[EVA] Good & Evil (was: The EoE Situation)

[Rachel K. Clark]

Time to do a topic split, methinks...

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M wrote:

> we know that gainax never  gives conflicting or incorrect information it 
> is canon and these  jssdf are just trying to relax and let go of tension 
> before  undertaking the very dangerous job of saving the world and 
> furthermore it also shows that these good and caring people have a 
> promising future with peta just like manga kaworu did when he  euthanized 
> that poor kitten and ended its terrible suffering

I think I shared these before, but your comment especially brought the 
second page to mind.

http://www.evacommentary.org/images_capdoc/reichu_emk.gif
http://www.evacommentary.org/images_capdoc/reichu_emk_2.gif

With regard to the JSSDF image, I think it's a nice touch. A reminder that 
things aren't all black and white, and that the soldiers, heinous as their 
collective actions might be, are just people, too.

BTW, here's a _Die Sterne_ scan of the illo:

http://www.evacommentary.org/images_illos/tsurumaki_jssdf_rebirth-cover.jpg

 I don't have any good pictures of the actual LD cover. (No, my archive has 
failed me!)

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Carl wrote:

> We have an image of villains rubbing their hands  and cackling over their 
> evil, but real-life villains, large and  small, tend to believe they're 
> doing the right thing, and that it's  their victims who are wrong or evil. 
> Hitler and Stalin are just the  most extreme examples of this; the abusive 
> parent is a more common  one. Therefore I feel it's better to judge evil 
> by actions and  results, rather than by self-image and intent. Self-image 
> and intent  may be mitigating circumstances, but they shouldn't be 
> confused with  the issue of whether a crime has been committed.

As Kira Nerys once put it in DS9, "It doesn't matter what people think, only 
what they do."

>I agree with Brendan; also, I've said before that practically every 
>authority figure in EVA (with the general exception of Misato) puts  their 
>desire for power, their obsessions, and their delusions ahead  of basic 
>human decency.

Don't let Misato get off so easy. Her underlying motivation for being 
involved are her Daddy issues.

>I actually don't agree that the targeting the Children, per se, is an 
>exceptionally evil act when considered amidst the general slaughter  of 
>NERV HQ. That is to say, they certainly posed much more real risk  than the 
>ordinary staffers who were pursued with equal coldness by  the JSSDF.

I actually thought that the soldier poised to blow Shinji's brains out 
sounded like a professional doing his job, nothing more.

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immano wrote:

>> But if SEELE's motives were purely scientific in boosting the
>> d/evolution of mankind to its ultimate state, can that be considered
>> evil, or just amoral?

>Brendan wrote:
>> Sure, SEELE truly believed that they were doing what was best for 
>> mankind.

>Only because that was their fairly egoistic and not nearly based on facts 
>enough opinion. They felt afraid of life, therefore thought everybody would 
>be.

According to the NGE2 Classified Information, anyway, Seele also wanted to 
attain a form of immortality, and turning all of humankind into a homogenous 
metabiological blob was a nifty way to go about doing it.

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colin tate wrote:

>I agree with the possibility of their
>actions as being moral or amoral (depending upon viewpoint), but I
>wouldn't consider it to be done for scientific reasons, rather more
>for naturalistic reasons.  Its a progression of humanity.

Its entirely artificial nature denies "naturalism". Also, the idea that 
'humanity has reached a dead end' is subjective. Instrumentality seems more 
like a reduction than 'progression', turning a dynamic (albeit flawed) 
species into a Singular Being that seems incapable of little other than 
simply existing. A small group of self-appointed elites do not deserve to 
decide our collective fate -- that's a job for us and Nature.

___________________________________________________
Brendan wrote:

> I don't believe in moral and ethical relativism. SEELE's means and
> ends were both evil and morally bankrupt regardless of how they viewed
> themselves or their goals.

I hope you're factoring in the actions of their pawn-organization Nerv. 
Systematic genocide and the creation of artificial humans for enslavement 
purposes, among other things, don't exactly sparkle with ethical 
righteousness.


-Reichu