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December 12: Write about evil: how you understand it (or don’t), what you think it means, or a way it’s manifested, either in the world at large or in your life.
This entry is interesting in the sense that I’ve never in my life thought about evil. I don’t believe in religious stuff about the good and the bad or that going to heaven or hell is a real thing, but I do believe there are people who maybe are not evil per se but behave in evil ways sometimes.
I think we all can do good or bad in this world. One action is not going to define who we are, but many repeated actions can. Sometimes, we can do something with good intentions and have a negative outcome and that doesn’t mean we’re evil –even if that’s what it looks like from the outside. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that evil manifests itself when we’re continuously selfish and act knowing full well that what we’re doing is gonna harm others.
In other words, to me evil is not a supernatural force or a complex idea. It’s just the opposite of goodness and kindness. When we lie, badmouth someone, steal, take advantage of others, sell a faulty product/service, behave in an immoral way that causes direct harm and pain to people or animals, or do any other more serious thing, we’re not making an effort to be good. We can all have evil thoughts, but do we choose to turn them into actions? The answer to this question says how much potential for evil we have. Or at least that’s my opinion on the matter.