Why People Do Evil Things

Hard as it may be to believe, the answer is horribly simple: because they think that they are right.

It does no good to spend any time at all wringing one's hands over the "mystery" or to attempt to understand why they thought that they were right.

Why?

Again, the answer is horribly simple: just because they think that they are right, doesn't mean they are.

Nor does it mean that their victims in any way "deserved" the evil inflicted upon them, whatever reasons those who thought they were right might give for the evil that they have done.

Evil is a failure of the will to distinguish good from evil; thus evil always justifies itself to itself.

The only answer to evil is judgment, but the only way to judge is to know the difference between evil and good.  The only thing "beyond" good and evil is evil.


Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!

--Isaiah 5:20-21 (RSV)

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