De, Thank you for the response; otherwise I would be talking only to myself and that would be unsatisfactory and, I think, painful! ;->
I didn't see this other recording of Peterson (I am guessing more than a decade before the above recording) until a few minutes ago. It explicates some ideas even deeper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLp7vWB0TeY
The whole video (as with the prior) is filled with wisdom, but there is a point where he gets back to the nature of "evil". The first thing, he says, is that it essential to distinguish evil from tragedy. Tragedy is painful, but it we recognize it is NOT evil. What is the difference?
"Evil for me is differentiated from tragedy by its lack of necessity and its volunteerism." -Peterson
That defines the Democrats (Socialists) and distinguishes them, in broad measure, from the MAGA (Conservatives).
What I think, at this point (and this is coming upon me rapidly, now, although it has been in gestation for years) is that Peterson is right. Humans absolutely are stuck between the finite and the infinite and that is intolerable if we don't have transcendent meaning. And the key is “transcendent” -- that which goes beyond, and hopefully rises above, the tragedy and the pursuit of achievable goals.
So, it was only yesterday, late afternoon, that I really got down to brass tacks (so to speak) and began wrestling with: How can it be that I distinguish the heart of the socialist (Democrat) agenda as pure (and therefore essential) "evil", EVEN WITHOUT A CLEAR DEFINITION OF "EVIL"? And how can that be, when I know some "good" people -- even routinely kind people -- who vote for and vociferously defend the Democrat actions and ideals? When some of their stated objectives even sound rather nice ... even "Christian"? How can that be?
And I think I have my answer, now. And I have enough, at least at this time, closure at that question which began gnawing at me some months back, here on Atomic Bobs: what is the distinction between "Democracy" (writ large) and socialism and communism? And why is it my intuition that there really is no essential distinction? That "democracy", without clear limits, leads inevitably, and usually in rather short order, to really bad stuff?
I need to go back and find my original question, as I posed it, and in the context of the broader discussion here. Can anyone possibly help me with that?
For the rest of you, who may find this whole pondering dreadful boring, I now return you to your normal programming, and wish you a really great day!
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