What is evil?

There is a line in “The Matrix” when Morpheus confronts Neo about a wrongness in the world, “like a splinter in your mind.” It was caused by an instinctive apprehension of the artificial reality he was trapped in.

It is similar to a feeling many people have about our own reality. There is a wrongness in the world, evident in the mystery of life, the inevitability of death and in the things that we call evil.

There is something we all sense is missing or distorted, some question not asked or some answer that cannot be found.

When asked why there is suffering in the world, even the wisest of people are hesitant to tell the truth.

Why do we have pain, fear, anger, hatred and suffering?

Why does evil like this exist?

The real question is, what makes them evil? More importantly, could we survive without them?

Pain exists to warn us of danger and damage to our bodies, spirits, minds and even our souls.

Fear warns us about things in our world that we must not take for granted and ignore.

Anger drives us to fight against that which would harm us, it gives us the strength to attack—when normally, we might never resort to violence.

Hatred, though it is such a dark emotion, and one that often takes control of us and blinds us, is designed to drive us to destroy that which is threatening to us.

Suffering, which can be born of all these dark emotions, is the price we pay for allowing any of them to continue beyond their purpose.

Want. It is not hard to recognize that wanting something we do not (or worse, cannot) have leads to suffering, but it is almost impossible for us to avoid.

Wanting something we do not have can blind us to everything we do have, and wanting something we can never afford can compel us to simply try taking it, and taking things by force simply promotes suffering.

That suffering is only compounded by the actions and the consequences of actions that are motivated by greed, hatred, spite, lust, jealousy, envy, pride, gluttony, wrath…

Each of those terrible impulses are born from an imbalance, a hollowness in people that is difficult to explain or remedy.

There have always people who believe that there is no higher truth and that wealth, status, achievement and comfort are the best that can be hoped for in life, and that choosing to seek for more, for some spiritual truth, is a path that can only bring more suffering.

If we were to apply the usual logic for defining evil, these people are inclined to view hope and belief as evil and disruptive influences. The extremes to which some people go in the name of faith certainly support such a view.

However, this only proves that evil is a concept of our own making—and a relative one at that.

Life is hard.

Even when it is without strife or evil, there is a great deal of suffering inherent in life.

This is what drives us in the pursuit of happiness, but the comfort and contentment of a life of ease does not save us from suffering either.

Fleeting moments of happiness and joy, while they might make life very pleasant, do not give life enough purpose on their own.

Even an ideal life is filled with many forms of discontent, such as boredom, frustration, anxiety, confusion…. There are so many stresses in life that even the best possible life can be distressing.

Even when a person takes life completely for granted, he or she will still be confronted with things that make them think and ask the one question that is never sufficiently answered:

Why?

As long as human beings are capable of asking “why?” human beings will experience discontent and suffering.

That suffering is born from the desire to know the answer, to understand. We are not meant to live constantly in states of pain or pleasure, fear or desire, anger or joy, hatred or lust.

Our “evil” impulses are as vital to us as teeth and claws are to a wolf or lion. They are not evil in themselves. They are only evil in their abuse.

They are the natural defenses and weapons we were created with, and we are ignorant in their use because they are such a natural part of ourselves.

We can only tame them, control them, or harness them, by taming, controlling and harnessing ourselves.

There are certain things in existence that deserve to be considered evil, because they have no redeeming qualities, but human beings are not one of them.

People can and do commit evil acts, and think evil thoughts, and they can do so with good or evil intent.

People can be evil, in the sense that they can become so warped that they are a threat to anyone they come in contact with.

But often, that is simply an extension of the evil that has been done to them. They are dangerous because they are wounded, growing more dangerous the more maimed and scarred they get.

Even the most warped and perverted individual can possess a redeeming quality, or commit a redeeming thought or act, however.

The idea that people are inherently evil is far more evil than any person can ever be.