@mike_ie
Reading your thoughtful post, I think you are using humor to make the final points. Please forgive me and correct me if I got this wrong. Keep in mind that while I am discussing philosophy here, I am trying to help #writers portray evil such that their readers will learn something about it and themselves.

If evil is cultural then every culture is potentially evil.

Well stated, but remember: It is the actions of people that can be characterized as evil. Subtle, yes—for example: I'd say that a person owning a slave is doing something evil. Furthermore, people that help them own slaves in any capacity are doing something evil. Those that agree with the institution but don't do anything are guilty of allowing evil, but your mileage may vary. My previous statements are from a culturally external perspective—or would be a heretical perspective inside the culture.

You could call a slave holding culture evil; I'd consider it an anathema and a pariah culture, because a society or a culture doesn't act. People do.

one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter

Really knife-edged way of putting it, but on point.

People in their own culture may not see their actions the same way as people outside do.

As to your last point, I stated in an earlier response:

I did not mean my essay to be all encompassing. The world has psychopaths, sociopaths, and sadists, too†. Likely I missed other instances.

I don't believe in woo-woo or imaginary friends, however, so that is not what I meant by "other instances."

---*-
† Some lead countries. Come govern states. A few influence political parties. It doesn't make their actions less evil.

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@cyberhuman @peculiarjulia

In his book "Dark Eros," Thomas Moore says that evil is selfishness, the willingness to disregard other human beings in pursuit of one's own goals

Is evil selfishness? Is evil willingness to disregard others?

I did not mean my essay to be all encompassing. The world has psychopaths, sociopaths, and sadists, too. Likely I missed other instances.

Question: Was going out to fight in the Crusades evil? There was selfishness there. There was willingness to disregard other human beings there. There was also piety and wanting to go out to save people's lives (let's disregard saving souls for the moment). While I don't expect you to agree with the historical perspective, this example does put each of our definitions of evil under a microscope.

If you look at real world evil, people's acts are often culturally relevant, as was the clothing and slavery "evils" I cited. The clothing example is highly relevant as it is part and parcel of an excruciatingly contemporary subcultural norm that is at odds with mainstream conceptions of civil rights, women rights, gay rights, etc. Many on each side view the acts of the other side as evil. You could say they're evil. You could also say they're deluded, misinformed. You could point to the leaders (who admittedly are doing this for power, which is both selfish and shows a willingness to disregard others). You could put it down to ignorance and lack of education in the subculture, or the tolerance of such in our society in general.

Isn't this dehumanizing the other side?

That aside... You could also ask if their inculturation is flawed. Most people shy away from that because the closer we look, the more we share certain cultural values. Western values. Judeo-Christian-Islamic values. Patriarchal values.

Self-examination is painful.

The Dark Eros argument you cite, while it can be true in the specific, both minimizes evil and whether a person is knowingly evil regardless of their actions. Yeah, as #writers, we can generate evil characters using those features, but if we don't address the formative forces, are we short-changing the reader and cheating them out of an epiphany?

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@peculiarjulia Thank you for your thoughtful response. It made me think.

I'd say evil is not just a verb[, evil] 's a choice.

Emphasis mine. By "verb," I mean evil is expressed by individuals through their actions. "Choice" implies reasons to take action, and that's tied up with culture and quite a bit more. You've given me the opportunity to address that. What follows, I think, is important for #writers and #authors of #fiction as well as #nonfiction. It may be philosophically relevant.

CW: TL;DR, relative evil, cultural evil.

Before I start, I will self-identify as a cultural relativist. I've studied non-western cultures, and have visited and lived outside my parent western culture. Most individuals in a culture see theirs as right, good and moral, some even as the best—assuming they have anything to compare to and have the inclination to make that comparison. With training, I can put aside my cultural biases and understand (to an extent) how other people feel about their own culture.

The actions we take are predicated on many things, but let me list three: Inculturation, experience, and held principles.

Everyone is taught what's right and wrong for their culture. One's experiences, good or bad, including peer pressure, determine how you implement what you are taught. Last, you form principles that conform or conflict with your culture or peer pressure, and act on them.

So, do you wear male or female clothes?

What clothing you wear is profoundly influenced by your culture. Think kimonos and sari, business suits and red dresses. Clothing is an identity as well as armor. It's also gender affirming.

In the news as I write this, in some places in the US, if the clothes you wear do not conform to a cultural norm, people in that culture are willing to label you as evil. Excuse the reductionism here, but I'm making a point that you can expand.

Think about what it would feel like wearing the clothing of the opposite sex. Think about performing your daily routine, work, shopping, socializing, dressed that way. Take it one further, what about not wearing any clothing?

What you would feel doing as I asked is the effect of your inculturation. At its core, inculturation is programming to force you to conform to cultural standards. Repeated exposure to cultural dissonance (what you feel violating the norm) can lessen the effect of what you feel, even allow you to feel no effect. It could become a principle that anyone can wear whatever they want, if you go that far. Further, if you choose to accept the principle, to ignore your inculturation, much of the negativity you feel ignoring your inculturation disappears. Note, this could leave you labeled as perverted or immoral or a criminal.

We live in a society with lots of subcultures (assuming, for the moment, the US). From our own subcultural perspective, other subcultures can seem anything from ridiculous to evil. Again, reductionism—I'd do better given days to think this essay through.

The truth about inculturation is that it exists to allow us to act without thinking about it.

Reflex.

This is necessary. It allows people to predict the actions of people they don't know and those they do know. It allows people work in harmony with often similar goals through shared agreed upon principles. It allows us to recognize us and differentiate from them.

The not thinking part is significant. Not having to think negates choice, or the need for it.

So... is evil a choice?

No sane person goes outside saying to themself, "I will perform evil today." (They may recognize that they are doing so, but that's a different topic.) They go outside and do something their culture says is appropriate. Whether another culture, or person, considers this action evil is a relative thing.

At one time it was culturally appropriate to own a slave. Actually considering the implications of this statement from an historical, modern, and culturally relative perspective will likely break your head. It is sobering to realize that slavery still exists: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-still-have-slavery

The complexity here is enormous. As a novelist giving advice for authors, keep in mind the concept that evil is complex. I advise you not to minimize. Exploit these perspectives to make your reader think about their own biases, and whether they perform evil themselves.This is the function of literature.

When people act evil or do evil things, they don't do it in a vacuum.

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Some key definitions

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