Does anyone ever think of themselves as being evil? A psychotic person might, but then such a person is generally recognized as being ill. I’m wondering about people generally thought of as being “normal”, or at least healthy; i.e. most of the rest of us. I wonder because, with evil so prevalent in our culture and our world, there must be a lot of evil people out there. Yet I don’t know of anyone who thinks of themselves as being evil.
Clearly, a lot of us are deluded, but how does one decide which side of the fence one is really on?
Why would a conservative Republican / religious fundamentalist / T-party supporter look at me and think “evil”? Right off let me say I know some such people. In fact I dearly love some people who fit this description. They don’t think of me as evil. But it doesn't take more than a few moments of reading the T-party blogs or listening to what their leaders say in the media, to suspect that I, being liberal, atheist, and pro-gun control, am the very Devil himself incarnate. What do I do, or think, or say, that makes them conclude the world is worse off for me being in it? How do I know they are not right? How do I know I'm not the evil one?
I support any woman’s right to end a pregnancy. It isn’t that I am pro-abortion it’s just that I’m pro-women. I know woman who have made the decision to end a pregnancy. It is inevitably one of the most heart wrenching decisions any of them ever faced. It is never easy. The idea that someone who doesn’t know the people involved, the circumstances they face, and the consequences of their choice, should still have the right to dictate what is done is simply indefensible to me. But a potential life will never be; and for some that is all that that is required to label pro-choice as “evil.”
The older I get, the more liberal I get, the more I see all life, not just each human life, as a unique and beautiful mystery in the cosmos. Ending abortions would be a wonderful thing to me … but it can’t be done by fiat and the consequences can’t be avoided either. It would seem the first step to ending abortions would be to ensure that every pregnancy is a wanted pregnancy. That means real sex education and universal access to birth control. And that includes poor people, which means spending more tax money on the schools they attend as young people and providing health care when they can’t afford it. That same health care also helps women and their unborn to stay healthy, further reducing the times when abortion becomes a necessary option.
It also means drastically reducing the incidents of rape and incest. Doing so means spending money on mental health care, sex education (again) and actually reducing poverty. (Here is where we find a delightful confluence of efforts. The best way to reduce poverty is to give women control over how many children they have. Providing free birth control and real sex education to every woman is the best thing we could do to reduce poverty. Win – win!)
And it means, in the case of rape or incest leading to a pregnancy that is carried to term, that the women is not penalized in any way. Society picks up the tab for her prenatal health care and delivery if the man responsible can't do so from his jail cell. That means the mother is not required to care for, or even see, the child if the trama is just too much; which means that society picks up the tab for educating, raising, and caring for the baby as well. It means that the woman, even one who can't bring herself to care for the child of her abuser, is treated as a hero for taking the risk of letting this life be.
Any T-party candidate whose dedication to ending abortion is so deep that they will empower women, provide health care for all, insist on real sex education for the young, and provide birth control to anyone who desires it, can count on my vote. If he insists that any woman who carries a baby concieved in violence to term is treated as a hero and provide for in any way she, and the baby needs? I'll campaign for the fucker.
Will they still think of me as evil?
I am deeply anti-war. It is always the last, worst option where there is never a “winner”, only those who lost a little less than the “loser”. Since WWII we Americans have been particularly bad at fighting wars. They drag out for decades, hundreds of thousands of people (mostly non-combatants) become casualties. We leave a legacy of horrors behind (land mines, chemical and biological agents contaminating the land, depleted uranium) that burden a people even unto years later when they become allies. (Vietnam and agent orange anyone?) Trillions of tax payer dollars are thrown into these holes, utterly and totally wasted. (Iraq and Afghanistan anyone?) Thousands of America’s best are sacrificed to the mayhem, their families and loved ones left to carry on with broken hearts and lost dreams.
A war economy is a crippled, twisted, immoral economy that rewards the worst among us while punishing the best. Every 50 caliber bullet fired could provide a meal to a hungry person, every missile a 4 year collage degree for a dozen or more. With the resources wasted on war the world over human kind could make a near paradise of earth and move out to the stars.
I am deeply anti-war. (One of the reasons I am deeply anti-religion.)
Does this make me evil?
I am anti-greed. To put some meat on that statement I think it immoral for anyone to profit at the expense of, or off the efforts of, another. One of humanity’s most amazing traits is our drive to be good at a skill, to make things, to create something new. Another amazing thing is that we usually indulge in these efforts to make life better for other people. The truly remarkable cook serves up heavenly dishes for the sheer joy of the pleasure it brings to others. I know heavy machine operators. Their pay doesn’t change so long as they get the job done. But to a person they pride themselves on the skill they bring to the job and the fact that, when the job is done, something will be standing that people will use to make their lives better; a road, bridge, dam or building. Teachers, professors, EMTs, do you know any who set out to be half-assed at what they do? To be honest, I don’t.
Yet most of the resources in our country are controlled by those who inherited wealth from their family; and then loaned it out at interest. (The mechanisms for “loaning it out” vary … stocks, bonds, derivatives, complicated money swaps and playing with exchange rates … a nearly endless list of things that don’t actually exist outside of spread sheets and electronic accounting.) No pride in a skill, just an overwhelming lust to accumulate more money. Greed. Any economy based on greed is sure to be twisted, unfair, immoral, and ultimately untenable.
Our current system of capitalism is based on greed. As long as it is I am not a capitalist. (And I’ll be honest; I have no problem with taxing the shit out of the people who are accumulating the money, then using it to build schools and pay teachers and fire fighters. The pure fact is most of the truly rich did little or nothing to earn their fortune.)
Does that make me evil?
The love that gay people have for each other doesn’t appear to be any different than that of straight people. Gay people are born that way and being gay doesn’t look to hurt anything but the feelings of religious fundamentalists. There is no compelling reason to deny gay people the civil rights straight people enjoy.
Does that make me evil?
I happen to think the truth matters. And though facts are not truth, it is unlikely anyone will stumble on a truth that stands in stark contrast to the facts. The fact is the earth is round. The facts are the earth revolves around the sun and the sun formed first. The fact is most of the stars visable in the night sky are billions of years older than the earth. The fact is that evolution is how biology works. There are those who claim that the truth is “God exists.” We can argue that claim somewhere else, but a god who claims the earth is flat, or was created before the sun and the stars, or that evolution is not how biology works, is a lying god. I guess one can worship a lying god if one so chooses. I can’t. (As far as I have discovered all of the gods invented by man end up being lying gods; one of the reasons I am not a believer.)
Does that make me evil?
On the other hand … Outlawing abortion by fiat, without providing health care, sex education, or birth control will result in women dying. It will result in children being born with birth defects. It will result in more poverty, more children living unnecessarily short and painful lives, more misery and pain in the world.
Is that evil?
America’s war machine will continue to churn out death for no other reason than to provide profits for the few.
Is that evil?
Trillions of dollars were taken out of America’s economy by the unregulated greed of Wall Street. Trillions of tax dollars were used to bail them out of the holes they had dug for themselves. Fraud on a scale unique in human history. Virtually all of those responsible remain behind their desks or retired with vast wealth. Some went to the West Wing of the White House. No one went to jail.
Is that evil?
Political campaigns are nothing but overt lies; both parties really are just making shit up, flinging it, and hoping something will stick to the other side. Barack Obama may be a disappointment or a complete disaster, depending on your political point of view. There may even be some who think he has been an outstanding President – though I don’t know anyone who does. But he isn’t a Muslim, isn’t a terrorist, wouldn’t know a socialist if locked in a closet with one, and is an American citizen.
Yet a multi-billion dollar media empire continues to suggest that he is – is – would – and isn’t.
Is that evil?
I think it might be.
Evil isn't what we think. It is what we do when given the chance, who we hurt, and the lies we try to pass off as truth, or even just fact.
That is how you tell.
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