We began by contrasting the notion of evil as an external force which controls events and people vs. an intrinsic potential which all humans possess and which expresses itself under certain conditions.
In turning to the Hindu tradition, Manny noted that, according to the Mahabharata, no one is without good nor without evil.
But what is evil? How do we perceive and judge it? Can it only be decided after the fact or is it possible to determine evil acts contemporaneously?
Is it related to fear of the unknown or do we project evil onto the world by acts of extreme anger?
Is evil on a continuum, like murder, with first and second degrees of severity or is it on a different scale than being bad, felonious, or immoral?
Most agreed evil was something done deliberately, in a premeditated way, and which caused wanton suffering on a grand scale. While it could be perpetrated by a sociopath or psychotic, it was often caused by relatively common folk becoming caught up in an ideology that justified the mass murder and maiming of large numbers of individuals that differed from the group in power. We considered the Inquisition, the Hutus and Tutsis, and Nazi Germany.
We contrasted evil with acts that were deliberate but simply bad, immoral and undesirable, e.g. selling cigarettes by Phillip Morris, selling children into prostitution in Thailand or environmental pollution (although some considered these evil). While everyone agreed that ethnic cleansing and genocide were evil as was enslavement, the recent case of the mother who killed her 5 children seemed to be too limited and driven by mental illness to be deemed evil. What seemed to be more characteristic of evil acts was the extraordinary insensitivity to acknowledging the humanity of those who are different and who become the victims of acts of evil.
What seems to motivate many of the examples mentioned above is a sense that those who are different represent a significant threat to the survival of the clan, survival of one's way of life or culture. In some cases it is an expression of retribution for past acts of evil by the other clan. Nonetheless, it takes more than these to trigger massive acts of genocide. The political and social institutions of a state need to be mobilized by demagogues who fuel the passions and reinforce the ideological perspective that justifies attacking one's former neighbor and friend after losing one's ability to see them as human and as like oneself, fundamentally.
If this potential for expressing and being swept up in such a delusion is possible in civilized countries like Germany and even in parts of the US, then clearly the potential for evil in all of us requires vigilance. To paraphrase what others have said, all that evil requires is for good people to do nothing. There is a slippery slope from prejudice toward those who are different, toleration of discrimination and unkind acts against those who are painted as threatening to us to acts of barbarism and massive vengeance. This fear and intolerance of other people, this xenophobia, is one critical factor in the examples of evil on a grand scale.
As we have discussed in the past, critical thinking and toleration of differences are important ways our civilization can safeguard against evil. Nonetheless, toleration of intolerable ideas, such as terrorism, slavery, subjugating women and children, depriving children of education and the basic requirements for a humane existence, allow us to define evil contemporaneously without being trapped in relativism and multiculturalism that has no defined, universal human rights as basic standards.
Once we adopt certain universal rights for all humans, we can better protect ourselves and our world against the omnipresent potential for the next outbreak of evil.
Rich Bernstein
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