Dennis Prager Show - Ultimate Issues: Examining Evil and the Human Condition
Aired: 2021-03-17
Duration: 04:30


=== Ideological Evil's Dilemma (04:21) ===

[00:00:00]  And every evil that I know of in the Western world, communism, Nazism, fascism, racism, slavery, you name it, everybody engaged in it thought they were doing good, or thought they were good, certainly.
[00:00:22]  So thinking you're good means zilch, with a capital Z. It's a big dilemma, my friends.
[00:00:34]  Big dilemma.
[00:00:35]  Fort Myers, Florida, and Christopher, hello.
[00:00:43]  Hello.
[00:00:43]  So...
[00:00:44]  Hey, Dennis.
[00:00:46]  Yes.
[00:00:47]  So, I wanted to comment on your...
[00:00:50]  You said people do not go to sleep and then wake up and say, oh, I'm going to do evil today.
[00:00:56]  That's right.
[00:00:58]  So, I understand that question, but...
[00:01:02]  Most people...
[00:01:03]  So my parents adopted kids, and their stepfather, I guess you could say, beat their sister, who is now...
[00:01:13]  Right, okay, so I said earlier...
[00:01:16]  You're right, you're right.
[00:01:18]  So let me explain.
[00:01:19]  I'm glad you called.
[00:01:21]  I said it, but I don't expect people to hear everything I say, and I say that with respect.
[00:01:26]  Especially when things are new, it's hard to hear everything.
[00:01:30]  I was clear as a bell.
[00:01:32]  Individual evil.
[00:01:34]  I said like carving up people.
[00:01:36]  You can use child abuse.
[00:01:39]  Beating a spouse.
[00:01:41]  Individual evil.
[00:01:43]  I don't know.
[00:01:45]  I will get to that in a moment.
[00:01:47]  But that's not what I'm talking about.
[00:01:49]  Talking about the evil that has caused a hundred million deaths in the 20th century.
[00:02:00]  That statistically way, way outdoes spousal abuse in terms of people who are killed, murdered, etc.
[00:02:13]  I'm talking about ideological evil.
[00:02:17]  Every ideological evil is done by people thinking they're doing good.
[00:02:22]  As regards individual evil, like...
[00:02:29]  Spousal abuse or child abuse even, I don't know the answer.
[00:02:37]  If you asked a man who abused a prepubescent child, I'm taking prepubescent because that is so obviously evil.
[00:02:50]  So that's why I'm taking it.
[00:02:54]  So what does this man think?
[00:02:59]  To the extent that I am aware, and it's not a huge extent, I've done some reading, but I do not claim expertise in the arena.
[00:03:09]  Their self-image is of a lover of children, not an abuser of children.
[00:03:18]  Not in all cases.
[00:03:19]  In some cases, they know that they are, I presume.
[00:03:24]  Very few people, including those who abuse a spouse, the wife abuser or the husband abuser, sees him or herself as a victim lashing out at a perpetrator.
[00:03:40]  They don't think, oh, I'm whacking my spouse because I'm a piece of crap.
[00:03:50]  They don't do that.
[00:03:53]  I'm whacking, I'm hurting my spouse because they deserve it.
[00:03:58]  You know how much they do X, Y, or Z? So even there, not in all cases, I mean, in the case of the psychopathological individual, the one who lacks the ability to empathize, that person does not think they're doing good.

=== Responsible for a Small Part (00:23) ===

[00:04:18]  They don't think they're doing bad.
[00:04:19]  They don't think about good and bad.
[00:04:22]  There are such people.
[00:04:23]  They are responsible for a very small part of evil in the human condition.