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reply to commentaries by two follow posting: (footnotes must from text) your responds format just look likes the following posting. Just write which argument you agree with it or disagree, why and why not. should have evidence to support your argument.
According to social psychologist, James Waller, “Evil is anything detrimental to the well-being of living things” [1]. Living things includes, people, animals, plants, and any part of the environment in general. To harm the environment is to harm any living thing because living things need the Earth and its resources to survive. This is why damaging the environment in any way is considered an evil act.
The film, Scared Sacred, discussed an immensely evil act that occurred in Bhopal, India. Many people died and the environment was destroyed due to a pipe bursting at the pesticide plant, Union Carbide India Limited, releasing a toxic gas and chemicals into the air. A woman from the film described how these chemicals turned a tree completely black [2]. This is a prime example of an environmental evil. However, it is more than just an environmental evil. Not only was the environment damaged, but people were killed and the plant clearly did not take it as seriously as it should have. Looking more closely at the aftermath of the disaster, the film discussed how people were trying to provide medical assistance to the survivors of the incident. They asked Union Carbide India Limited what their pesticides were made out of so that the doctors could know how to better treat the patients. The plant refused to say the ingredients of their pesticides because they said that it was a trade secret [3]. Anthropologist, Jordan Paper, stated “Selfish behaviour and hoarding are considered the epitome of evil.” [4]. The way Union Carbide India Limited dealt with the situation is an example of evil. Although the company knew people were dying due to their pesticides, they refused to assist the doctors in helping treat people. They selfishly wanted to keep the ingredients of their pesticides to themselves, allowing for more and more people to die as a result.
The colour black has a huge symbolic meaning. It represents darkness, death, destruction, despair, shame, evil, grief, sadness, and much more [5]. As I previously mentioned, a woman in the film described the aftermath of the incident and how she saw a tree had turned black. Before the tree had colour and therefore, it had life. Afterwards, once it became black, it represented the death and destruction that had occurred in Bhopal. The survivors were left with the horrific memories and to grieve. Just like the tree that was still there and standing but had become black, the survivors also changed. They were still alive, but were left to endure the pain and suffering of this evil act that had occurred. Philosopher, Susan Neiman, has discussed about “the experience of shattered trust in the world” [6]. This is what survivors were left with. They witnessed the evil that people can do and how the company did not care enough about these people to attempt to fix what they had done. This leads to a lack of trust in humanity.
[1] Waller, James. Becoming Evil How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Second ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
[2] Scared Sacred. Directed by Velcrow Ripper. National Film Board of Canada, 2004. Film.
[3] Scared Sacred. Directed by Velcrow Ripper. National Film Board of Canada, 2004. Film.
[4] Paper, Jorden. Native North American Religious Traditions: Dancing for Life. Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2007
[5] Cooper, J. C. An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978. 39.
[6] Neiman, Susan. Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002. 9.
