The Insidious Infinite Finite
Evil is the counterpoint of Life. Philosophers have defined it as the "absence of Good."
To me it is the Cruel... I see it as very small by contrast to the infinitely surrounding life-force. Small, yet fatally potent, trapped inside of us humans— trapped inside of us alone.
It's a flash, an involuntary reflex (not necessarily acted on). One which creeps out of hiding like a morbid arachnid from the deepest recesses of our primordial mind. The impulse to harm or wrong, ourselves or another. I'm sure you've seen it, felt it, clocked it, checked it, swept it beneath the tufts of your hair. There it remains: vile, corrupting. That thing that cannot be retracted, because unlike the evening news fed by talking heads, our own imaginings cannot be redacted. The self— sabotaged by ideas vile and terminal—
cannot but wonder with fear whether such escaped thoughts have scampered across our very facial features, and left a shadow! no, a trail, or worse a McBethian stain! These are thoughts not fully expressed, nor even genuinely felt, they're just latently there... surfacing, and perceived almost as if already committed (hate, spite, envy, intolerance, etc.). The more sensitive the individual, the more vivid the nightmare. A sinful familial treachery, contrasting the best and the worst, of our humanity.
The Negative lurks in the back of the mind, waiting as if for our delicate scales to tip. Will we slip off the edge... into what we viscerally feel is wrong, insane, unjustifiable? We offer help to an outstretched hand, but then at times spontaneously our internal mental spool runs an image of horror and animosity... as if to spit at that hand, or slash it off... ideas completely foreign, unwelcomed, uninvited... causing us to recoil from our own wretched selves... curb our inexplicable anger, impatience, greed... that seed of Evil.
Having not acted on these impulses, we want to defend that we are Good in the balance.... Yet all that we can really offer is our belief that it is so. And Belief, even in our own minds, is a poor ally; it always saves room for Doubt. Hence we feel, by in large, ill at ease. We call into question whether we are really "free," or merely "complete" in fullness of our potential—for Good or for Evil—which notabley, is the first definition of "perfect." (Not ideal; merely whole.) Someone once asked me, "do you think you could ever do something really horrific? Like murder, torture, etc.?!" And desperately wanting to shout No! instead I heard myself reply: "One never knows when one will snap..."
#WhatIsEvilchallenge
What is evil?
Evil is the word we label a person/action/item/place/feeling, which we cannot understand, it simply does not feel good therefore we refer to it as evil.
Evil is the other end of the universal scales, there to balance everything.
Without evil there is no good.
Mostly it is an idea perpetrated by religion, used as a scare tactic, used to make God seem almighty as he can fight evil, demons and the devil. Belief in him will protect you from all that is evil etc It is a tool to manipulate people, keep them within moral guidelines of what is acceptable character traits and behaviours.
Evil is also an excuse a name given to those who have done something bad and need a reason to explain it away. The devil is in them, so they do evil things.
It is the opposite of what we deem to be "normal".
Now we know that our brains dictate to us what is good and evil, it tells us what is unacceptable behaviour if it is functioning, if it is not then we end up with serial killers and paedophiles...insidious and hideous actions perpetrated on others. If a person has an unsociable abusive upbringing, they too may well grow up acting what we see as evil. To their brains it would be normal, as it is all they have experienced.
Places can feel evil, simply because they make us feel uncomfortable, our hairs will rise up on our necks and arms, there may be a chill, we feel something is not right, we cannot explain this, so yep it must be evil (cannot be a change in magnetic energy or anything like that).
If we know something bad happened in a place then in our minds we begin to feel that place is not good...so evil.
Evil is used for things which we do not want to see or know, things which are so disgusting that it can not be acknowledged as anything else.
It is a word not to be feared.
The Badness Monologue
Evil is that one guy who points out the architectural designs of a building knowing full well how much it will drive you crazy the more you look at it. Evil is that one girl at work or in the classroom who can't keep spoilers to herself. Evil is that one kid who takes your good pencils and pens saying they'll return them but never do.
Evil is that one person who pokes fun at a person for being different. Evil is a woman who doesn't care about anything or anyone. Evil is that one guy who talks about people behind their backs
Evil is that one kid who's "bad" deeds are misinterpretted. Evil is that one girl who can't help the voices in her head. Evil is that one guy who just so happens to have been walking behind you for the passed ten minutes in order to get to the convenience store down the street.
True evil is a person who cares nothing about others, a person who views themselves as their own gods. Evil is a person who knows they are hurting people, mentally and physically, and thinks it's fun. Evil is a person who likes to watch people suffer in a state of misery so overwhelming it's contagious. Evil is that small part of you that makes you want to crush something and kill it for no reason because it feels good.
Evil is made up of multiple definitions. It can be used in joking terms for those people who do minor things. It can be used for people who are going about life in the way the'd prefer to because it's just how they are. People can be said to be evil for the situation they are in, for example, doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, a cruel twist of nature, or a coincidence. When we get down to it though, the one thing people think when they think evil is a monster in the darkness. A monster can symbolize multiple things, like, depression, a murderer, a mental maniac overcome with the urge to kill. That was what we think about. All of these things can boil down to the fact that they all connect to humans in some way. What if we are the true essence of what evil is and we pretend as if we don't realize it? What if everyone has that underlying urge to hurt, to maime, to steal, and to kill, and we just pretend that it's not there? The only thing keeping "evil" in it's place is reputation. Those who succumb to their evil nature are the ones who are looked down upon. We know about good morals, but if we had the choice to choose between what we know and what feels good, we would choose the latter.... Just something to think about....
Evil is
subjective
but, to me,
hollow girl,
i met Evil when i was thirteen
Evil had a name
i worked with him
befriended him,
Evil was pale and docile
harmless
i remember his crooked gaze
his knobby wrists,
Evil had cold fingers-
but i don’t remember
the taste of his lips
i left my innocence on Evil’s bed years ago,
i haven’t seen him since,
but Evil has an aftertaste-
orange juice and vodka.
I can’t drink it anymore,
when i do, Evil’s face is etched into my eyelids.
That evil
...
So when it comes to evil, in your family...? - he starts calmly, sitting comfortably in his chair. The black notebook in his hand. His pen ready. His face showing no strain.
Ah… aunt Sara. It was very hard to describe her really… once upon a time she wasn’t that bad. She was charming, to be honest. So many people were drawn to her, just something about her. As if everyone who met her wanted to be her friend… of course even then you couldn’t call her a saint. She was a troublemaker… just not the obvious one.
Her lies took a long time to reach the sunlight and when they did… she acted like nothing had happened. Almost as if it was your own fault. The things she did to people… doing whatever she wanted with them. Letting them think she cared
about them and instead, she was a manipulating, deceiving and back-stabbing…
family member.
She changed… - he said, sounding like he was remembering the details of a report.
Yes, a couple of years back. Like something had snapped. Without any reason… all the fakeness faded away, disappeared. Just like that – I said shaking my head, still not understanding the reality of the situation that had happened so long ago.
Pretenses are hard to keep sometimes. The façade breaks and humans crumble – he said, no emotions in his voice, just the knowledge experienced through decades working with other people.
And then…?
Then, whatever is left… isn’t a pretty sight to see. All is left, is the ugliness of a lost soul – he says, very calmly – and when a soul is lost it slowly rots. The bad stuff eating it away.
Your body isn’t in pain, but your mind… your thoughts, needs, hopes…
everything is polluted.
His words terrified me, causing my body to shiver. It wasn’t so much the words that he said, but the meaning they brought with them. They were so close to the truth...
I remembered the way she looked at me. Her stare cold and calculating. Things that I saw in her eyes… the pure evil... well, the times when she actually looked at me.
Because most of the times she ignored my presence like I wasn’t even there. Already not existing, like me being there next to her was an offense. Or maybe not even that…
Whenever she did that, it caused the strangest reactions and emotions. My body felt sick, literally. Like I had a flew or a temperature. Everything in me shaking, trembling… falling apart. As if I really was sick… and the constant guilt for being… well, alive.
All of it was just so exhausting. The poison sinking in.
A lot to cope with...What's the real reason? - He asks after a while, when the silence stretches on.
I didn't look in his direction or answered him in any way.
Because what else was there to say, when it came to evil.
It existed and that was that.
.....................................................................................
Morbid and Eerie
Evil is sucking the happiness from someone.
Black and lifeless, they lie as you shift their soul into unrest.
Numb and silenced, it is eerie at best.
Evil is seeing the empty gaze pass on an eerie, foggy morning and the shivers rollling up your spine.
When their mouth opens and out shoots the morbid dialect of a insensible sheep.
A sheep shaven and herded into the arms of his lion, mouth open as he devours the sheep whole. That is evil taking a toll.