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06/21/2003 Archived Entry: "More on idiotarianism" The difference between idiotarians and evil people is the sort of world they desire: In one vision, radical Islamic governments have taken over the world, and all the Americans, Christians, Jews, etc have been killed or converted. Islam is glorious, and there are no infidels that make something else look better. There are no more Western influences like MTV and feminism. In another vision, everyone is happily going about their business, no one is poor, no one is suffering, and no one is fighting. Everyone is free to worship as they choose. Women get to choose their careers, and they are paid the same as men. Children get to play happily, and all of them receive a free, high-quality education. There are many versions of these visions, but virtually all of them can be easily classed as either evil or idiotarian. The difference is desires is rather large. Idiotarian world views have at their center a desire for something good: a world where everyone has a good life, a world where everyone is free, a world without poverty, or something similar, and a refusal to consider anything that seems to run contrary to the world they want. Evil world views have at their center a desire for something bad: Islamic fundamentalist rule, murder of all Jews, a society without individual choices or something similar. Because idiotarians refuse to consider anything that seems contrary to their vision of a good world, they are at least complicit in evil, and often actively helpful to evil causes. For example, accepting a war as just seems to run contrary to the vision of a peaceful world. They refuse to see that sometimes there is a choice between fighting and letting the bad guys win. If the idiotarians determine the course of action, then the evil people win, and have more power to use in the cause of evil. Idiotarians play a valuable role for evil people, but they are not themselves evil.
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Replies: 16 comments
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idiotarianism, like anti-semitism, communism, utopianism or strict-conservatism, is a fallacious way of thinking that leads to immoral behavior. This is the essence of evil. Posted by Dan @ 06/21/2003 09:10 PM EST Woty, I agree that there's a superficial difference, but I think you are going too easy on the leftist-idiotarian visionary. Imagine a teacher who expects a class full of children to be happily enjoying the lesson plan she prepared, but willing to severely punish those who don't. You can say that the her view has a desire for something good at its center, but I say that there's something very bad close to the center. And her failure to focus on it isn't an excuse. It's similar with the leftist visionary with a "good" expectation, but willing to ruthlessly stamp out oppostion when people, astonishingly, act like people. I think there's evil there. What they have in common with the "evil people" you describe is that both groups see other people as means to the ends of the visionary; not ends in themselves whose freedom to pursue different projects should be respected. Seems pretty evil to me. Posted by Gil @ 06/21/2003 09:10 PM EST Please note that all comments prior to this one have been carried over from my old site and that accordingly the dates are incorrect. Posted by Woty @ 06/21/2003 09:10 PM EST
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