My Precious knows...
What is Evil - the age old question asked and debated through the millennia. Cultures use the term for inhuman acts that personally happen against them and who they know. Evil is 'pain' - the suffering that life brings. In Western societies, evil was perceived of as a force, and then personified into beings such as Satan, demons, etc.The Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevsky writes of acts of extreme in his book "The Brothers Karamazov" to make a point about how inhumane humans can treat other people.
"Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains. Artistic, wasn't it?... I think that if the Devil doesn't exist, but man created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness."- The Brothers Karamazov, chap 35I'm sure you can think of numerous other war crimes and cruelties you've heard - suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, the holocaust, the witch trials, crucifixion, serial murder, rapes, impaling the heads of victims prominently for all to see, cutting off limbs, etc. That inhumane experience - the horror and disbelief of the personal account of how one victim suffered the way he/she did, and the personal understanding that it could have happened to you, a friend, or family member if in the wrong place at the wrong time - is what most call 'evil.' It can be physical pain, or emotional anguish, but the general theme is universal - from a personal account of 'evil' extrapolated to a generality. Using 9/11 as an example, a horrendous act of terrorism by Muslim extremists that lead to the death of 2000+ Americans is extrapolated to fear of any Muslim or anyone from the Middle East. And that fear doesn't die down - we're on 'orange' alert on the terrorism scale for the holidays with people warning not to go to Times Square or Vegas or wherever for fear of another attack. Listening to our President talk, we're the good guys - the innocent, hardworking citizens - while the terrorists are evil and trying to destroy all we worked for. Like the holocaust, however, one day the next generation - the ones who didn't live through 9/11 - will look back and ask what it was like. The atrocities of each personal account we heard will be lost to the generality of it all. Two planes brought down the World Trade Center and 2000+ Americans died. They won't understand the sheer shock of receiving a call or turning on the news to learn what happened. They won't understand the immediate concern/fear/anxiety for a friend or loved one who happened to be in the area at the time and had no way of getting in touch with them. It's very similar to how we now perceive the Holocaust. We don't really understand until we read say Anne Frank's diary, watch Schindler's List, or flip through photographs of Jews led into concentration camps or mass graves. We need that personal connection - those personal accounts of what one child went through or how one family was reunited or of the tragic loss of a mother who worked on the 90th floor of tower 2. We need those accounts of how a husband on the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh called up his wife to tell her he loved her and that he probably wouldn't see her again because they were going to try to fight back. These are all acts of 'evil' against us, but 'evil' is also something that we can do to another. I was reading Psychology Today, and one of the articles as on secret emotions we kept to ourselves - those inner thoughts that we don't reveal to anyone - wishing aging relatives would just hurry up and die, feeling jealous when a friend/loved one gets a promotion or happy when they are demoted, feeling uncomfortable around the disable, being the first to say 'I told you so, you had it coming,' having adulterous thoughts, etc. While at this stage, of course, these are still just in our heads and we haven't acted up them, but even at this stage, these inner 'bad thoughts' tend to cause much guilt and anxiety about why we think about them. Occasionally, we might commit the act - saying something we shouldn't and can't take back, cheating on our significant others, lying about taxes, embezzling money from our company, deliberately sabotaging someone we know... Sometimes 'evil' is deliberately malicious, while other times, it is done out of weakness or rationalization (ie I lash out at you because you've touched upon a sensitive issue). There are also natural 'evils' such as the recent earthquake that killed 20,000+ people in Iran or diseases like cancer. Think of how many innocent people died in fires, volcanic explosions, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, etc. How many more die of cancer, AIDS, the flu, and other various ailments?
Continuing in this line of thought, what makes someone evil? One paradigm that is often applied to say, serial killers, mass murderers, and the like is of course the nature vs. nurture debate - was he born that way and just acting in accordance with his nature, it's genetic, or something instinctual that is guiding his species to destroy itself... Or did something happen in childhood to perhaps teach him that life doesn't have value? Maybe it was his upbringing, his environment, the way peers responded to him. Or perhaps, moving into modern psychology, both nature and nurture may promote certain behaviors, but they are not, themselves, the cause. 'Evil' may arise from repression of a destructive feeling that eventually eats away at you until you lash out. I may say something that really gets to you. You then may want to hit me in anger. You can choose either to take a swing, or consciously repress that urge. Jungians have argued that as an individual develops, his good and evil sides tend to differentiate themselves - a very good example of this might be the Smeagol/Gollum personalities so clearly demonstrated in Lord of the Rings. Smeagol represents the good part - the hobbit who wants to remain loyal to his master because Frodo is kind to him. Gollum is the bad part - the side overcome by greed who wants nothing more than to get his Precious back. In healthy individuals, the two sides are recognized and reintegrated on a conscious level. Galadrial had many times thought of taking the ring by force, but refused. Her test was when Frodo offered it to her and we saw a glimpse of what could happen - "I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morning! Treacherous as the Sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!" (I love that line!) In unhealthy individuals, however, the 'shadow' repressed portion grows until the urge can no longer be repressed - until Gollum gives into his desire for the ring and leads Frodo into Shelob's lair. LOTR is such a great illustration of the eternal struggle between good and evil... but I'll save that and my extreme praise for Return of the King for a different day. (Btw, if you still haven't seen it, it's amazing and well worth the price of a movie ticket!)
"Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They've planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains. Artistic, wasn't it?... I think that if the Devil doesn't exist, but man created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness."- The Brothers Karamazov, chap 35I'm sure you can think of numerous other war crimes and cruelties you've heard - suicide bombings, terrorist attacks, the holocaust, the witch trials, crucifixion, serial murder, rapes, impaling the heads of victims prominently for all to see, cutting off limbs, etc. That inhumane experience - the horror and disbelief of the personal account of how one victim suffered the way he/she did, and the personal understanding that it could have happened to you, a friend, or family member if in the wrong place at the wrong time - is what most call 'evil.' It can be physical pain, or emotional anguish, but the general theme is universal - from a personal account of 'evil' extrapolated to a generality. Using 9/11 as an example, a horrendous act of terrorism by Muslim extremists that lead to the death of 2000+ Americans is extrapolated to fear of any Muslim or anyone from the Middle East. And that fear doesn't die down - we're on 'orange' alert on the terrorism scale for the holidays with people warning not to go to Times Square or Vegas or wherever for fear of another attack. Listening to our President talk, we're the good guys - the innocent, hardworking citizens - while the terrorists are evil and trying to destroy all we worked for. Like the holocaust, however, one day the next generation - the ones who didn't live through 9/11 - will look back and ask what it was like. The atrocities of each personal account we heard will be lost to the generality of it all. Two planes brought down the World Trade Center and 2000+ Americans died. They won't understand the sheer shock of receiving a call or turning on the news to learn what happened. They won't understand the immediate concern/fear/anxiety for a friend or loved one who happened to be in the area at the time and had no way of getting in touch with them. It's very similar to how we now perceive the Holocaust. We don't really understand until we read say Anne Frank's diary, watch Schindler's List, or flip through photographs of Jews led into concentration camps or mass graves. We need that personal connection - those personal accounts of what one child went through or how one family was reunited or of the tragic loss of a mother who worked on the 90th floor of tower 2. We need those accounts of how a husband on the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh called up his wife to tell her he loved her and that he probably wouldn't see her again because they were going to try to fight back. These are all acts of 'evil' against us, but 'evil' is also something that we can do to another. I was reading Psychology Today, and one of the articles as on secret emotions we kept to ourselves - those inner thoughts that we don't reveal to anyone - wishing aging relatives would just hurry up and die, feeling jealous when a friend/loved one gets a promotion or happy when they are demoted, feeling uncomfortable around the disable, being the first to say 'I told you so, you had it coming,' having adulterous thoughts, etc. While at this stage, of course, these are still just in our heads and we haven't acted up them, but even at this stage, these inner 'bad thoughts' tend to cause much guilt and anxiety about why we think about them. Occasionally, we might commit the act - saying something we shouldn't and can't take back, cheating on our significant others, lying about taxes, embezzling money from our company, deliberately sabotaging someone we know... Sometimes 'evil' is deliberately malicious, while other times, it is done out of weakness or rationalization (ie I lash out at you because you've touched upon a sensitive issue). There are also natural 'evils' such as the recent earthquake that killed 20,000+ people in Iran or diseases like cancer. Think of how many innocent people died in fires, volcanic explosions, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, etc. How many more die of cancer, AIDS, the flu, and other various ailments?
Continuing in this line of thought, what makes someone evil? One paradigm that is often applied to say, serial killers, mass murderers, and the like is of course the nature vs. nurture debate - was he born that way and just acting in accordance with his nature, it's genetic, or something instinctual that is guiding his species to destroy itself... Or did something happen in childhood to perhaps teach him that life doesn't have value? Maybe it was his upbringing, his environment, the way peers responded to him. Or perhaps, moving into modern psychology, both nature and nurture may promote certain behaviors, but they are not, themselves, the cause. 'Evil' may arise from repression of a destructive feeling that eventually eats away at you until you lash out. I may say something that really gets to you. You then may want to hit me in anger. You can choose either to take a swing, or consciously repress that urge. Jungians have argued that as an individual develops, his good and evil sides tend to differentiate themselves - a very good example of this might be the Smeagol/Gollum personalities so clearly demonstrated in Lord of the Rings. Smeagol represents the good part - the hobbit who wants to remain loyal to his master because Frodo is kind to him. Gollum is the bad part - the side overcome by greed who wants nothing more than to get his Precious back. In healthy individuals, the two sides are recognized and reintegrated on a conscious level. Galadrial had many times thought of taking the ring by force, but refused. Her test was when Frodo offered it to her and we saw a glimpse of what could happen - "I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morning! Treacherous as the Sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!" (I love that line!) In unhealthy individuals, however, the 'shadow' repressed portion grows until the urge can no longer be repressed - until Gollum gives into his desire for the ring and leads Frodo into Shelob's lair. LOTR is such a great illustration of the eternal struggle between good and evil... but I'll save that and my extreme praise for Return of the King for a different day. (Btw, if you still haven't seen it, it's amazing and well worth the price of a movie ticket!)
posted by virtual madness unleashed at 10:33 PM
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