real danger is that, as happened to me once when I asked a new acquaintance that very question is that someone will confess a murder!*

But, I doubt it very much. I suspect that like my own "worst ever" act, you guys will turn out to be mostly pretty harmless.

But I don't know, it's only a hypothesis, need more data...

How safe for the participants would it really be?

Well we have some I.T expertise on this site as well as my own "dawn of the internet" experience, and I think we will all agree that unless this site logs ALL of it's traffic, it won't be traceable back to you, by any but the most complicated and forensic analysis conceive-able, and a simple murder probably won't even justify the resources need to investigate.

(You'd need to have stolen a lot of money or blown up a masonic lodge probably...)  

Bad idea, or fascinating opportunity?

EDIT: Thank you all for making this such an interesting and illuminating thread.

The size of the response was unexpected, and I've not had the capacity to respond to all comments that perhaps I would want to. I keep having to get up and do stuff.

  • I believe that once you stop thinking of certain people as being essentially Evil, but see them as being "in the grip of evil" you stop wanting to kill or banish them, and start wanting to actually work the real problem.. 

  • Suicide is just layering bad on bad. You seem to be a real functioning human, an a viable alternative to suicide must surely be to spend the rest of your life, doing acts that restore your life's moral balance?

    Which from my position of attempting such things, has definitely made my life have value to me again. and of late, I see that others value me too. But I still feel deep guilt for the bad things I have done, but they are done, and there's a future in which I can strive to do better. 

    Keep battling away there Robert, you do look like one of those who will "come out the other side better than you went in"... 

  • Ahh yes me too! I was very confused for a moment.

  • Sinful and imperfect is part of human nature. I can live with that!

  • So am I, in that sense- but politically, I'm on the left. Sorry for the confusion!

  • I think it's hard to call someone evil because there's so much to consider

    A lot of killers and people who abuse have had horrible abuse and issues growing up. It doesn't make what they did or do right but it explains some of what caused them to become unwell and kill, abuse, or whatever

    I don't like what they did or become but I can't justify calling them evil because they went through rubbish and it twisted them or they have an imbalance in the brain or something like that

    Not my place to judge or call them evil. I've had a family member who started fires and probably appeared evil or bad to other people but she was mentally sick, hence she now resides in a mental hospital

    There's a reason for everything we do and it's not as simple as being evil

    Lots of factors to weigh up

  • That last sentence is by my standards, outstandingly wise and insightful. 

    Some of what you write looks like "imperfection" from my perspective of course, and some of it "sinful" of course, but I'll get around to helping you pick the specks out of YOUR eye right after I've got the bloody great plank out of my own, of course!

    In truth, you are one of the posters who I find very pleasant and sane to read, and whilst (rightly) I have no "power" to "Judge" your being evil or not, I evaluate you based on your conduct and prose, as apparently quite far indeed from being "evil". For whatever value my current opinion may hold..     

  • I like to think so too.....but the hope dwindles to nihilism for our foreseeable lifetimes!  Happy Tuesday everyone!

  • Well yes, I tainted my answer with some silly humour, but I trust the core of my actual response to your good question can still be detected within there.

  • You literally could be writing about me battybats - except I'm right handed 

  • soft power and slight of hand?

    As far as I was aware, that was not what I was doing, the reality is that I've been asking myself this question ever since I came here, and have spent at least a year wondering if I dare ask the rest of you...

    And whilst many of you have instantly raised the question about what is, and how does one Identify Evil, thinking it to be a serious stumbling block, no one has yet gone as far as stating that Evil does not not exist...

    Some might think that the human definitions of evil vary from culture to culture, person to person, etc. I've found in my own investigations that most people who give the problem any serious attention tend to come to very similar conclusions.   

  • I don't think anyone here is evil though. Evil, to me, is someone who abuses and hurts another living person, like a child. That's evil. Rapists, animal abusers, torturers, etc. People like that have no conscience, don't know how they sleep at night having committed atrocious acts like that. But there's more good than evil out there. Good will prevail x

  • Evil isn't a word you'll find associated with me. I'm too innocent and sweet... InnocentHugging  

  • Well there are a few more factors to it than just that, sure. But potentially in essence yeah any crime admitted to online even under "anonymity" is just leaving evidence to be scraped by those with means that should wish to use it for whatever ends. I mean think about it, information is always worth something to someone and we are living in the age of information, bit scary if you go too far down that road I should think.

  • The properly evil are PROUD of their "accomplishments"..

    Maybe Bees as an "experiencer" might give a second opinion on that statement? 

  • But "the Authorities" don't give a whit what we do to each other...

    They just want us to conform and go along with their schemes to enrich themselves at our expense..

  • im not sure, i mostly keep to myself. i once when i was younger always questioned morality but i grew out of that, i always wanted to aspire to what i considered the greater good, but when you put enough thought on it there is no such thing, and likely no such thing as good or evil, its all perspective.

    as for my moral bads, i used to lie alot when younger, but i grew out of that, it may have helped that my parents were strict and my dad would beat me if he so much as assumed i was lying. now i cannot lie very easily and if i tried it would be super hesistant or obvious.... but then again when im telling you a truth i dont want to tell you id also likely be hesistant as i weigh up the moral implications of telling you a truth that may hurt you. but i generally am honest to a fault in which my honesty will hurt you more than any lie will.

    when i was younger i likely had a urge to steal and was likely selfish and greedy, but again thats a thing of youth you grow out of. although my view on stealing is still split as when your needs are locked behind pay walls i kinda have sympathy for anyone stealing, it is their right to steal if they need to survive.

    i dunno, actual bads is hard.... i guess i lived off welfare for a good 16 years and you can consider that to be bad? ...but i was depressed most of my life and a shut in and that likely contributed to that. society would hate me most for my time on welfare so that is likely the worst i have done.

    there was also one time in martial arts where we did sparring and alot of other guys i felt wasnt relying on skill but trying to win by strength and make out they are better, so then i decided to use strength and go full out and i think i hurt a few people to the point of concussion and pissed some others off, that may have been another bad thing i did. but then some would say that is fair game and a needed thing in realistic martial arts practice.

  • Really interesting question. 
    I’m not keen on the word ‘evil’ because it can mean any number of things to different people with different perspectives in different societies etc.

    From my own perspective the worst most ‘evil’ thing I can think of would be deliberate cruelty to another person or to animals. To deliberately cause distress to another living thing is an abhorrent act. This can be through personal interaction but also Governments can do this. I would argue that the current U.K. government inflicts suffering to both people (and animals). 

    I try my best to not to cause suffering to others - so I don’t consider myself evil. I do feel though that I would be capable of killing a person in extreme circumstances - for example if they were inflicting severe harm to a vulnerable person. If I knew I wouldn’t get caught though! Joy My family need me so I wouldn’t want to end up in prison! 
    I would also be prepared to help someone who was terminally ill end their own life - and some (particularly religious) people might consider that to be very wrong if they felt it was immoral to hasten someone’s death.

    I’ve even sometimes been watching Boris Johnson on tv and hated him so much that I’ve felt I wanted to kill him! I can feel rage against people sometimes and feel I really hate them. 

    ultimately it’s all quite subjective. 

    As for the worst thing I’ve ever done - I’m not really sure I’ve done anything really terrible. I certainly don’t break rules or laws. I try to be a good person. So I don’t think I’m evil at all to be honest! 

  • ....and btw, I do think it is best that we DON'T forget - it's the price of wisdom and betterment.

  • There can't be light without dark Robert.  Don't contemplate defeat - contemplate getting even.

    Best regards

    Number.

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