Evil
This guy was interviewed on NPR about his book. Sounds pretty general? Let me fill you in. Lance Morrow wrote a book with an intriguing concept entitled Evil: An Investigation. This book outlines the huge topic of evil and its history.
You ask, why? Understanding evil let’s us understand a basic flaw within all humans. It was intriguing to listen to Mr. Morrow as he discussed the dream/sci-fi potential of the human genome project to isolate the genes for anger, for hate, and for the genes that take action and cause “evil.” It made me think, what would this world be like if none of us got mad, got vindictive, or got even? In some ways it would be tremendously better. In others, couldn’t one person slightly evil person gain control over another because of the latter’s inability to become angry and act on this? Would we have a world of devils and saints? Perhaps anger and its stronger cousin evil are part of the human condition for a reason. It is easy to look at the situation and say “this wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for evil”; but what would replace that situation if there was no evil?
The entire concept of evil is, of course, nebulous and debatable. Thus, it is difficult to wax philosophical over terms not yet defined. I won’t attempt that here. However, Mr. Morrow also mentioned a certain “hope” which caught my attention. He outlined the idea that hope is much more dynamic, more responsive, and more time-oriented than, say, “good.” “Good” will always be “good” but “hope” changes definition. Hope can be blind, noble, hopeless, and misguided. Hope can be intense, dull, uncertain, and myopic. Hope depends on the time, the place, the situation, and the circumstances to become what it is. I’m not clear how the discussion shifted from “evil” to “hope” and the static “good,” but an occasional delve into philosophy definitely brings up good questions:
When is it ok to hope? Is evil necessary for life as we know it? Where would we be without evil? Do we exist because of some basic evil? Is evil inherent only in beings with conscious; meaning, does one cause the other? Why can hope be destructive? How does the individual, the singular being, fit into this large web of evil?
I’d like to think there’s a way out of the web. We may be tangled, but time is a powerful anecdote to everything. “This too shall pass.”
As fray would say; “hope is the thing with feathers.”