7/14/00
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A New Generation of Evil
Earlier today, I was thinking about the nature of evil. It has evolved along with society. Over the centuries of human history, it's really gone "from bad to worse." It seems that, with each breakthrough our specie makes, a new dimension of pure evil takes shape.
Early on, the darker sides of human nature were characterized by greed and anger. Think back to Hammurabi and his code. Most of the laws set forth in Babylonia involve correcting errors. If someone takes your eye, you are entitled to take his. If someone takes your cattle, you are entitled to take his and so on and so forth. Evil had very simple motives.
As Christianity developed, the facets of evil shifted. A person's actions became less important. After all, you could confess your sins to a priest and all would be forgiven. Rather, what was in a person's heart mattered. If the person was wicked by nature, they were damned to Hell. Thusly, humans were allowed to inflict whatever harm they wished upon such a person. To be evil, you had to break Church law. At this period in time, malice became more important than action.
In the 18th and 19th century, evil tended to involve foreigners. Although most people still went to Church, religion was steadily becoming a less influential factor in ordinary life. People were living longer, making more money, and having more fun. God and Heaven seemed less important. However, people need a place to vent their suspicion and mistrust in such a prim and proper time. These people turned to foreigners and minorities. If a definite cause could not be found for problems, they blamed the immigrants. Even as late as the early 20th century, foreigners became immediate suspects (Sacco and Venzetti, Bruno Hauptmann.) People all over the world made the automatic assumption that different = evil.
During the 1930's and 40's, evil was given the face of Adolf Hitler. It was easy for Americans to place blame on the despotic tyrant. These two decades passed with a clear figurehead for evil, which is what all people secretly need to survive.
After the war, however, things changed again. In the 60's and 70's, a new breed of monster emerged from the dark - the serial killer. True, serial killers have been around for centuries, but they seem to be growing up like weeds in the past few decades. With such figures as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Zodiac, and 'Son of Sam' David Berkowitz, America was held in a grip of terror of human predators lurking in our midst.
I believe we have entered another stage of evil, a new generation. Serial killers are deadly and terrifying to most, but there is one logic to them - most of them have been abused or traumatized as children. There is a reason behind their crimes, even if it is not clearly noticeable. This 'New Generation' of evil involves monsters who are spawned of their own darkness.
I am speaking mainly of Don Juan and me when I say this. Both of us lived happy, normal childhoods. We were never abused or mistreated. We never suffered any traumatic experiences. We were just born evil. Somewhere along the way, our wires got messed up and we went bad. No one could have stopped this transition because no one caused it. It simply happened.
Why am I a pedophile? Why am I a necrophile? Why do I hate women so much?
Why does Don Juan want to torture innocent people for sexual gratification? Why does he find another's misfortune so amusing?
There is no easily defined reason. This is the 'New Generation of Evil,' a breed of killers spawned from a pool of their own darkness, fostered by their own hate, nurtured by their own hatred. We are being created in ever-greater numbers, harbored by a society which supports free speech, tolerance, and mental health gods. I hope the rest of society is ready to handle us.
"Nothing happened to me, Officer Starling. I happened. You can't reduce me to a set of influences. You've given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You've got everybody in moral dignity pants - nothing is ever anybody's fault. Look at me, Officer Starling. Can you stand to say I'm evil? Am I evil, Officer Starling?"
-Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs