Inherent Evil

[Lord of Angmar]

I was recently reading through the Valinor = Heaven for Elves? thread when I came across an interesting remark by Kiah.

No entire race is evil...

Although I do feel the need to specify that Kiah ended this quote with a variation of 'aside from Orcs, that is', I still feel that perhaps no race in Middle-earth really can be considered evil. Let us consider the circumstances of the orcs.

Although it has been a topic of debate as to whether orcs were corrupted Elves or Men, it is said in the Silmarillion that

[Elves from Cuivenen] were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved ... thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves... And deep in their hearts the Orcs loathed the master they served in fear...

So they are not entirely evil, it can be argued, but rather they are the victims of harsh circumstance. For Morgoth enslaved them and the Children of Illuvatar hated them and slew them, and they could not escape the bonds of their master. And since their very essence is corruption, they can never know love. I propose that, had they not been subject to Morgoth and Sauron, they would not be fully disposed to evil, but rather to hiding and not bothering in the affairs of those who walked under the Sun in the day. I think that it was because of Morgoth's and Sauron's influence on and sway over them that they were considered to be evil.

In The Two Towers, when Sam overhears the two orcs conversing, both agree that they would rather find an out-of-the-way residence and abide there with friends than serve the Dark Lord in the War of the Ring. This is certainly a convincing argument that they are not wholly evil, and are not always predisposed to plunder and murder. It is my humble opinion that they are corrupted by nature, merciless by need and because of the will of their master (Sauron, Morgoth, Saruman, etc.), and considered inherently "evil" only by circumstance.