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<\/a><\/p>\nOur tendency for binary thinking<\/h2>\n
I don\u2019t know if binary thinking is rooted in the workings of our brains or if it\u2019s simply a product of our evolutionary environments. Possibly the first, definitely the second.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a pre-modern-human hunter-gatherer without the capacity for language (say, homo habilis<\/em>), you don\u2019t need a detailed and nuanced taxonomy of animals. You need to know \u201cthis animal I can eat\u201d and \u201cthat animal will eat me.\u201d The ability to make quick binary decisions \u2013 before you either miss out on your dinner or become dinner \u2013 is literally the difference between life and death.<\/p>\n We aren\u2019t so very different ourselves. How many times have you heard someone talk about whether an activity is \u201csafe\u201d given the Covid-19 pandemic, usually in the context of \u201cif it\u2019s safe to do X then it\u2019s safe to do Y.\u201d This ignores the fact that nothing is 100% safe (nor, for that matter, 100% dangerous). There are only degrees of risk, and degrees of necessity.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s no surprise that we tend to divide things into \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cevil\u201d.<\/p>\n I think most people \u2013 and certainly most Pagans \u2013 understand that hurricanes and grizzly bears aren\u2019t evil. They may cause death and destruction, but they\u2019re just part of Nature, doing what their nature is to do.<\/p>\n We\u2019re less certain \u2013 in practice if not in thought \u2013 about less human-like creatures, such as spiders and snakes.<\/p>\n Is a coronavirus evil? Or is it just doing what coronaviruses do?<\/p>\n When it comes to spirits, too many of us are heavily human-centered. We think every category of spiritual being from Gods to elemental spirits are here to be our guides, teachers, and helicopter parents. Those who support us, we call good. Those who don\u2019t, we call evil.<\/p>\n But like the grizzly bears, many of these spirits are just doing their own things for their own reasons \u2013 reasons that have nothing to do with us.<\/p>\n We are beings of inherent dignity and worth, but the universe isn\u2019t all about us. And just because something \u2013 or someone \u2013 is at odds with us doesn\u2019t make them evil.<\/p>\n What even is evil, anyway?<\/p>\n The first definition in Merriam-Webster\u2019s online dictionary says<\/a> evil is \u201cmorally reprehensible\u201d or \u201carising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct.\u201d That\u2019s a rather vague and subjective definition.<\/p>\n Morals are culturally dependent and subject to change. Even if we move from good\/evil to a less dramatic dichotomy of good\/bad, it\u2019s still hard to get away from defining it as \u201cwhat\u2019s bad for me.\u201d I don\u2019t think we can ever get completely away from the subjective nature of good and evil.<\/p>\n Intent matters. If someone runs over you with their car because they hit a patch of ice, that\u2019s different from running over you because you were protesting in a way they didn\u2019t like<\/a>. Their intent doesn\u2019t change your injuries, but it changes how we think about them.<\/p>\n Evil is very difficult to define. The best I can do is \u201ccausing harm intentionally or callously.\u201d<\/p>\n Are you following the Ghislaine Maxwell story? She was \u2013 among other things \u2013 the \u201cprocurer\u201d for Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s sex ring<\/a> that raped and abused underage girls. She was finally arrested on July 2 and is being held without bond. She knows a lot of bad things that were done by very powerful men \u2013 a lot of people are waiting to see if she \u201ccommits suicide\u201d or \u201cacquires a fatal case of Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n General descriptions don\u2019t tell the whole story. Victims tell about false promises of easy money, emotional manipulations, and thinly veiled threats of physical harm or death. Even if we ignore the underage problem, this wasn\u2019t consensual sex work that should be legal. This was rape, the same as if Maxwell and Epstein had put a gun to these girls\u2019 heads.<\/p>\n This story from last year from Vanity Fair<\/em><\/a> drives the point home. It ends with a quote from someone who knew Maxwell:<\/p>\n When I asked what she thought of the underage girls, she looked at me and said, \u201cthey\u2019re nothing, these girls. They are trash.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIllegal\u201d is completely inadequate to describe this \u2013 speeding is illegal. \u201cImmoral\u201d puts the focus on the sex and ignores the manipulation. \u201cBad\u201d and \u201charmful\u201d are true but not nearly strong enough.<\/p>\n The only word that adequately describes such callous and harmful manipulation of vulnerable people is \u201cevil.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re good, rational, well-educated people. We laugh at \u201cthe devil made me do it\u201d \u2013 and rightly so.<\/p>\n But we still struggle to understand how someone can do the things Ghislaine Maxwell did, or that the Nazis did\u2026 or that the people who lock refugee children in cages are doing. And so we use the vocabulary of our wider culture, which attempts to psychologize everything \u2013 we assume they\u2019re mentally ill.<\/p>\n Mental illness is not an explanation for evil. We look at people like Jeffrey Dahmer<\/a> and assume they must be mentally ill. Sometimes they are.<\/p>\n But the vast majority of mentally ill people don\u2019t do terrible things, and putting the stigma of evil acts on them is incredibly harmful. They\u2019re already struggling to make it in a world that isn\u2019t designed for them and mostly tries to pretend they aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n And also, many perfectly \u201csane\u201d people do horrible things.<\/p>\n Blaming evil on mental illness is the modern equivalent of blaming it on demonic possession. It\u2019s an attempt to distance ourselves from human behavior that disgusts us but is all too common.<\/p>\n Perhaps Hitler and G\u00f6ring were inherently evil people. But does anyone believe all the Germans who supported and enabled the Nazis were categorically different from you and me? In this country we\u2019re taking another look at men who did great things but who also perpetuated the evil institution of slavery. Do you really think you\u2019re inherently better than Thomas Jefferson?<\/p>\n The point is not to whitewash history or to roll out the tired old argument that people were \u201ca product of their times.\u201d The point is that even people who are otherwise \u201cgreat\u201d or otherwise \u201cordinary\u201d can still do evil things \u2013 and that includes you and me.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t like to think about this.<\/p>\n We try to distance ourselves from it.<\/p>\n But we can only run so far.<\/p>\n I think we sometimes do evil things not because we are inherently evil or \u201cfallen\u201d or any of the other tropes of Christianity. Whatever else we are, we remain imperfect animals who often operate out of self-interest, social pressure (especially the pressure of social systems), and lack of empathy.<\/p>\nOur tendency for human-centered thinking<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDefining evil<\/h2>\n
Some behavior is so horrible it is properly classified as evil<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Mental illness isn\u2019t the cause of evil<\/h2>\n
We all have the capacity to do great evil<\/h2>\n