Why is Evil more appealing ?

[shyamwestwind]

Hi Everyone,
Why is Evil and all things related to it, more appealing and more attractive than Good ?
Look around you and you'll find T shirts with logos of the Skull and Cross Bones, Blood Dripping Tongues, Dracula figures, Eeerie Claws, Stinging Scoprpions, Hissing Cobras, Horned Devils, Kives and Daggers etc etc etc etc etc !!!!!!!!!!!!
I admit to having been attracted to the "Skull and Cross Bones" sign and had a tie clip made which I would clip on to my leather waist coat. I even had a Big Belt Buckle made with this emblem.
I agree it was childish (I was a child, then, but then, aren't we all ? lol lol lol)
Most of the movies that attract a Box Office Crowd are Violent, Blood Curdling ones. Gory scenes of knifing and point blank shooting with scenes of bullets exiting the head etc are shown and the audience is inpressed.
Clothes like T-Shirts, Jeans carry logos and brand names like "Killer","Scoprpion" "Cobra", "Venom" "Death" etc.
Even though I was atrracted, myself, to these gory and "evil" stuff, I cant help wondering why all this is so attractive and appealing to many, especially the younger generation.
Ofcourse, Evil is Evil only if you perceive it as such and adorning, admiring or sponsoring such objects, does not neccessarily mean they are evil or satanic, but still............ it is a little strange don't you think ?
Your thoughts please.

[sweeney]

Brilliant topic Shyam! It is strange in deed. I wonder if it is a Macho thing. A statement to non conformity. It's generaly a boys thing although girls of late seem to be taking over the mantle. I read in the Daily Mail newspaper about a couple of weeks ago that 30% of knife crime and serious assaults involved girls. I think more so serious assaults, but that is almost one in three, and their presence at a lot stabbings and attitudes after the fact seemed to alarm the police. Here's a thought. In 1984 I went to see Kris Kristofferson at the RDS in Dublin along with a friend. We booked in to stay at the Gresham Hotel. This we did because himself and his band were staying there. We were in the lobby when he came down in the lift to go to his gig and he was wearing Black Tee Shirt with a large single red rose on the front, which he also kept on during his show.. I remember thinking to myself at the time this is strange attire for a man that studied Blake, written and had hits with songs that bordered on Anti Establishment. I thought he would have had something, like as you say Skull and Crossbones. I remember feeling somewhat uneasy Although it did not spoil the show for me, it caused me to give thought to something that normally would have gone over my head................Any thoughts??

Gerry.

[weegeo]

Good topic indeed Shyam, and it does sometimes make one wonder why there is so much emphasis on the `evil` emblems. I think we only have ourselves to blame when i started in this business way back at the beginning of time lol lol we were all into firstly looking like a `Beatle`with mop cut hair and `cuban heeled boots`then along came `flower power` and bingo the `hippie` was born and we were all quite happy to go along this road because it was harmless and then somewhere in the middle the `world`changed and suddenly our music got angry and along came the `heavy bands`with their comments on culture and politics and slowly `evil`crept into the music and stage appearance and our youth got angry with the influence of their `idols`and it was now seen as cool to be wearing a skull and crossbones around your neck and the same with tatoo`s it was cool to have the old skull painted indelibly on your arm but i think that we slowly moved out of that `stage`unfortunately the `world`took another dip and `evil` became much more prevalent and people became more vicious with the crimes they committed and now we read off youths stabbing people in the street for nothing infact there was a case just a few weeks ago where a bloke walked up to a pregnant lady and stabbed her to death and he just walked off leaving 2 dead [mother and unborn baby] Those that would be more knowledgable than me would point to `a sign of the times`scenario and with all that is going on who could argue with them.
My last thought on it is this i think it these days were we have all seen a rise in crime wherever we live, we need to ask the question why do the criminals that cause the crime get handed such weak sentence`s all this seems to do is to encourage them to go 1 step further with their next crime i think the return of good old fashioned standards in our justice would go a long way to curing the `evil` that is amongst us.

weegeo

[sweeney]

Totally Agree Weegeo. People who commit these dastardly crimes against society (Especially against the young and elderly people in our midst) have absolutely nothing to fear. There is no deterrent whatsoever. These thugs know the law and the authoritys seem powerless to stop them. There should be a Zero Tolerence attitude towards all crime. I dont think this shall ever come about until the hiring and firing of Judges, Chiefs of Police, Lord Mayors are in the hands of the people as it is in America..........Gerry.

[oliver101]

I dont normally voice my opinions on this type of topic, but remember 99% of all people are basically good people and lead good lives never intentionally meaning to do harm to others. To some people doing evil is a way of getting attention to themselves or their cause. It is this point that encourages some to wear skull and crossbones and devil worship tee shirts etc. It is just a way of getting others to look at them. Growing up in the 70s as a teenager in the punk era, I was amazed at the attention seeking atire the punks displayed, but it was all attention seeking. Most of these punks are probably now parents with 'normal' jobs, mortgages, and children leading their own lives.
There is still of course the 0.01% who commit henious crimes against humanity and property of which there is no law on this planet that will stop them. These people are not worthy of remaining in this world and prison does not deter them, which is why so many inmates of our jails are repeat offenders. Look at the countrys that have very tough laws, they seem to have fewer criminals. I dont agree with some of the bizzare laws in the world, but I would like to see a far tougher legal system in place here in Britain. Wether it would make the world a better place I could not say, but I wouldn't object to a trial period of tougher laws to see if the evil crime perpertraters can be halted.

Oliver101

[Tubbs]

I agree with Oliver, most of it is harmless, the rage nowadays seems to be Gothic, mostly following what is known as Death Metal, the lyrics in some of these songs are beyond belief!! But i don't think these followers are evil themselves. Good Vs Evil is as old as the universe....since time began there was always anti-establishment groups, Anarchy was the thing in the seventies, and, as Oliver says, most of these people are now living blissfully in suburbia...a lot of older people are quick to put down the youth of today with there "during the war" attitude.....the same war where probably the most evil man ever tried for world domination....that was 70 years ago and i don't think the world has seen anything on his level since. Society nowadays has more psychopaths due to one thing mainly.....Drugs.

Education, Equality and less Repression along with Governments who actually give a toss about less fortunates would lower violent crime dramatically. IMO.

And yes, those found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of evil crimes should be dealt with like our American cousins do it.

[Emerald Midi]

Some very valid points but ultimately it boils down to how one defines evil. For example, the Skull & Bones is frequently used as a warning on medicines.

[shyamwestwind]

Oh yes Pat the skull and crossbones are used as warnings in many places where they need to warn people of injury leading to death if they dont pay heed. It denotes death. The point is why are so many people attracted to such pictures of death, gore, murder and what have you ?
I guess its just that these things bring attention to themselves, like Oliver says. A sure way to some fast and cheap publicity, but it still does feel strange why flaunting good cant get the same publicity,