15: The Fluidity of Evil

Let me start by saying that nothing here is any kind of justification for anyone’s actions. This is simply a representation of a thought process that I use while writing to create those characters that people love to hate.

What is evil? Well, all the definitions of evil have a line like this: Profoundly immoral and wicked. Yes, this describes evil, but just like the word good, the definition is subjective.

I say subjective because evil has taken many forms and has changed over time throughout the history of the world. For example, one of the most commonly use representations of evil is human sacrifice, and humans have been sacrificed for all sorts of reasons, all across the world, and one of the last documented human sacrifices happened in the 1800s. It has not even been 200 years since that event, and I do not think that anyone can truly say that it does not still happen to this day.

Let's face it, if I used more examples, it would be a long list of depravity that would start to make most people wonder what is wrong with this guy, so I will just say that what the modern-day sees as evil was commonplace at one time or another regardless of how others during those times viewed it.

And how these acts of evil are viewed has a lot to do with the fluidity of evil. There was a commercial on television years ago in the US that said, “Nobody ever says, I want to be a junky when they grow up.” If that is too obscure, than let me say that within the mind of someone who is doing anything considered evil; never do they tell themselves that it is time to do evil.

The creepy thing is that the person or people truly do not think they are doing anything wrong. From their perspective, everything they do is right or at the very least necessary. When someone commits a crime against humanity, they always have a way to justify their actions, and it typically does not matter if others agree it.

Years ago, when I attended Sunday School, my teacher at the time was a seminarian who decided to pursue a career in psychology. I cannot remember if he had become a psychiatrist or a therapist, he was retired by the time I attended his class, but I will never forget what he said about his experiences with some prisoners he had worked with, “When you listen to and observe some of the people who are in prison for harming others, it feels as if they have no soul, there is no remorse, regret, or any indication that what they willingly admit to doing was wrong. These are the type of people who scare me.”

After hearing that comment, I started to think that psychological disorders had to be at the root of all evil; after all, the stereotypical formula used in all the fiction I consumed at the time did support the idea that mental illness in one form or another had created some of the evilest villains I had ever read, but what is evil is not so easy to isolate.

Psychological disorders, mental illness, and trauma are a catch-all that provides people with a way to comprehend someone’s overly wicked actions. At the same time, we tend to be okay when the hero of a story performs the same actions as long as they focus those actions upon the bad guys.

For the most part, everyone understands where the line that divides good from evil is, but that line is never as well defined as anyone would like it to be. I would think that the level of empathy involved would have something to do with it, and while it does, there is a loophole.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Only less than 1% of the world’s population does not have this ability. Note that regardless of your level of empathy or if you do not have any, you still experience your emotions.

The loophole is when someone with enough empathy starts to understand and share the feelings of a person who does not have any empathy. As this feeling or message is passed on to more people who in turn understand it and relay it to more people; now, you have a group who identifies with something that came from a person who has no true connection to the group but who can now use that influence to their advantage. Potential evil is built and can be expanded upon by empathy.

The fact of the matter is that no one who still draws a breath is excluded from being considered evil. If something you do is passionately disliked by others, your actions can be procured as evil. As convoluted as that might seem, it is only added upon by Edmund Burke who said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” So, even inaction promotes evil.

So, is it possible to stay away from evil and the stigma that comes with it? The short answer is no, but the long answer is a little murky. Within each of us is the capacity for good and evil; the problem is that whatever choices you make never truly determine your path. Like beauty, evil is in the eye of the beholder. What you decide to do, no matter how hard you try to hide it, will always find a way to reveal itself through a reflection that you may or may not have the courage to look at. Until next time, I am Nolan… Ex Tenebris.