Robin Burden answered
In my opinion, there is only one way to combat social evil - education.
Until people see and understand the error in their ways, mistakes will be repeated and evil will continue to exist and thrive.
How to eradicate social evil?
Social evils have been perceived to exist since Adam and Eve were first tempted by the snake in the Garden of Eden (if you believe in that). Since then, it has been a problem that humanity has struggled with constantly.
I'm not particularly religious, but I personally believe that evil is (unfortunately) intrinsic to the human condition. I believe that the capacity to do good - and to do evil - is in all of us, and that every action we take is essentially a choice between the two.
Based on this theory, I don't think it's actually possible to completely wipe out social evil, as it is a part of who we are. What we can do is to rationalize against it.
How I would tackle society's evils
The path of evil inevitably leads to more problems than it's worth. If people can just see and understand that, then they will begin to learn to forsake evil.
Take a thief, for example - yes, he can be punished and deterred from re-offending, but this does not tackle the reason he thought it was OK to commit a crime in the first place. Even in countries where criminals are punished severely, evil still exists.
It is not enough to simply punish people and hope that others will be too scared to act upon similar urges - to fully win the fight against evil, we must attempt to educate and enlighten people so they see the error of their ways in the first place.
Until people see and understand the error in their ways, mistakes will be repeated and evil will continue to exist and thrive.
How to eradicate social evil?
Social evils have been perceived to exist since Adam and Eve were first tempted by the snake in the Garden of Eden (if you believe in that). Since then, it has been a problem that humanity has struggled with constantly.
I'm not particularly religious, but I personally believe that evil is (unfortunately) intrinsic to the human condition. I believe that the capacity to do good - and to do evil - is in all of us, and that every action we take is essentially a choice between the two.
Based on this theory, I don't think it's actually possible to completely wipe out social evil, as it is a part of who we are. What we can do is to rationalize against it.
How I would tackle society's evils
The path of evil inevitably leads to more problems than it's worth. If people can just see and understand that, then they will begin to learn to forsake evil.
Take a thief, for example - yes, he can be punished and deterred from re-offending, but this does not tackle the reason he thought it was OK to commit a crime in the first place. Even in countries where criminals are punished severely, evil still exists.
It is not enough to simply punish people and hope that others will be too scared to act upon similar urges - to fully win the fight against evil, we must attempt to educate and enlighten people so they see the error of their ways in the first place.
