Author: theghost (---.130.71)
Date: 08-29-2001 15:46
I think a distinction must be made between what is "Evil", what is "Alien", and what is "Bad". Don't let Bad or Alien fool you. They are no less evil than Evil. These are just terms that describe the motivations, not the impact of the actions.
Evil is not mindless, nor does it have motivation beyond perpetuating Evil. It does what it does because it wants to do Evil - to hurt, to cause terror, to inspire more Evil. It does horrible things because it is in its nature to do them.
Demons (as in "The Exorcist") are the typical example of this. Evil would still be evil if it were unable to commit evil acts.
Alien is mindless or at least appears to be so. It may do violent, horrible things, but it doesn't do so for any discernible reason, or with any discernible pattern.
The fear here comes from the unpredictability and inescapability of the actions. "Jaws" was Alien, Jason (from "Friday the 13th") was Alien, the alien from "Alien" was Alien. (But the aliens from "Aliens" were not - they had obvious motivations.) Alien is not evil if it does not commit evil acts - then it's just strange.
Bad is being used here to describe horrible, revolting, disgusting acts that have a motivation. They are not an end to themselves, but rather a means to an end - power, revenge, money, sex, etc.
The horror in Bad comes from the idea that anyone of us could commit these acts given the right temptation. Hitler was Bad (though it seems like such a colossol understatement to say so) - he had reasons for what he did. Think about it - what is worse, the facts of what Hitler did (he is not the only man in history to have ordered genocide, nor the first to torture and dehumanize another race), or the idea that such a thing could be seen by some twisted person as justified, and hence be repeated. Bad is not evil if it does not commit evil acts - then it's just like everyone else.
~ theghost
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