Category: Actions

What Makes An Action Evil?

What are the criteria for an action to be considered evil? Can you categorize behavior as evil, and if so, how?

This question is in contrast to last week’s question, “What makes an action good?”

Many of the same issues arise with evil actions as did with good ones. You might, for instance, decide an action is evil if it harms people. However, what if there was no intention to harm people at all, but it was an inadvertent outcome? Do intentions matter at all, or is it only the impact that counts?

Perhaps an action is chosen specifically to to help people you care about. This would seem good, but it helps at the expense of people you don’t know or don’t care about. Does that constitute evil? If you are forced to prioritize between some inside your “in” group or out of it, inside wins nearly every time.

Consider the reverse of last week’s conclusion: Think about the decisions or actions you are most ashamed of, that you feel were made in haste or in error. Do those decisions have something in common? Do evil actions share some traits or properties?

Related questions: What is your definition of evil? Why do we hate? Is it a cruel world? What gives a person value?

What Makes An Action Good?

How can you determine if an action that you take is a good one? What are the properties that “good” actions share?

If you want to lead a good life, what is the best way to go about doing that? The most direct way is to have most of your deeds be good ones. You are a good person who led a good life if you performed a significant number of good actions.

But what, exactly, does that mean?

If you are evaluating two options, how might you go about choosing the better one? It might be easy if the two options are extremes. Which is better: to volunteer at a soup kitchen, or to kick a puppy?

However, most choices in life are not that clear cut. Some can be downright difficult, and many choices must be made with incomplete information that makes it almost impossible to determine which is better in advance.

And there are other considerations, as well. How might you rate one action that benefits your family more, and another that benefits the community? How do you prioritize the present or the near future versus the far future?

In general, though, actions that fall into the category of “good” may have some common attributes. If you think back to the things in your life that you are most proud of, or choices you think turned out to be good decisions, what do they have in common? Can you find a common thread to your good actions?

Related questions: What does it mean to be a good person? Are people inherently good? When have you made good from a bad situation? How do you determine what matters?

How Important Is Accountability?

The actions we take can impact the people around us. How important is it to hold ourselves accountable for the consequences of those actions?

What you do matters. It matters for your own life, and can have ripple effects on the people around you. This is true in your personal life, with your family and loved ones. It is also true in your professional life, as your actions can have consequences on your coworkers, your boss, your company, and others.

In a perfect world, we would be rewarded for the positive actions we take, and punished for the negative ones. At work, we might get a raise if we introduce a best-selling new product. Or we might get fired for messing up and doing damage to our coworkers or the company’s brand.

We can call this system of rewards and punishments “accountability”.

However, the world doesn’t always hold people accountable for their behavior and actions. For instance, the punishment and reward system can work in reverse.

Sometimes people are rewarded despite having made questionable decisions. The company does well, and so everyone gets a Christmas bonus, regardless of performance or merit. Or layoffs at a struggling company might be first hired, first fired, ignoring the positive contributions someone has made.

In addition, it is human nature to accept credit for good outcomes, but to minimize blame for bad ones. If good events happen in my private life, no doubt it is because I am smart and made wise decisions. Bad things are someone else’s fault, or beyond my control.

Does this matter? How important is it to hold yourself accountable for your actions? How important is it to hold others accountable for theirs? Do you think about those — yourself and others — differently?

Related questions: What are we responsible for? How do you judge yourself? How are you underappreciated? What are our responsibilities to others?

What Is Your Favorite Group Activity?

There are some things you can only do with other people. What is your favorite group activity?

Share why if you wish.

What Will You Do Today To Make Your Tomorrow Better?

The idea of a better tomorrow is very appealing. To get there, however, will take action, preferably today. What action are you taking?

To some extent, we understand the power we have when it comes to shaping the future. We know that if we want to have a flourishing garden, we need to plant the seeds and water them first.

This illustrates that the action we take today — planting the seeds — leads to what we want tomorrow — a garden.

So, with that in mind, what metaphorical seeds do you want to plant and nourish? What do you hope to eventually harvest and share with your community?

There is a concept known as the butterfly effect: a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can lead to a hurricane half a world away. That is, a small change in initial conditions can lead to a massive impact at a different place and later time.

This idea is often used in time-travel stories. Stepping out of a time machine, a story’s protagonist accidentally steps on an insect, then finds the future altered beyond recognition.

But the same idea can work in the present. One small action now, properly positioned, can have deep and lasting impacts on what comes next.

So, with that in mind, what can you do in this direction? What is the better future you want, and what are the steps today to be taken to achieve it?

Related questions: How much does your past determine your future? Will the future be better than the present? Should we try to predict the future? How do you set priorities?