In this little book, James P. Carse argues that evil is the termination of possibilities, or as he calls it, of infinite play.
Evil is not the attempt to eliminate the play of another according to published and accepted rules, but to eliminate the play of another regardless of the rules … The Evil is never intended as evil. Indeed, the contradiction inherent in all evil is that it originates in the desire to eliminate evil … It is evil to act as though the past is bringing us to a specifiable end. It is evil to assume that the past will make sense only if we bring it to an issue we have clearly in view. It is evil for a nation to believe it is “the last, best hope on earth.” It is evil to think history is to end with a return to Zion, or with the classless society, or with the Islamization of all living infidels.
My interpretation is that it’s evil to force a society, or a nation, or the whole world, to follow a specific destiny that one believes in, especially if this precludes other outcomes. It’s evil to shut the door on possibilities.
The implications aren’t always clear in practice. Everything has an opportunity cost and precludes us from doing other things. For example, some of us believe that it’s humanity’s destiny to reach the stars. Is it evil to try to force that destiny, or is it evil not to force it? Is a galactic manifest destiny similarly misguided as Marxism with its claim that there is a goal that all of society should work towards? Or is it different because if successful, it will open up countless new possibilities for infinite play?
Nehaveigur 