How to Not be Evil

Have you ever had the sense someone was about to do a bad thing?

There is a slow, cooling pause as the lion crouches and prepares, almost almost asking almost asking the buffalo to fight or run. We know this feeling, the sense of predation, the sensation which precedes the will to exploit a weakness and destroy someone by physical, emotional, financial, or social death. We call it “evil” and the effects of a significant encounter with it typically produce trauma.

The Source of Evil

Predation rarely occurs without inhibitions. It takes effort and requires opportunity. It's like water, flowing into gaps, the low places left by underdeveloped, good people. Like water pooling before finding a new path, the malevolent person gathers energy and pauses to prepare the exploiting action.

The pause comes from the preparation for the action and from disbelief. Predators often experience a moment of astonishment or disgust at the behavior of their prey because exploitation is rooted in the knowledge of personal vulnerability. In the story of Eden, Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and realize they are naked and the other is naked. It is precisely at the moment of conscious self-recognition that a person knows how they can be harmed and hurt others. This recognition of vulnerability is followed by adrenaline, the adrenal drug of power which prepares action. It is thrilling and addictive.

Salome by Lovis Corinth

Dark Triad

Individuals who understand their own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others without empathetic concern are sometimes referred to as having “dark triad” traits. Their behavior revolves around violence, manipulation, and misdirection, and they are labeled as narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic. The DSM 5 applies diagnoses of borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality disorders.

Predators can't seem to help themselves from punishing, taking, and ravaging good systems or individuals, just because they can. Dark triad individuals exploit without benefit to themselves, which is referred to as sadism, just because they can and just because they despise weakness and trust. There are gaps, low-hanging fruit, and it's so easy to take for oneself or damage another’s efforts for fun. If it isn’t easy, they still test the system. Gaps in the system and unprotected resources are a natural part of of the world. Good people will always make room for others, maximize their effort while minimizing their protective measures, rely on the goodness of humanity for safety, or simply be naive.

In their own way, evil people make room for others too, but usually cause harm when attempting to do good. For example, socially acceptable bullying and comedy has a purpose attached to its development. It maintains the strength of group members, preventing dark triad behaviors, and preserving humility. While a little light hazing is fun among friends and strengthening, someone of the dark triad persuasion uses vicious bullying at moments when it will harm instead of refine, at moments when they ought to use encouragement or generosity. Instead of helping, they cut down, deceive, ostracize, and destroy members of the group who would have value by growing under a transformative leader. They destroy.

Responsibility to the Good

Compassionate people have to learn to fill the gaps, self-assert, expand, and act as a bulwark that prevents evil people from taking things too far or from getting away with it. Children must learn to deal with aggressive children and learn to self-protect. Aggressive children must learn to socialize. We must learn to stand for something good, and when something threatens the safety of the group, to stand for the group. To quote Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel,

"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere…Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”

Evil people hurt themselves too. They become arrogant and believe that flowing into these weak places is their duty as well as their right, their way to help everyone else. Why do they exploit? Because they can, and think they should. They watch the "weakness" of the world's compassion not in disbelief but with interest, hunger, and disgust. Their ethics have become twisted and they devour like cold machines. They see no other option.

Only those who have the ability to act can choose to not act or chose to stop those who devour without limit. Quid pro quo is helpful, and is the concept law enforcement is build on – they preserve order for a salary. However some behaviors are not easily policed and it is a hard thing to act without directly benefiting oneself or one’s family unit. It requires aggression with self-imposed limitations. It is often hard to see the long-term benefit and chose the more difficult path to reach it without causing harm to anyone or compromising yourself. Dave Chappelle says it well:

Integration

“Promiscuity is not a virtue, but neither is unavoidable virginity,” notes Dr. Jordan Peterson. The ability to act does not justify the action, nor does the inability to act justify the inaction. We are only justified when we have the capability to both act or self-limit, to choose our path. In the case of the malevolent person, the inability to self-limit triad traits leads to collapse. In the case of the victim, the inability to take action leads to their exploitation. Both are weak and undeveloped opposites.

Therefore, we must become fully developed, strong and smart enough to stand against someone who seeks to take or destroy. We must push our capabilities to the edge to build the strength capable of handling whatever predator comes our way. Mercy allows us to walk up to that edge and pulls us back when we step over so that we do not become villains ourselves. Only in a context of mercy can we find that edge, internal mercy for ourselves and external mercy from the community. Only in a context of mercy can we build the wisdom to know the difference between a willful violation and an accidental mistake, and learn to identify true threats.

And if we have been consumed by the dark triad ourselves? It is grace that gives us a chance to change.