Those who crusade not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes even perceptibly worse than it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself. – [from The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley]

Evil is Real

Evil is the ultimate example of how actively clinging to old outdated paradigms of reality — and for that matter any paradigm that one actively attempts to protect at all cost — can and does have severe repercussions for humanity.

It was suggested in the bestselling The Road Less Travelled  by the prominent psychologist M Scott Peck that evil is real and that evil people and evil institutions do exist. But most importantly, that they are most likely ignorant of this fact and indeed actively seek to protect this ignorance at all costs. And more often than not, extreme evil is committed in the name of religion with the perpetrators cloaking their despicable behaviour in its name.

But the most fascinating fact about those that do so, are that they are more often than not oblivious to this, and so also their true natures, all along hiding behind all manner of rationalizations to further obscure their unconscious disease.

In another book, People of the Lie: the hope for healing human evil, Peck observed that EVIL is LIVE spelt in reverse. Thus one could symbolically infer that evil is the opposite of life and living. This does not necessarily only imply the taking of a physical life as in murder and genocide, but also the active prevention of the living of life—that is, of the deliberate withholding of sustenance for our spirits to thrive and to grow to its fullest potential.

An example of this is the active propagation of the belief that our current life is inconsequential (and that some distant next life is more so—see The Life We Know). Thus, evil indeed can be viewed as a force that is opposed to living the life we currently know—as human beings currently alive on this planet. [1]

I’ve written this essay primarily to indicate how actively defending one’s ignorance — even by the most ‘learned’ — can create great confusion and that this confusion can be very dangerous to humanity.

What follows will be to some a very sensitive and emotive issue that they may try to hide from and most likely would have difficulty reading—at least not without a sense of guilt, anger, or revulsion. And that indeed is my intention and it is thus difficult for me to be completely objective. Though hopefully it may make some aware that they have inherited a dreadful cancer that resides within their psyche — though not necessarily in itself evil, but very destructive – that they have to cure, or else will pass on its cause to another innocent generation.

It has been my experience that most individuals in the community being referred to don’t necessarily act out, or have malice towards others, and the description to a large extent may not apply to them. But on the other hand, it is the aspect of ignorance and particularly how it is informed by an unquestioning belief system, together with the fact that most of the world in general has — and still is — operating from a predominant ethnocentric paradigm, that has to be borne in mind in this discussion.

This is from the perspective of both the victim and the perpetrator. Thus, as with the Emperor who had acquired new clothes while in fact he did not, their motives and behaviour are obscured as the ethnocentric belief hides any negative interpretation of the behaviour that would otherwise be apparent to an impartial observer.

Ignorance and Belief

Peck though only gives a limited definition of evil and tends to categorize evil as a definite pathology in People of the Lie. However the interpretation in this work suggests we all have an evil aspect (what Jung referred to as The Shadow) which we tend to ignore to our own and other’s detriment, hence the reference to ignorance and evil.

The following quote from The Psychology of Evil by Dr. Stephen A. Diamond highlights the limitation of Peck’s definition.

“While it may be very tempting to succumb to Peck's argument that evil insidiously manifests itself most commonly in deceptively well-functioning but subtly pathological personalities—or in blatant caricatures of evil like Ted Bundy, Jim Jones, Charles Manson, or Richard Allen Davis—we would do well to remember that evil remains an ever-present, archetypal potentiality in each of us. To naively or narcissistically think otherwise is tantamount to denying the personal capacity for evil—the permanent presence of the "shadow" or the "demonic"—forever dwelling in the fathomless depths of each and every fallible human being. Such denial is evil of the most insipid, prosaic, and dangerous kind.”

Thus while this essay specifically looks at how ignorance is the direct contributing cause of human evil, it must be born in mind that our denial (or ignorance) of our dark behaviour is largely as a result of holding unquestionable unconscious beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. In fact I contend that unconscious beliefs themselves becomes the evil or demonic force Diamond refers to as such an ignorant individual or group develops a distorted relationship with the greater world around them in their attempt to adhere to their very narrow worldview as prescribed by their internalised beliefs (refer to The Enforcer and The Vortex in The Seven Shades of Darkness).

The reason for this is that, once we have adopted a belief in the way we presume reality is, our mindsets invariably become locked to that perception and we then tend to judge all our interactions from its unchangeable underlying value system. Very often the accompanied fundamental perception of reality created by such a belief system, becomes the higher authority by which we measure the rightness or otherwise of our actions.

But importantly, because beliefs are assumed facts we tend to have in the absence of knowledge, are not truly reflective of reality. But rather are reflective of the way we prefer to view the facts other than what the facts actually may be. And even more crucially, when we subject our intellect to a strongly held subconscious belief system, it usually becomes an unchangeable aspect of our identities, and we develop a blockage against incorporating reason into our mental frame of reference. And so we become ignorant, and in our ignorance, the potential pawns to the deceptive ends of evil and evil doers.

The following example of group evil is specifically given as I had personally experienced it, having lived in what was a prime example of an evil society. Though, the primary aspect of the pervasive ignorance of one’s offences — and particularly the justification thereof — can readily be related to many other societies where the basis of their relations with other groups is that of wanting power and dominance over them.

Power and Dominance

I know evil well as I have had first hand experience living in a society having been victim to an evil regime.

Apartheid: the deliberate and systematic subjugation, degradation and exploitation of one man by another based on racial classification and legislation, a unique feature of pre-democratic South Africa.

Apartheid being an offshoot of divide-and-rule, a very successful approach the British utilised to colonise almost half the world, of which the Afrikaaner people — the primary ethnic group of northern Europeans having been responsible for perpetuating apartheid — was also a victim.

The word apartheid can literally be translated to mean apartness or separateness and was the basis for a political process of separate development by the then Nationalist Government—the national fervour that inspired it largely emanating from Nationalist Socialism, otherwise known as Nazism.

It included: forced removals; separate group areas; job reservation of elite jobs for whites only that was legally enforced; harshly enforced separate racial group areas; prohibition of cross racial marriages; separate amenities for races; separate schooling systems that included curricula on the supposed inferiority or superiority of respective race groups; unequal application of justice; homelands where people were forcibly confined to; pass systems with prescribed curfews; separate churches; unequal payment of wages; a brutal enforcement of the system with the assassination of political activists; free reign of police in enforcing the ‘law’ in black group areas; media blackouts and censorship; military insurgency to destabilise neighbouring countries; concerted encouragement of racial division amongst oppressed racial groups; amongst many others.

Its genesis resulted from a complex and bloody colonial history, but was essentially perpetuated through a harsh form of conservative religion. More than ten years after the dawn of democracy it is my contention that the main perpetrators of this evil still hide behind religion, cloaked in the moral sanctitude of self-righteousness. And ten years after the dawn of democracy are still unconscious of the destruction they are yet perpetuating—though now are the main victims, and indeed, are inflicting upon their own.

As they understand their relations with others primarily in terms of power and dominance, the effects are particularly devastating in their personal relations now that their political power over others has waned. Years after apartheid’s demise the effects thereof are now predominantly being experienced by their spouses and children. The main consequence is that children born from such unions more often than not feel themselves trapped — lacking a sense of individuality — and hence are unable to free themselves of the legacy of their parents, their community, and more importantly, from their past. And as with their parents, rather hiding from an awareness of their motives and thus away from healing the tormented past they had inherited against their wills.

Thus the propensity for evil is nurtured yet, through the souls of the weak and innocent little people through their enslavement by their own loved ones. But hopefully, never to be repeated on such a grand scale.

Healing its Cause

The devastating effect apartheid has had on its victims and the gruesome evil acts that are being committed today in post apartheid South Africa by the marginalized, impoverished and still dispossessed, is another aspect altogether.

But, because of its ugly public face we are aware of it as cold hard statistics: another baby being raped or the slaying of the innocent by mere children—the savage outcry of the brutalized and dehumanized.

In having just said this I must add that this in no way excuses those atrocities, but as the saying goes: treat a man like a savage animal long enough, and sure enough, he’ll become one, certainly holds true in this regard.

And that these ‘monsters’ are the creation of apartheid should be clearly acknowledged by the fact that the extent of this vicious evil was not there before. It requires a deep realisation that a brutal rape or murder does not happen in isolation, and that the paying of a slave wage while one lives in affluence, or by emasculating grown men by treating them as boys simply because you have economic power over them, certainly contributes to its prevalence in this society.

Another scourge that had been a direct consequence of this unjust regime is that South Africa has the highest disparity between rich and poor than any other country; and because of this gross inequality it is indeed a miracle that the crime and murder rate is not significantly higher. The sad reality is that despite democracy, this disparity is growing.

The irony though is that despite their abject circumstances the previously marginalised and oppressed had readily forgiven the perpetrators though very little forgiveness had been sought.

But the realization that great collective evil was committed and that the perpetrators certainly were enacting on deep seated suffering must be realized—for their own healing, if for nothing else.

And it does not help proclaiming, “I was not personally responsible for what had happened”. Nevertheless a public confession is definitely not required, but rather a quiet reflection — in the privacy of one’s own heart — on what hurt exists that had contributed to its cause. It requires that one asks how it was possible that I could’ve been complicit to such an atrocity and how I may unconsciously be perpetuating it still. This is the only way the old racist paradigm can consciously be shattered within one’s own heart and mind.

In this regard, in a society as brutalised and fragmented as South Africa, the attitude that says, “There go I but for the grace of God!” is all that is needed, whether one feels one was complicit or not.

This does not require that one now rescues every damsel in distress. But why such an attitude is all-important, is that, while one may not necessarily be actively solving the problems of the world, it nevertheless allows one to identify the potential cause within oneself. It also enables one to be in a place of gratitude which in itself is healing, and by affecting our own healing, also to affect the healing of the greater world we are an intrinsic part of.

However ten years after apartheid South Africa’s demise, all the racists appeared to have died out or left its shores. This I think is not the case and a shameful lie is being masked. Though the real victims of the lie are still the former perpetrators—all those that reaped the rewards at the expense of others. And rather than take responsibility for the role they are still playing in perpetuating South Africa’s brutal legacy, prefer to sit in judgement of the other.

Though they were victims then, they still are victims now, as the underlying pain and inadequacy that was its cause is still festering, hidden under the scourge of fundamental conservatism.

Please forgive the dramatic over-generalization but I hope the point is taken. If you are now feeling affected by this message, are remorseful, can identify yourself in it, or feel you have to do something to contribute towards healing this tormented society; you are already on your way towards healing. But if you feel defensive, offended or indifferent, perhaps the veil will not be lifted soon, if at all — though I suspect those most in need of this message won’t be reading this analysis in the first place.

Fortunately, time can indeed heal all—but a lot of time is needed. Though, hopefully not as it has been for the Jews and the Philistines, where — millennia after David and Goliath, and Samson and Delilah — they are still not able to heal their long festering hatreds.

Group versus Individual Evil

It should be noted that very few people could be considered evil by nature, but that the communities and groups that they are a part of can as a collective act in an evil and destructive manner with their silent consent. The primary determinant for the sustainability of such group evil, thus, is the individual inaction that empowers the group.

As Edmund Burke observed: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 

The former convicted bank robber Alain Hail, after spending 27 years incarcerated in a maximum security prison for his prior misdeeds commented: “While many do bad things in their lives in reaction to perceived justifiable circumstances, they may yet not be evil. But if, after you’ve received all the information necessary for you to change, and still choose not to do so, then you may be truly evil”.

As mentioned in The Road less Travelled, truly evil people actively seek to ward off knowledge of their true nature and do everything in their power to protect their disease. In other words: they are actively ignorant. This is as opposed to the ordinary lazy and uninformed, who oftentimes merely are passive contributors to evil due to their ignorance and inaction.

Does this then make them complicit?

Unless they do affect the necessary change within themselves and so to take another course, they most certainly are.

Creating a New Future

While it might seem as if I’m isolating one particular community for what clearly was a terrible time in a society’s history, I am aware that Afrikaaners had been victims, having suffered great oppression at the hands of another tyrannical regime, the British Empire.

This came to a head when in the second Anglo-Boer War between 1899 and 1902, almost a third of Afrikaaner women and children were killed in British concentration camps. And since then, this pain was masked under the subconscious identity associated with that of the oppressor (refer to The Victim in The Seven Shades of Darkness), and which was further fuelled by the scourge of conservative nationalism.

When considering the previous discussion it must on the other hand be realised that as a group, the Afrikaaner people definitely had no compelling overt threat forcing them to relinquish their political power in favour of a majority ruling democracy. Indeed, it has been an unprecedented social phenomenon with South Africa having become a beacon of light that gives hope to the prospect of a new world order that appreciates diversity while simultaneously striving to find common ground amongst all its citizens. Though for various reasons, this ideal admittedly is a long way off.

And certainly, the need to dominate the young and the less powerful is prevalent amongst all cultures and all peoples, truly having been the scourge of the ages.

Though the main point to bear in mind from the discussion till now is that: by masking one’s pain in an uncritical and unquestioning religion, one’s propensity to live unconscious and destructive lives is compounded, and thus one is not the master of the course one is taking; and unless one develops a world-view that is open for inspection that includes searching and questioning, one will aimlessly be wondering in the dark, oblivious of one’s destructiveness.

Once again referring to People of the Lie, the following is asserted: “The plain fact of the matter is that any group will remain inevitably conscienceless and evil until such a time as each and every individual holds himself or herself directly responsible for the behaviour of the whole group — the organism — of which he or she is a part. We have not yet begun to arrive at that point.”

Although it is apparent that the issue of racism is still festering under the surface of South African society, significant progress has been made and racial integration is indeed occurring. But the new scourge is ‘classism’ as the gap between the have and the have-nots of all races are steadily growing.

This despite South Africa having become an increasingly consumer-driven society with significant economic growth. In fact almost 25% of South Africa’s Dollar millionaires had resulted from an economic boom over the past 12 months. But unfortunately the rich is becoming incredibly rich, and the poor, even poorer, with a significant percentage of the population — despite having political freedom but having no economic freedom —living in sub human circumstances with more than half the population living on less than a dollar a day. And unless it is adequately addressed, old hatreds will continue to fester. This is particularly so, for the increasing numbers of South Africans adopting capitalist consumer values without having the means to fulfil its ends, most certainly is a recipe for potential disaster.

Regardless of its significant problems South Africa somehow is showing the potential for becoming a healthy and vibrant democracy, appearing to have sufficient checks and balances built in its social fabric that are potential stop-gaps for such an eventuality not to be as likely as it was in Zimbabwe.

Notwithstanding this, unless the needs of those who for so long have been marginalised are not radically addressed, the eventual consequences could — notwithstanding the significant progress made — be devastating.

Lifting the Veil

The lack of a critical attitude in the depressing economic circumstances of Africa is not necessarily better or worse than the levels of apathy prevalent in the USA, a country with infinitely higher levels of literacy and economic wealth.

For instance, this apathy having led to the erosion of once vociferously protected basic civil liberties and also the unprovoked war and destruction of Iraq—this as has been the case in Vietnam not very long before.

The continuing hostilities in Iraq exacerbating already bitter hatreds between the USA and the Muslim world. The repercussions of which inevitably will be passed on to an innocent future generation in having to contend with being pariah’s to a significant percentage of the world’s population in an increasingly globalized world.

Ironically the invasion of Afghanistan was viewed by even the most radical Islamists as justifiable in the light of the September 11 attack; while since then the invasion of Iraq has negated most previously held sympathies both in the Islamic world and elsewhere.

It is interesting that before the invasion Iraq was the most secular society in the region; and that despite Sadam Hussein’s savagery, was one of the leaders most vehemently opposed to Al Qaeda and a foe of Osama bin Laden. Thus the facts reveal that Iraq was not in any way a welcoming place for Islamic terrorists as was the rhetoric that led to the war. This is unlike it now is, despite the presence of US and British occupying forces, with the rule of law having irreparably broken down, now making Iraq more than it ever was, fertile ground for such activity.

The arrogance that led to the invasion is also mind boggling. That America, one of the youngest nations, can interfere in the affairs of the oldest civilization on earth — ancient Babylonia — on the notion that they could use their perceived technological superiority to defeat their foe.

That they would win the big battle should not have been a guarantee that they would ever win the war. What was not factored in was that for the Babylonians the time spent warring is inconsequential, the casualties merely serving as a means to achieve the eventual end. They after all have an ancient legacy to uphold, while for the Americans defeat is as close by as the effect it may have on the annual budget expenditure when ordinary Americans begin to feel the financial pinch.

Whatever the short-term end may be, in the long term they have chosen to burden their children with a legacy of hatred and anger. This unfortunately is the shallowness of those who choose to interfere where they had no business to, demonstrating the consequences of ignorance mixed with absolute political power.

That the old hatreds have been exacerbated is evidenced by the July 2005 London bombings (and the Madrid bombings since writing this work) by Muslim extremists reflecting the prevalent tit-for-tat mindsets on both ends that are informing the prevalent ideologies. Most importantly though, the fact that suicide bombers are now operating outside Palestine is indicative of the religious fervour that has been aroused with even British citizens prepared to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers for the cause.

Islamic fundamentalism however on the other hand underscoring the central problem of ignorance coupled with an unquestioning belief in the perpetuation of evil, and how individuals are still prepared to forsake their own life and that of innocent others for a perceived righteous cause. This though on the promise of the attainment of paradise with forty virgins who will meet their every currently unmet earthly desire—that is once they are very much dead and buried, or in this case, blown to smithereens.

The Revolt of the Masses

To make any headway on this perhaps we must first come face-to-face with what evil’s primary cause is.

As far as American's are concerned, they firstly have to realise that they do not truly live in a democracy. For as much as it potentially can be, it can only be so if the citizens are conscious participants in the process; by making decisions of who should run their affairs with total awareness.

Though as it stands, the incumbent president usually is the one who has accumulated the largest vested support, has the smoothest tongue, while what nowadays appears to be a must, that they have movie star charm as well. And as has been the latest case in point, has a dad who is connected to those in high places who can help smooth things over for their son.

Once elected the goal then is re-election. The formula usually being: in the first term, cut taxes, increase spending, usually by increasing the deficit, in this way creating the façade that all is well. And should that not work out, a war or an attack of some sort or other is always a handy way to get the gullible American public to change their minds on the success of their president. That is of course, only the 50% or so who bother to vote in the first place.

Thus the reason why the democratic process does not work for Americans is not that there is any fault with the system, but is greatly due to the root of all evil in general: Ignorance and Laziness.

And no matter how one attempts to justify going to war for political expediency, it is fundamentally evil, while the community for whom such hate mongering works, must be fundamentally diseased. And unless checked, their insatiable desire for ‘entertainment’ and ‘drama’ that has to be fed by the media and politicians alike, could be the genesis of even greater evil still.

As the title of Spannish philosopher Jose Ortega Y Gasset 1930 book suggests, American society certainly has become the most poignant example of the classical Revolt of the Masses.

Sadly, ten years into a democratic South Africa, rumblings of the same scourge is making its appearance showing that it’s not just America’s scourge. Rather it has become the scourge of modern man as we are confronted with a complicated and often overwhelming technological world in which man is increasingly becoming a mere cog in the greater global machinery. And as the machine becomes more sophisticated, it comes at the cost of our sense of self which is rapidly diminishing into anonymity with man himself becoming a mere saleable commodity in an all-consuming consumer driven world where greed and avarice rules supreme.

That this is so is iterated by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, when he remarked about his own political party: “The ranks of our movement are being corrupted by a self-seeking spirit”.

A current day problem in South Africa that undermines the efforts made to date in having established a model for democracy and reconciliation, is that potentially corrupt and unscrupulous behaviour by a few charismatic black leaders are often condoned by their uncritical followers. And while the basic needs of people are yet not met and with the resulting uncritical attitude prevailing, it will remain fertile breeding ground for the likes of a Mugabe or an Idi Amin to take hold, and thus perpetuating Africa’s brutal colonial legacy.

This is taking on epidemic proportions where the corrupt are lauded by the masses also wanting an easy way to riches; though they more than anyone else can ill afford its long-term consequences. The greatest fear then being that the next leader will be one of these ousted renegades, and the doom of Africa’s greatest hope then certainly will be sealed.

This is because freedom earned without responsibility, inevitably, is not true freedom at all.

© Newton Fortuin – 2005