The Appeal of Evil

The Appeal of Evil

Following the rise in terrorist acts and violent crimes in Israel and the world over, the Israeli newspaper Ynet published an in-depth analysis on the topic of human brutality. The analysis tried to understand what causes certain people to become particularly evil, and if humanity can defeat the spreading cruelty within it. The interviewees in the analysis pointed out many factors that may cause people to become brutal. Brain structure, hormones, the mother’s nutrition during pregnancy, and drug and alcohol abuse were some of the physiological factors, while abuse, neglect, and growing up in a violent environment were among the social and emotional factors. What was absent in the story, however, was the exponential growth in human self-centeredness, which has already come to the attention of many researchers, and which is the root cause of all forms of malice.

Because we are compulsive competitors and incorrigibly jealous, we are growing increasingly avaricious. And as the world becomes more and more connected, we find more and more people to envy, until we feel that we must surpass all the people in the world. Eventually, we come to enjoy not only surpassing everyone, but humiliating everyone, degrading them, and hurting them, and we enjoy seeing them suffer.

Self-centeredness, or narcissism, as social scientists refer to it, is the culprit behind the increasing level of cruelty in society. It is growing exponentially and is the reason for all the negative phenomena that have been intensifying in recent decades. Violence and cruelty are certainly the more painful symptoms, but financial crises, reckless depletion of natural resources, and the economic wars that have escalated around the world are also offshoots of the reckless selfishness that is intensifying by the day.

Everything has some level of selfishness. Every organism takes what it needs without regard for others’ needs. When all those self-centered desires clash with one another, they balance each other out and the result is that everyone gets what they need, and there is enough for everyone. In that state, the clashes between species keep them strong and healthy.

The problem begins with people. We cannot settle for taking only what we need. We constantly compare ourselves to others. We do not look at what we need, but at what others have, and we feel that we must have more than they do. As a result, we cannot be satisfied until we have more than everyone else.

Because we are compulsive competitors and incorrigibly jealous, we are growing increasingly avaricious. And as the world becomes more and more connected, we find more and more people to envy, until we feel that we must surpass all the people in the world. Eventually, we come to enjoy not only surpassing everyone, but humiliating everyone, degrading them, and hurting them, and we enjoy seeing them suffer.

Certainly, not everyone is like that. Very few among us have reached such levels of narcissism, but this is the trend. To varying degrees, we are all like that, and the trajectory of human development will make more and more people become pathologically selfish, with all its consequences.

Worse yet, the more violence becomes commonplace, the more people will become violent. And the more cruelty becomes acceptable, as is the case in a violent and abusive society, the more people will become cruel and abusive.

In the analysis, Prof. of History Gideon Graif said that evil is often simply more attractive. As a researcher of brutality during the Holocaust, he reached the conclusion that not all the Germans were sadistic, but many of them became so in the atmosphere that surrounded them in the death camps. In fact, he says, they may have even competed at being the cruelest.

Since the Holocaust, many experiments (such as The Stanford Prison Experiment) have shown that under certain circumstances, even the most normative person can become sadistic and abusive. Since we always compare ourselves to the environment, we have no choice in the matter; we are compelled to become a reflection of our social environment. If the environment is sadistic, we, too, will become that, and we will not feel that we are doing anything wrong; we will have no remorse and we will feel no need to justify our actions. On the contrary, we will feel that we are doing the right thing.

If we want to reverse the trend of growing violence, abusiveness, and alienation in society, we must begin to change the norms that we regard as acceptable. Since we are compelled to compare ourselves to others, we should see that our role models are conscientious people. If we want to decrease the level of alienation, we must give public accolades to those who excel in bringing people together, who increase solidarity in society, who exemplify supportive and positive relationships. When we show positive, non-violent role models, we will have a positive, non-violent society, and not a day sooner.

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Living in Bubbles

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Why can’t people understand me? How do I make them see what I need? And do I understand others? We live in bubbles, and we cannot break free. We perceive everything within us, in the bubble that is our reality, and judge everything by a single criterion: What will I get out of it?

The goal of our existence is for all of humanity to come out of our bubbles and feel one another. We are locked inside these shells only to learn to appreciate freedom from them, and to increase our desire to break the walls of the ego.

Whatever happens around me or inside of me, the goal never changes: to feel good. This is how we work, and how every organism works. And if I feel good, I begin to ask how I can feel even better.

While this is the program that operates all living beings, and even non-living things such as minerals or plants, the “version” that operates humans is slightly different. In us, there is no limit to the intensity of the aspiration to feel good; it grows, and grows, and grows. At some point, the aspiration becomes so intense that it wants to enjoy at the expense of others, and then we refer to it as “ego.”

Culture, education, industry, commerce, entertainment, everything we have developed comes to serve the goal of deriving more and more pleasure. If I feel that hurting someone will give me pleasure, and I have no fear of negative consequences, I will hurt that someone for the simple reason that it pleases me. If, on the other hand, I enjoy pleasing others, I will do it. But I will do it not because it helps them, but because it makes me feel good.

When we want to derive pleasure from our relationship with someone, and that someone does not respond in a way that pleases us, we feel apart from that person, that that person does not understand us. This is indeed the case, since that person lives in his or her own bubble, while I live in mine, so real understanding is impossible.

Sometimes, we may feel that there are people who understand us, and whom we understand. However, it is only because we have a common goal or common interests, or we think alike. Yet, as soon as the common interest disappears, or if our views differ on some issue, the feeling of closeness flies out the window and separation and coldness settle in.

Nevertheless, we all crave to be understood. We all want someone to know what we feel, to sympathize with us and share our joys and sorrows. If we are ever granted such a feeling, we immediately open to that person, the need to always stand guard and protect my interests disappears, and it allows us to come out of our shell and sympathize with that other person, too.

If such a bond forms between two people, they will feel that they have transcended the selfish bubble where we live, that there is life beyond the ego. When this happens, it is the most precious gift that anyone can receive; it is a new life.

The goal of our existence is for all of humanity to come out of our bubbles and feel one another. We are locked inside these shells only to learn to appreciate freedom from them, and to increase our desire to break the walls of the ego.

When we achieve that state of boundlessness, where we do not know where I end and where the other begins, we will be living in a new reality, a new world without walls or guards or ego.

JESSE BOGNER

Strategist/Storyteller

1y

I've never heard such a great definition of Michael Laitman himself "incorrigibly jealous... increasingly avaricious....Eventually, we come to enjoy not only surpassing everyone, but humiliating everyone, degrading them, and hurting them, and we enjoy seeing them suffer."

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