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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KDLadage" data-source="post: 191960" data-attributes="member: 88">Although I personally agree with you for the most part (I do believe that there are some absolutes in evil and good) there is a subjective element the the concept of good and evil.However, you seem to have misinterpreted it somewhat (on purpose? not sure). It is not the case, in the subjective view of morality, that the individual defines evil -- it is the community, the society in which s/he lives that will define it. The vast majority of Englanders in Jack's day saw him as evil. Thus he is evil, no matter what he, or a minority of people may have thought.For example, let us look at the American Revolution. Here we see (im America) the people involved are held high as heroic men. I happen to see it that way. Even though many of these men did things that, today, would be seen as evil. They owned slaves, for example. They (as it was stated in DAZED AND CONFUSED) -- "were a group of rich white slave owners that didn't want to pay their taxes" and so they overthrew a government. One man, Benadict Arnold, is a "traitor" and reviled in American history.Now, lets look at a world where the Revolution was thwarted. Suddenly, these men are nolonger "patriotic men of honor and priciple" -- they are "murderous criminals that were subverting the God given right to Rule granted to King George." They go from being Good to either (at best) Chaotic Neutral (opportunists) or (at worst) Chaotic Evil (murderous thieves).the view of these men is highly subjective to the outcome of History.Another broad (and sometimes over used) example is Nazi Germany (I know, I know, but here me out). Currently, in the world that has followed World War II, after the demise of the Nazi War machine, the vast majority of the world (myself whole-heartedly included) sees the reign of Hitler to have been an evil one. They see the acts and the results and the beliefs of this group to be "evil" -- thus, it is evil. In fact, it has pretty much defined the idea for a couple of generations.Now, imagine a world in which the Third Reich had conquered Europe. Imagine a world where Hitler is revered, not reviled. Imagine a world where the Nazi Party is celebrated as the harbringers of a New World Order, not the vile racist we see them as. Imagine a world where the paradigm of the Nazi Party had become the default meme of the Western World. In this world, Nazism and the Third Reich and even the Holocaust are no longer the dispicable acts of evil men, they are the liberating acts of a group of patriots.Now, before you get upset, understand that this is not entirely the way I see things. I feel that there are some absolutes involved here. But, one must accept that history is written by the Victors, and they will always paint thier cause as the "just" and "correct" one.</blockquote>

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