Is Mario Evil? - The science of Good-versus-Evil

Coming from a few of my favorite YouTube channels, VSauce, is the video "Is Mario Evil?"
It explores the idea that the fantasy character Mario is actually in fact, evil. With this they explore the idea of what truly is evil.

I find this video very fascinating on many different levels.
Video
Feel free to give you thoughts, and if you have material to share on the subject, feel free.

Both videos are really great stuff, and illustrate the ideas of moral relativism and bias really well. Thanks!

How about this one, I dont think its been posted here before. I reckon it demonstrated how easily one can be entrained into believing a particular point of view to the point they do not question that original decision anymore.

Language Warning; a couple of swear words and bad jokes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gz_iTuRMM

I cannot help but throw it out there lilke I always do, but I still reckon good and evil are not a set. I think the counter to good is bad, and the counter to evil is compassion.... with good and bad being subjective viewpoints, and compassion and evil being objective biological realities of intention at decrease or increase suffering.

So I use the definition for evil to basically be the knowledge of somones suffering and the desire to increase that suffering..... and so even evil can be good - from the point of view of the psychopath.... therefore I think mixing good and evil as a balanced polarity is incorrect.

Adder wrote: Language Warning; a couple of swear words and bad jokes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Gz_iTuRMM

Interesting but totally unconvincing :lol: for instance the idea Daniel learning karate after losing a fight to black belt Johnny is like returning with a gun misses the point that in that scenario, Johnny was "already packing" first time out. Whilst Johnny isn't a totally irredeemable character, he clearly antagonises and victimises the socially inferior Daniel throughout. What's a bully if not a scared, weak person exerting their superior social status to make themselves feel better at another's expense?

Fun concept though. I'm reminded of a quote by Tom Hiddleston, aka Loki in the Marvel films:

"Every villain is a hero in his own mind"

tzb wrote: I'm reminded of a quote by Tom Hiddleston, aka Loki in the Marvel films:

"Every villain is a hero in his own mind"

This is what makes it tough to call anyone truly "evil." Very, very rarely is the person who other's deem evil setting out to be such as they see it.

A great example of this is the Netflix series Daredevil. In it you get to see Daredevil struggle with towing the line between hero and villain and we see Kingpin justify his "evil" actions with seemingly good intentions only to later see what he's become.

Also, the quote from The Dark Knight. "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

the zimbardo prison experiment was done to explore the topic of personality and the milgrim experiment to explore the effects of authority, and i dont think the mario video did justice to either of them

both experiments are relevant to the topic of evil but neither were done to address the concept directly, nor do they in any way suggest that evil is relative

no one says that it was ok that the guards in the experiment turned into tyrants and no one says that it is ok for people to deliver what they think is a fatal shock to someone for an incorrect answer to a math problem

that these things could become OK would demonstrate the relativity of evil

what i got from the mario video, and what was made especially clear in the karate kid video, is that people can be very clever in their methods of twisting things around to distort the truth of an event

and that this distortion is, if anything, a part of the evil itself, rather than evidence that there is no evil involved

if there is a genuinely useful and important message in the idea of the relativity of evil, it is, imo, that we are all much more capable of evil than we want to admit

that evil is something we all may contribute to, simply because we are lazy, or afraid, or angry, or because circumstances have put us in an oppositional relationship to others and we do not know how to navigate this without crossing the line

but this does not make evil less evil
if anything, it makes us less good, less righteous than we assume ourselves to be, and it highlights the importance of self monitoring, of self honesty, and of being open to value of others, even AND ESPECIALLY others we do not like, or who we consider "enemies"

a serious discussion on the idea of evil must acknowledge things like internment camps, rape, especially continued and systematic rape, people who take pleasure in acts of torture and mutilation, the calculated efforts to inflict the severest forms of injury and degradation onto others as possible, and the pursuit of personal aims at the expense of the lives and health of others, with full awareness but no concern of the misery caused

if you do not approach this level of the topic then you are not approaching the topic at all

http://endgenocide.org/learn/past-genocides/

https://www.distractify.com/21-examples-of-pure-unmitigated-evil-1197890041.html


this is from stanford university

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/


this is prof jordan peterson, he teaches at university of toronto


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM25byj81Jc


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zooE5GE81TU

Adder wrote: I cannot help but throw it out there lilke I always do, but I still reckon good and evil are not a set. I think the counter to good is bad, and the counter to evil is compassion.... with good and bad being subjective viewpoints, and compassion and evil being objective biological realities of intention at decrease or increase suffering.

For me, the word evil seems out of place even here. It seems more like good and bad, compassion and cruelty. Evil just has these connotations of complete irredeemability.

CryojenX wrote:

Adder wrote: I cannot help but throw it out there lilke I always do, but I still reckon good and evil are not a set. I think the counter to good is bad, and the counter to evil is compassion.... with good and bad being subjective viewpoints, and compassion and evil being objective biological realities of intention at decrease or increase suffering.

For me, the word evil seems out of place even here. It seems more like good and bad, compassion and cruelty. Evil just has these connotations of complete irredeemability.

I totally agree with this; the words good and evil are inaccurate in most cases. It likely has been popularized by fiction.

Hey everyone,

Wrongdoings or evil actions are often masked by good intentions, or even that good intentions, when acted upon, may have unforeseen bad consequences. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good. But Everyone has his or her own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil.

I define a 'good person' as somebody who is fully conscious of their own limitations. They know their strengths, but they also know their 'shadow' - they know their weaknesses. In other words, they understand that there is no good without bad. Good and evil are really one, but we have broken them up in our consciousness. We polarize them. Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the only good that comes from violence is only temporary and the evil inflicted by violence is permanent.

People who claim that they're 'evil' are usually no worse than the rest of us. It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of. Nobody thinks that they're evil or bad, they think that they're doing the right thing.

That being said 'good' is approved and 'Evil' is denounced. Yet i like to think of Evil as 'vice' and good as 'virtue'. We all become trapped in vice and its our job to discover our own inner virtue.




Peace & Blessings
Love & Light

Ariane wrote: People who claim that they're 'evil' are usually no worse than the rest of us. It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of. Nobody thinks that they're evil or bad, they think that they're doing the right thing.

Exactly the reason I do not trust anyone who believes themselves to be righteous, the ones who don't recognize that they're just as messed up as the rest of us. The persons who know they don't always get it right, and can't, yet still try to be good, that's pretty much the best any of us will ever get I think.