Let’s take it up a level.

I found a readable translation of the St. Augustine piece that was alluded to in the in-class reading. Here’s Augustine’s point:

…that which is called evil, when it is regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of the good; for we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with the evil…

Meanwhile, here’s Michael’s response to something Regina wrote:

I find it incredible that Hollywood producers and directors can live with themselves knowing that they are misleading the world into thinking that evil will never triumph.

This’ll be huge when we read Macbeth in a few weeks. In Shakespeare’s time, the prevailing mindset was that order=goodness, so when the natural balance of things was restored and chaos defeated, goodness prevailed.

Sarah agrees with this, it seems:

Chaos is the root of all evil, if anything else.

I don’t think most people today, though, equate order and goodness. I think that we’re more nuanced in our views, at least in real life. But in the movies, the bad guy is defeated and the hero gets the girl at the end as the credits roll.

And Norma weighs in, too, saying that evil really is a subjective term:

Honestly, I don’t think I can give evil a good definition, or can think of one symbol or idea that can represent it. After all, evil is subjective, meaning that there are different opinions on what evil is. For example, I, like many others believe that Hitler was almost like an embodiment of evil, after all, he did kill millions of people, and targeted anyone who was not an aryan. However, there are people, though very few, who think that Hitler’s actions only made Germany a bigger and stronger empire. Personally, I totally think Hitler was awful, but there was still are, or perhaps were quite a few who looked up to him, and followed his every instruction.

This is great stuff, ladies and gentlemen. I can’t wait to continue this in class with some more readings. Tell me you can’t, either…