On the existence of evil
On the existence of evil

I must primarily state here that my opinion on the existence of human evil is in no way immutable. Evil is certainly one of humanities most intractable subjects and I do not yet feel that I can make a satisfactory and tenable argument in support or against its existence. Thus, what I will do is to surmise the book “People of the Lie” by Dr Scott Peck for you. This book- of which I have spoken to you of- is written in favour of the existence of human evil as an actual human condition.
The basic proposition of this book is that certain people are not merely ill (from a psychiatric point of view) but, in fact, are manifestly evil. “People of the lie” is the phrase he uses to describe such evil people. This theory is based on a legion of documentary evidence and case studies of some patients that he has personally encountered. Dr Peck doesn’t believe, however, that one should make a moral judgement on people who are deemed to be evil. In fact, he sees this as one of the dangers of his book. He believes that by labelling someone as evil; their condition can be better understood and then appropriately treated. In affect he calls for us to recognise the existence of evil so that we can create a method of healing it.
One of the author’s main inspirations for writing the book, and a man who helped to form many of his opinions is Erich Fromm. Fromm has made the study of Nazism his lifelong work and in this book the author describes the characteristics of so called “evil” people as attributed to him. He claims that there are certain characteristics that evil people, without exception, possess. “Malignant narcissism”; the wish to control others and the lack of submission to a higher principle are the three main ones described. I will now explain these traits further.
The wish to control others is rather self-evident and needs no further explanation. The lack of submission to a higher principle is a universal trait among the pathologically “evil”. This might sound rather strange but if you think about it all people do surrender in one form or another to a higher principle. This can take the form of following Gods’ will, following a set of morals/ethics or even abiding by your own conscience. Practically, this means feeling guilty when an action you take isn’t in proper accordance with whatever your higher principle is.
“Malignant narcissism” is a broad and universal trait which both the author and Fromm have noticed among all those that they have identified as “evil”. Narcissism is a trait that we all possess as children and that, during normal development, we lose to a lesser or greater extent as we mature. For some reason, “evil” people seem to have never matured beyond this stage. According to Fromm, we reach this stage by making a continuous serious of self-absorbed decisions. He claims that “ our capacity to choose changes constantly with our practice of life”.
People are not born “evil”, nor do they become “evil” in an arbitrary manner. It is through the choices that they make in life that affects what will happen to them. An example of this is as follows:
Suppose I always make my decisions based on the greater good of humanity. I will always choose my friends over myself, my family over my own selfish interests and humanity over self-gratification. I can only do this by making a series of choices. Eventually I will find it extremely difficult to choose the desirable over the less desirable choice. The opposite is true for the “evil” people who chose the narcissistic path.
Group evil, the scourge of the twentieth century is also discussed at length. Many salient truths-of which I am in total agreement- are detailed on this in the book. This is something that I would suppose you would find particularly interesting considering your study of human genocide. I am not going to go into detail here but I will list two frightening examples of how humans can easily be corrupted in a group scenario.
People will commit evil with remarkable ease under obedience. The clearest example of this is based on the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments. Faced with an imposing, close-at-hand commander, sixty-five percent of his adult subjects would fully obey given instructions. On command they would deliver electric shocks to what appeared to be a screaming, traumatized innocent victim in an adjacent room. They knew what they were doing was wrong but they still done it anyway under command. They sacrificed their morals for obedience.
Secondly, the story of corrupted children in the book “The Lord of the Flies” has been scientifically verified by psychological studies conducted on twelve-year old male campers in the US. According to an article by the psychologist David Myers, when these children were left without restraining adult leadership and encouraged to compete in groups with one another, the benign competition soon developed into violent “warfare on a twelve-year old scale”.
I put these points forward for your consideration. In my opinion, maybe, there is a divide between those evil doers who are reconcilable and those that aren’t. Are psychopaths intrinsically evil? Many say yes, but is it their fault? Are there some endogenous causes (i.e. genetic reasons) for human “evil”? To these questions I remain ambivalent. The only thing I can abide by is the ancient saying: “ Hate the sin, love the sinner”.