evil as darkness

Whence evil?  It's not so much why do people do evil as why certain acts are considered evil.

As darkness is the absence of light, can evil be the absence of good?  The bum who doesn't get the buck, the Samaritan not bothering with the injured traveler?  An absence of altruism?  

Let me speak here of the concentric circles of altruism.  In the center is the self.  If you do something good for yourself, who cares outside of you?  You don't get any points.  But if you are nice to your family that is a little better, everybody respects a good family man, but if I'm not a relative what do I care?  There are all these stories about evil men, primarily gangsters, who are very good to their families, but I'm not impressed with that.  Strange though if you kill your own son or father it is regarded with more horror than if you kill some stranger.

Between family and nation things get a little more vague, your neighbors, your city, your state, your church, your far flung web of friends.  If you mow your neighbor's lawn, donate land for a park in your city, give a bum a buck, that is seen as even better than being nice to your family, because who isn't nice to their family?

I'm going to leave out other motivations here. What if you donated that park because you are an egomaniac and you wanted your name on it.  I'm going to call it still a good deed regardless of the motivation.

Wasn't motivation the whole point of the give a bum a buck debate?  I'm not sure if I remember.

Things get even stranger when you get to your country.  Everybody loves somebody who does good for his country, but if you do good for all humanity some of your countrymen will be miffed because you didn't spend all your efforts on your countrymen but wasted it on a lot of foreigners.  There are always those people who complain when we send money to starving Africa that we should be spending it on our countrymen instead.  Identity with one's nation is so strong.that a lot of people think fuck everybody else.  

This is altruism roughly sketched out. I think most people, perhaps even the argumentative dawgs would agree with this.

But that's evil as the absence of good.  I believe there is another evil in the minds of men, a strong visceral thing which is not concerned with the results of the deed, but with the deed itself.  I am speaking of sin.

I am thinking right now of gambling, drugging/drinking, and that big old enchilada, sex.  I will leave the subject for cogitation now.

Still thinking of the Yates hearing when I got out of the shower after the gym yesterday, I walked over to the computer and there was Breaking News Trump fires Coney.  Holy shitsky.  The man is entertaining..