Evil and the Love of Our I.
Human Indifference,
Cruelty, Deserting and Uncaring
There are people who love evil. Satanic worship venerates
wickedness. There are people who love cruelty, which is
obviously a supreme form of evil. Listen to Genghis Khan:
Happiness lies in conquering one’s enemies, in driving them
in front of oneself, in taking their property, in savouring
their despair, in outraging their wives and daughters.
Gengis Khan in Witold Rodzinski
The Walled Kingdom:
a History of China
Evil is powerful. It’s part of the cruelty of life. That’s
why the love of evil is so disseminated. But the love of
evil doesn’t involve necessarily esoteric cults, or Genghis
Kahn paranoia.
There are other much more common ways of doing evil through
some forms of love: the love of money, for instance. Or the
excessive love of our I, egoism - the love which makes us
forget others, their problems, and our duties with them. As
Kant said: «The egoism is the profound source of evil». And
Pascal:
The self is unjust in itself since it makes itself the
centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others since it
would enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and would
like to be the tyrant of all others.
B. Pascal, 1623-1662, French philosopher, Thoughts
Pascal’s words may look excessive, and we can refuse his
terms. But more difficult to refuse are other words on human
indifference (linked to our love of our I), and the evil it
represents:
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate
them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of
inhumanity
Bernard Shaw, 1856-1960, Irish writer, The Devil's
Disciple
The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis,
but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and
deserted by everyone.
Madre Teresa, 1910-1997, Missionary, in Observer 3/10/71
For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do
nothing.
Edmund Burke, 1729-1797, English philosopher, Reflections on
the Revolution in France
It’s easy not to hurt those who we should help.
Seneca, 4 b.C.-65 a. C., Roman philosopher and politician,
Letters to Lucilius
Books, Films,
Cultural Stuff on
genocides, human nature, dark side of men, politics and related
issues? See
Love Essays Store
(in association with Amazon)
LOVE AND EVIL?
See also:
Hitler and
Nazis'
were surrounded by their Loves
When
Love Nourishes Evil
and Hate
Genocides
and Slaughters and Love
and Genes
Love and
the Dreams of Better Societies