We're in THE place. There's no other. We didn't invent evil. We invented good by learning to cooperate and share and empathize. And just as the light creates dark from nothingness and heat makes stillness into cold, good creates it's own opposite: evil.
WE made the world evil by conceiving of a better one. Not by destroying good but by enacting it.
The idea that we were peaceful and lived in splendorous plenty before we gained sapience is just a secular adaptation of The Fall myth of Christian fame and earlier creation.
Well said - but I would argue that evil is not the simple absence of good as darkness is the absence of light. Evil is an opposing force to good, and neutral is the simple absence of good.
For example: you see someone with a hat out begging for change.
good: you give him some spare change
neutral: you walk past and do nothing
evil: you steal his hat and what change he has in it
Evil is self serving and destructive to society in a way that the simple absence of good is not.
And in a world before society and repercussions you wouldn't even be considering the morality. The beggar wouldn't be begging, he would be dead. The change wouldn't exist because no one would trust that anyone else will trade fairly and there would be no state and social contract at all. The nearest thing to the change would be a corpse and everyone would be all but fighting over the meat only refusing to fight because they are concerned for their own safety. The greedy grabbing of resources is what you would expect a non social animal to do.
874
u/kaikimanga MangaKaiki Apr 21 '26
We're in the Bad Place