An Exposé of Evil

This week the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of D-Day, or the allied forces invasion of Normandy, on the coast of Nazi-occupied France.

It is inspiring when you consider what was done that day. Evil was defeated, or at least a bold step in the direction of defeating it was taken.

And what evil was that?

Nazism, or National Socialism, a virulent strain of fascism that placed the interests of one particular race of people, Aryans, over everyone else, while also directing blame for most of societies woes on another, Semites.

I talk a lot against war in general, and the military-industrial complex that has made war more of an economic strategy than a sometimes necessary means of combatting real evil.

But in that particular case, it was a war against evil, pure and simple.

Not so sure about all the wars that have occurred since then, but that one, yes.

Now we like to pat ourselves on the back in the U.S. about “our” victory in that war. But did you know that the Russian nation suffered the loss of over 20,000,000 in the conflict?

That’s about three times the population of New York City. To put it in further perspective, losses for Great Britain and the U.S. combined were less than 1,000,000.

Thinking about D-Day while watching various events on TV commemorating the invasion inspired me to post an exposé of evil.

There’s plenty of human behaviours that we consider bad, but not necessarily evil. No, evil is on another level than say your run of the mill misdemeanour, or even masturbation (despite past religious efforts to have that practice so categorized).

As for me, I would tend to consider as evil, the following five, and unfortunately all too common, human behaviours…

Exclusion – This can take many forms, like, well, Nazism. They wanted to exclude everyone else from the right to life. Why? So that they could have all of what was left to themselves. Self-interest run completely amok…which is exactly where exclusion can take you if you follow the practice to such extremes.

Exclusion exerts an irresistible appeal to self-interest because it plays to the notion that we are somehow more deserving of life’s pleasures than the rest of them.

Hatred – Often inflamed by exclusionary tendencies. We hate the very right of others to exist, or at least exist on the same level as us. Again, usually a result of a sense of self-interest that has been inflated to dangerous proportions.

Greed – Kinda falls right in line with the others mentioned. Why do we tend to be greedy? Because of self-interest…placing it above and beyond the needs of anyone else. That’s pretty much the jest of it.

Indifference – When you adopt the ideas of exclusion, hatred and greed it becomes almost natural to be indifferent. Why worry about another’s plight when I have my own to tend to? It’s an exclusionary way to view the world…often inspired by the intense nationalism that makes the small us the only one worth worrying about.

Cruelty – The means by which the above are often implemented and experienced by others is in the form of cruelty. Why are people cruel? How can it even make sense? Well, I guess for some there is a perverse sexual appeal, but in general it becomes quite easy once self-interest is so inflated that the feelings, physical, emotional and otherwise, of others are inconsequential.

The horrible happenings of Abu Ghraib are a case in point.

Religion prefers to lay the blame for evil at the feet of an actual sentient being…the same one that Flip Wilson used to blame for his mischief (if you’re old enough to remember). One that is behind the scenes prodding us to our evil acts with his proverbial pitchfork.

But could there be a more human derived common thread running through the above five actions that might explain evil?

Well, I should mention one in particular that seems to reoccur…

self-interest.

That is, self-interest that is elevated far above the actual impact that our actions have on people and planet.

The Nazis certainly were blinded in that manner…to such an extent that it took a war that claimed some 60 million lives to overcome their bigoted blindness.

image credit: 2 Fish Enter via Compfight cc