“Some of the greatest discoveries consist mainly in the clearing away of psychological roadblocks which obstruct the approach to reality; which is why, post factum, they appear so obvious.”
—Arthur Koestler
If we want to overcome evil, we have to understand it first. It’s like in the famous short story „The Canterville Ghost“ by Oscar Wilde: only by listening carefully to the ghost and trying to understand his problem, Virginia is able to gift him eternal rest.
As we will see later, the phenomenon of evil is not particularly difficult to understand. Neither higher mathematics nor convoluted philosophical arguments are required to understand it.
So why haven’t we been successfull yet? Unfortunately there are several significant obstacles to overcome on our path to understanding evil. I will write in following blog posts in detail about them. For now, just let me tell you that it won’t be easy for you. Not necessarily in an intellectual sense but rather emotionally. I will actually spend a significant part of your reading time trying to alleviate your aversions against certain ways of thinking. Some of these aversions which are founded in our history. Others are more of a psychological nature and related to various deep fears. They all have in common that they reliably prevent one from realizing the nature of evil.
So, why should you join me then on this sometimes painful and demanding journey to surmount all these obstacles? What’s in for you at the end?
I think you should know already now, as otherwise you will lose motivation quickly. Let me explain you with a quote:
In 2022, Phillip Rogaway - a former professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis - held his final lecture with the title „On Being a Computer Scientist / Human Being in the Time of Collapse“.
On one of his first slides he presented an answer to the question „Is there something anyone can do?“:
My first suggestion is simply this:
To stop pretending that things are not seriously fucked up.
This was also my motivation when I started to think about the problem of evil a few years ago. It was not easy to come to this point, as I had to let go many precious and long-standing beliefs. Like that I will have a quiet retirement age where I will be mostly busy playing with my (step-)grandchildren. Or that humankind will soon find peace and that we will soon overcome war and poverty.
At a certain point, it dawned on me that all this is not going to happen. Or, more precisely, that it is not going to happen without significant change.
This series of blog posts is an attempt to lay some foundation stones for change.
Therefore, reading this posts is not going to be very pleasant, easy or even entertaining. But I can offer you something quite valuable in return: hope. Hope that it is actually possible to build a future worth living for your children (or yourself, in case you are younger than me).
I’m more and more convinced that not understanding the phenomenon of evil is the main reason why it is so rampant today. And that many of the measures (like tightening moral and enforcing stricter laws) being taken today must remain almost entirely ineffective.
We simply can no longer afford not to understand evil.
I can very likely also offer you a different view of humankind which is much more sympathetic as you are used to today. This will - after some time - translate very favorably into your private life, as you will start to look at people around you with much kinder eyes. A view that will be returned by those around you.
So please follow me. I’ll try to publish sequels as often as possible. And please please don't stop reading when you have a bad feeling about one of my ideas. These feelings will dissolve, trust me. And the rewards at the end will be worth the emotional pain. For you, but also for the rest of us.
Please continue here with part 2 of this series.
Image: Shutterstock / ArtMari
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