Evil is as evil does...
Evil is a heavy word. What does it mean?
I’m calling it evil…
The current administration continues to prove its shameless contempt for law, for the tenets of democracy, for any set of values beyond self-protection and self-aggrandizement, every day. Every day power is being abused and people are being hurt.
The word EVIL sounds hifalutin. Many of the dictionary definitions of evil are merely synonyms of ‘bad.’ Immoral, wicked, nefarious, vile, base, corrupt, vicious, depraved, iniquitous, sinful. Some definitions include the idea of causing harm and suffering.
None of these words express or explain why I consider some actions to be evil, wrong, bad. I want to explore the basis of my judgement. How do I define evil? Is it the breaking of a code of ethics we all agree on? Is it an innate revulsion against causing suffering to others?
What is evil?
What is evil? The idea of cosmic duality, good and evil as opposing forces in a war with each other, makes no sense, because good and evil are not equivalents on either side of a seesaw. They are fundamentally different approaches to existence.
To do evil, do you have to want to cause harm, or can you just try to get what you want without caring if you cause harm? What’s the dif? I don’t know. I know that the people who are committing what I consider to be evil acts have their own stories for the mirror. However they perceive their purpose, fearing and hating other humans enough to want to cause them harm, or not care if they are harmed, is part of their sense of identity.
I cannot understand the hearts of people who are ready and willing to ruin other people’s lives, to ruin systems and resources, in service to what? It has to be fear, gold-plated or not. Fear is the great shapeshifter. I don’t know how else to explain a way of being that requires constant vigilance in remembering, at all times, what you hate, and in repressing any awareness or emotion that does not jibe with the tribe. It does not sound like fun. It sounds like hell.
I have not come close to defining evil. I’ll keep trying. For now, I will just say that, like pornography, I know it when I see it. When I see it, I feel immense sadness at what and who is being harmed, and sadness also that members of my species can be more malicious than anything else on earth.
Yet it is the potential for evil, for causing harm, for not caring, for wanting to hurt others, that makes all the good in this world, all the love and creativity, all the beauty, all the compassion, so tender and powerful. Let us take comfort in that.
CULTURAL ARTIFACTS
Truly, most of the artifacts I plan to mention in this section are things that bug me, piss me off, embarrass or puzzle me. I shall begin though with something that amuses and delights me. One aspect of social media that I appreciate is its egalitarian offer for any fool who wants to make a fool of him or herself, in any number of ways, to go right ahead. Sometimes little themes or memes develop that many people unconnected to each other riff on, until we have a body of work that I would call folk art.
There is a new year’s meme going around where people show how they are walking into 2026. The first Instagram post here has been used many times by different people with personal additions of words. The music is always the same… Michael Jackson, You Rock My World.
And after that the versions fan out in different directions, unified by the music and people dancing their way into the new year with rhythm and presence. I love this. May we all dance our way into 2026 with rhythm and presence.
An Opportunity
I am offering Lamb & Lion Studio notecards for the last time, before I retire them for good. You can see what is available on my website Lamb & Lion Studio. I am pledging 50% of the net proceeds from this initiative to local food banks. This is an ongoing project for the next few weeks. I hope you will check it out!
Can't help it but thinking about evil brings me back to that "retribution" thing I brought up several posts back. Maybe it is that to me forgiveness is so often such a brave and good thing, and retribution is so much the opposite of forgiveness. And cowardly. And comes from fear.
Another thing I have about evil, is that because I was brought up as a Christian Scientist, they don't use the word, or concept of evil. The word they use is "error." Because the both start with "e" I would get them confused sometimes.
Finally, I can't help but notice that you have used William Blake's art in your posts. Just an interesting note, when I first met you and Albert like 50 years ago on winter break from UMass, I was deep into Blake for a class I took that semester. Funny, huh?