Image courtesy of Simon Howden at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Today, I pose a question aimed at the heart of evil. Could it be that the underlying cause of the varying degrees of violence, aggression and downright evil doings of our misguided species may be found in an over developed conviction in false beliefs and distorted perspectives? And it is a loaded question, considering the range and scope of barbaric, savage and ungodly crimes committed daily between the factions of our race on seemingly convincing religious, economic or social grounds, the aggressor always perpetrating atrocities with the conviction that he is acting within the strict prescriptions of his belief, and ultimately for the good of mankind.
Every person setting a bomb on a trusted public square, pulling a trigger at the ‘perceived threat’ in his cross-hairs, firing rockets or shells into civilians unknown, decapitating the corpse of some forlorn captured enemy, blowing himself to kingdom come at a road-blockade, or bull-dozing entire villages of the destitute and the helpless, does so believing to the core that he is doing the right thing. He needs to believe it, and it’s clear that he does, or he simply wouldn’t do it. The hypothesis is self-proving on that score.
So too, the petrified mother kills her children in the belief that it’s better for them to die by her own hand, the jealous lover slays the beast that has taken a fancy to his very own personal pride and joy; and family members stone a daughter and sibling to death to protect their family reputation.
Where does all this conviction come from? I mean, we cannot all be right, can we? How can we be so certain that we are not in the wrong? Have you no doubts? Let’s sit back and think about that for a second, as it’s of real and particular importance to ‘the other guy’, so let’s try to get it right first time, OK?
Now, I grew up in a divided South-Africa held in place by misquoted biblical texts and persuasive all-encompassing state-controlled propaganda, and I can testify to the blinding influence a person’s upbringing, surroundings, religious indoctrination and family traditions can have on ones perspectives, and maybe more importantly, on our perceptions of right and wrong. But all of that cannot and does not justify the evils committed against the subjugated masses in the name of order and white supremacy.
Why not? Because at some point, everyone attains an age of deeper contemplation when we try to formulate and order our beliefs. During this time we go about prioritizing objectives and we organise our principles into our very own personal code of conduct. Ah, we develop our set-of-values, and as life proceeds and we compare notes or clash with other sets-of-values, we adapt and change, swap-out and sometimes even completely scrap whole rows of data entered against that scale; which I believe is a healthy step towards attaining that universal goal known as ‘wisdom’.
But every now and then, we get stuck and hold on to something deep-rooted, some or other principle built so concretely into our value-system, with roots so tightly intertwined with the rest of the value-base, that it seems impossible to denounce. And it is here that evil begins, and goodness ends.
Faced with this question concerning what he perceives as a direct attack against the fundamental core of his personalised pseudo-reality, the person decides, that’s right, he actually makes a concerted decision, to stop at nothing to enforce his perspective.
And you know what, that’s all it actually is… It’s just your perspective. Who’s to say it’s the correct approach? Another person in the same position, with a different set-of-values may actually see it from a completely different angle with any number of entirely contradicting reactions or ‘outs’. And then depending on the circumstances, a person self-conceited enough to believe in himself over the will of another, turns into the aggressor, the violator, the murderer, the racist and even the purveyor of genocide.
And the funny (…ridiculous) side of the coin is that the more I see of the world, the more I realize that a lot of these ideas and beliefs and feelings that people are seemingly willing to kill or to be killed over, are very often vague and aloof ideas, founded in speculation at best. That is as true for the religious extremist as for the man bludgeoning his buddy over the lost love of his adulterous partner. What’s more, it has become increasingly apparent to me that I was myself unable to faultlessly and relentlessly measure up to my own set-of-values, finding rather too many opportunities to fail by my very own standards. Who am I then, but an insolent hypocrite, to hold others to that scale?
Yes, it is good to have and to hold onto your belief and value system, and to follow their guiding light to blissful-whatever, but you may not purport to enforce those opinions, values or beliefs on others by way of violence or coercion, because the very second you do that, you undermine the very basis of all well-meaning values and religious intention, that of being good.
Francesco Menconi 13/08/2014
Post Mortem 