posted on Feb, 4 2010 @ 02:54 PM
The philosopher Immanuel Kant invented a theory called "radical evil." In it, he described a situation where to do what is normal becomes a way of
tacitly endorsing a great evil by participation. In such a case, the individual is faced with a difficult choice between life as others do it and
turning away from a "radical" or all-pervasive evil. Kant used this in contrast to the image of evil popular at the time, which held that normal
life was good and only a few deviated. He was the first to describe a systemic, or civilization-wide, environment in which destructive actions (evil)
were the norm and the burden fell on the individual to resist it.
In the present era, we face a choice between participating in a society that clearly is heading toward a bad end, and choosing a difficult and
solitary path away from its insanity. Even more, since most of our philosophies of life are defined within this evil system, we have few choices that
we can take "off the shelf" and pursue. One can be an anarchist, Communist, Nazi, extreme Christian or even jihadist, but these paths lead back to
the same situation we have now. To resist our society, we can no longer complain about its methods, but must attack its underlying values.