What Evil Does

Is there such a thing as evil?

No. Thank you good night.

But in seriousness, evil is not a thing. Evil is a measurement. Like an inch measures length, like a dollar measures economic value, evil is a measurement. What is measures is a little more slippery: morality, virtue, social acceptability, or something else. Evil is culturally defined, no matter what our priests and worrywarts try to argue. Even those groups who argue that morality is unchanging have changed their definitions of evil. So where does that leave us?

Well for me, I try to remember that this means that people are not evil. People do evil, but people are not evil. This may seem like a nonsensical splitting of hairs. But I find it practical. If people can be evil, then evil can be punished. But if people merely do evil, then evil can only be prevented or its damage repaired. And trying to punish evil always means inflicting revenge upon somebody’s father, somebody’s son, somebody’s mother, somebody’s daughter. And then those people try to inflict revenge and punish the evil people who harmed their family. And all around the mulberry bush we go.

So I choose to consider actions are good or evil, and seek to prevent and repair the damage done by evil actions. Fewer recriminations and feuds result, I find. And that’s good enough for me.