Concepts of evil

How do we define evil? It is such a complicated word. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as something that is “profoundly immoral and malevolent”, which leads to the question what is considered immoral? You can almost describe evil with the same saying as “beauty is in the eye of the beholder'”; the definition of evil can be, and most likely is different in every person’s mind. A police officer might think someone dealing drugs is evil, because he is purposely destroying the lives of many people, but the drug dealer might think the police officer is evil for trying to stop him because dealing drugs might be the only way or him to earn money. Of course, society will always deem the drug dealer as more evil than the police officer, but if we just step into someone’s shoes, we could see everything in a different perspective, including the concept of evil. Many people also describe evil in relation to religion. For example: “Evil is the devil which lies inside of all of us.”

Nowadays, evil is used to describe criminals, murderers and people who break the law, but are they truly evil? I see evil as an act of cruelty to another person, or animal, with no motivation except for pleasure or personal gain. Consider this: a man’s wife was kidnapped, and the kidnappers forced the man to kill someone in exchange for his wife. I would not call the man evil because he was doing it for the good of someone he cared about; almost everyone would do the same thing in his position. I would, however, call the kidnappers evil as they were using the man’s wife to  kill someone who was opposing them, or they had a grudge against. The kidnappers were using the wife for personal gain, which I deem to be evil. From the example above, it is evident that people who do evil things are not necessarily evil themselves. One of the most important factor in determining if an action, or person, is evil is the perspective in which it is seen. 

Am I Here to Learn or Think?

Being a high school student, i have been always told to constantly remember these facts, and memorize this speech. All I have to do every days is learn, learn, learn. But do we only have to learn? Just think about this: We have to think to learn, and learn to think. As Confucius said:  He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. This is basically saying that if you know a lot of things, but you don’t think about it, you are lost. If you think and contemplate a lot, but do not learn from his/her mistakes, are bound to make the same mistakes again. In my opinion, we are on this planet, in this life, in this school, to both learn and think. Learning and thinking are one. Without learning, you cant think and without thinking you cant learn. Learning and thinking are essentialy the same thing.

This is a Test

That awkward moment when you don’t know why you are reading this, but you are really curious so you keep on reading, but then you  realise I just wasted 5 seconds of your time. You’re welcome.