Defining Evil

            I have a simple, useful definition of evil.

            Evil is when a person, persons or whole societies attempt to escape pain by putting it on someone else.

            That’s it.  That’s why it becomes so easy to identify evil, because evil always BLAMES others for pain.  Once evil people shift the blame from themselves they start making other people suffer.  (I’ll make you suffer for my pain because that distracts me, aggrandizes me, gives me a feeling of power, helps me endure shame and to escape the consequences of my actions). 

            Be careful of people who want power.  Such people are in pain and are rationalizing their greed for power by calling it “God’s Will” or “Protecting The Nation”.  The human mind is capable of rationalizing anything at all.  Anything.  Mass murder becomes a greater social good in the name of national survival.  All of these evils are done to escape pain.  Evil can’t flourish where people take responsibility for their own problems.  Evil fails to thrive where people are honest with themselves and each other.

If you are in pain, admit that it’s a product of your own bad decisions or bad information and work on yourself.  Don’t make the choice to start looking around for victims, for someone or some group who will conveniently distract you from your life’s difficulties.  That choice is the moral borderline between good and evil.

End of story.