Inkless Press

People who deny or are unaware that evil exists are the most likely to come under its control. Many have trouble identifying evil because once it gets inside, it seems like a friend. The evil side knows about the good and how to masquerade as good.

There is such a thing as evil and it knows how to smile. It can flatter and seduce. When a smile doesn’t work, it takes on a serious look pretending to only be concerned with the welfare of others. When all its manipulations fail to get its way, it becomes angry, and that is when you see what it is really like.

The evidence of evil is an unreasonable pressure. The right thing forced on someone is the wrong thing. Can't you show them by example? Don't you have the patience to wait until they can see it for themselves? Or, perhaps it more important that you prove your superiority by forcing your will and the truth on them.

The truth forced on someone is only a form of conditioning. When we see it for ourselves, it becomes the best part of our soul. If it is willed on to us, we remain subject to the strongest force, whether it be good or evil. Someone can point in the right direction, by being a good example, but only we can decide if we want to follow our conscience and go in the right direction.

Evil is never satisfied. It will push and manipulate for every fraction of an inch it can get. When the once forbidden becomes acceptable, it will look for the next forbidden thing to promote and indulge in. It is in a state of constant rebellion against restraints or restrictions of any kind and is always looking for that next downward step.

You cannot make peace with evil. To oppose it successfully, there can be no anger. Anger is what gives it energy and transfers it from one person to another, even from one generation to the next. Its fires are fueled by the destruction of others. It tries to elevate itself by lowering others.

The successful tyrants always know how to take the angers and frustrations of their country, inflame them and direct them. That is where their power comes from. They don't just take power from people. The people in their selfishness and greed, actually give it to them. Believing in the false promises and seductive flattery of the evil tyrant, whole nations have become enslaved.

If we only see the evil in others, we will not see what is wrong with us. We will resent them and that resentment will keep us from seeing what is wrong with us. That resentment feeds the evil in us. It allows it to grow unfettered.

We all make mistakes. Making a mistake isn't evil. Denying the mistake is the beginning of evil. Evil would rather die than admit it is wrong. If we deny the mistake we cannot learn from it. Self honesty is what determines the meaning of our lives. That is what creates heaven or hell. Our elaborate and clever excuses hide the failures that can accumulate into suffering and eventually tragedy.

Since the beginning of humankind, Evil has been transferred down through the generations by anger and indifference. Why is this allowed? From where is it coming from? It originates from the parent who is out of control and yelling at a child. It is nurtured by the uncaring bystanders who watch a mugging and do nothing. It is the tragedy and horror of evil that innocence ends up suffering. When evil suffers the consequences of its own actions we quite naturally don't have much sympathy. It is only when we see the innocent suffer that we may be eventually moved to do something about it.

Without evil, good would not exist. There would be no choice. Without the opportunity to do wrong, we would be mere automatons that did the right thing because it was the only possibility. Dogs, who are creatures of conditioning and environment, are incapable of evil because they have no choice between right and wrong. What they do depends entirely on past and present pressures on them. Many people react to the world like dogs. Some, on occasion, sink even lower than dogs. Only a rabid dog does anything comparable to going into a room with an automatic weapon to begin killing strangers.

We think that evil exists only to destroy. It exists also to help us rise above the level of evil. Evil is like the fire that tempers a steel tool. Too little and the steel is too soft to be useful. Too much and the tool is destroyed. We are the softness that needs tempering and that is not possible without some temptation. Evil, like death, is necessary. It is one of God's tools. Yet, quite rightly, we want as little of it as possible. Or do we just imagine that we are against it, even as we are feeding our favorite evils and calling them something else? Good is what nourishes life in the long run. Evil is always destructive in the long and short run.