People of the Lie

or understanding the problem of evil.

The problem of evil has beset the human mind for most of our existence. The earliest writings reveal this eternal conundrum.

Why is understanding evil even more relevant today? Because in the tragedy of Palestine we are confronted by a great evil, as bad, if not worse than any evil throughout modern history and perhaps human history.

Why is it a great evil? Because it is being done by people who draw upon a history, real and imagined, of experiences of Great Evil across centuries. If those who should better know the face of evil and clearly do not, then what hope is there for the rest of us? Or why is it happening?

Never before have children been the selected target of war as they are today in Occupied Palestine in general and the Gaza concentration camp in particular. Most people would say that killing children on purpose, and worse, often for fun, is the greatest evil of all.

Why is it happening? Why are we allowing it to happen? What is the source of this evil which is Israel and the sadistic cruelty and bestial savagery they inflict on the Palestinians in the name of their occupation and colonisation? We are called, yet again, and perhaps even more so, to confront evil in order to stop evil.

Perhaps our inability to prevent such evil is why the lesson is now sharing its blood-drenched grinning face to the world. At least to those of conscience. Evil is the great lie we tell ourselves first and then repeat to others.

And when we lie to ourselves about something, and our society, culture, religion and Government tell the same lie, we become hostages held by the Lie, trapped ingroup-think and unable to release our minds from the Lies. When this has been happening for generations, as it has in Israel, three at least along with the lingering effects of religious belief over thousands of years, it is very difficult to think outside the box of Lies. For some it is absolutely impossible, because what we believe and the actions which enforce our beliefs, create a powerful energy field which locks us in. Indeed, which tells us that beyond the field of thought there is only danger and destruction. We are no longer truly living and that is the fertile ground in which evil grows.

The Bible alone has 40 quotes tacking the problem of evil and that was compiled thousands of years ago. And yet, the oldest written story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which predates Judaic and Christian writings by more than a thousand years, is the first to tackle the problem of evil which has never been resolved or perhaps truly understood by humans.

“It’s an old story

but one that can still be told.”

—The Epic of Gilgamesh

This first story about evil, is an epic poem loosely based on the historical King Gilgamesh, who ruled Sumerian Uruk (modern day Iraq) in 2700 BC. This is the oldest written story, anywhere, known to exist. The oldest existing versions of this poem date to c 2000 BC, in Sumerian cuneiform. Judaism is believed to have been invented in the same region, in what is now Iraq and no doubt the Hebrews drew upon these earlier myths for their writings. Myth by the way does not mean something untrue, it simply means a story humans tell to make sense of their world, which may or may not contain truths.

When humans learned to think they then learned to write, so we can conclude that the problem of evil had been roaming around the minds of mankind for a very long time, even before it could be turned into words.

Barry Casey taught religion, philosophy, and communications for 28 years at Columbia Union College, now Washington Adventist University, and business communication at Stevenson University for 7 years. He continues as adjunct professor in ethics and philosophy at Trinity Washington University, D.C. Casey blogs at Dante’s Woods.

In an essay which was originally presented at the Faith and Reason Sabbath School at Sligo SDA Church in March 2018, he wrote:

The third great myth is the Sumerian-Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, the first recorded attempt, as Mathewes says, “to understand and inhabit a world in which suffering occurs and perhaps a world in which suffering is partially constitutive of what makes us human.” The tablets found at Ninevah date back to the 7th century BCE, but scholars now believe that oral traditions of Gilgamesh most likely date back to about 3,000 BCE, well before the Genesis account.

Gilgamesh is the aggressive king of the great city of Uruk. He harasses and tortures his people until they cry to the gods to give him a competitor to distract him. The gods send Enkidu, a wild man from the desert. The two meet in the wilderness, engage in combat, and Gilgamesh is the victor. They become best friends and go on many adventures together. But the gods become jealous of their friendship and kill Enkidu. Wild with grief, Gilgamesh sets out on a quest to find immortality.

Perhaps insane, he tried

to bring Enkidu back to life

To end his bitterness,

His fear of death.

His life became a quest

To find the secret of eternal life

Which he might carry back to give his friend (Mason 55).”

Through a perilous journey Gilgamesh makes his way to the sea of Death, on the shores of which a young woman finds him and cares for him in his extremity. She tells him:

The gods gave death to man and kept life for

Themselves. That is the only way it is (Mason 65).”

Eventually, Gilgamesh returns to his city of Uruk, older, sadder, perhaps wiser, knowing now that death is what lies ahead for every person, and in that knowledge, he is able to find some peace in the achievements of his people.

Is all of that saying that death and the fear of death is at the root of evil? Since Death for most people is the greatest fear, and a major reason why religion was invented we can assume, that the more fear there is of death, the greater the capacity for evil.

And Death is not only about the end of life for a mortal being, it is a fear we all carry for the loss/Death of relationships, homes, country, future, friends, family, lovers and more. Every loss is a death and involves grief. If we do not complete a grieving process then we will never move on from the Death/Loss.

Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. Aristotle

Behind anger there is always Fear and Anger often drives the worst evil.

It is salient that the word EVIL is an anadrome, which is a word or phrase whose letters can be reversed to spell a different word. In this case the anadrome for EVIL is LIVE so we know that Evil is Live turned upside down. Evil is that which negates or destroys Life. And also here, Life is about more than our lives as human beings. Life and Live are also about home, family, friends, community, art, culture, future and all that makes our Life and Lives in this material world somewhere between bearable and richly rewarding.

Evil is that which destroys all of those positive things about Life. And when a group, State, society seek to destroy all of that for others, they are a force for Evil. And there is no doubt the Israelis are seeking to utterly destroy all aspects of Life for the Palestinians. Ultimately they cannot win for Evil destroys those who become its slave more than anyone else.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why would that be so? Why would those who commit Evil be destroying themselves? Because to destroy that which is Life and a productive part of Life, requires those doing it to deny Life in themselves and to weaken and cripple, if not destroy, those qualities of human nature which value and promote Life. When we destroy the capacity of Life for others we must destroy it for ourselves because we need to diminish or destroy our capacity for humanity and compassion, the great powerhouse energies of LIFE, in order to commit evil. But rarely can human beings totally destroy their conscience which haunts them evermore.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. Hannah Arendt.

The sadder truth is that people who never make up their minds to be good or evil have allowed themselves to be brainwashed and dehumanised so they are capable of Evil. Whatever the source of that process, and all cults use it, whether religious, political, personal, racial, cultural, national or social beliefs, it is required for the human being committing the Evil to be able to do it in the first place.

There are always some who can never be so brainwashed just as there are always some who refuse to stop asking questions, but many people throughout history have been too easily made unquestioning and compliant, and often in the name of great Evil.

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Haile Selassie.

When we choose to do nothing, to not speak out against Evil we commit Evil. Whatever excuses or reasons we might give to ourselves and to others, we are guilty of Evil. And yes, in some cases to speak out means risking your life, but in many, many cases it just means risking abuse from family, friends and society, which is a small price to pay in a fight against Evil. I would qualify here that in some tyrannical societies it is not their own lives which people risk by speaking out but the lives of their children. That however is not an excuse the Israelis or their supporters can use. Social abuse yes, but the death of their children because they speak out, NO.

The tragic irony is that Israeli parents are sending their children to die because they refuse to speak out against Evil and that in itself is another Evil act.

The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

One reason why humans throughout history have projected all Evil onto others is because then they do not have to address their own capacity for Evil. If the enemy I create is Evil then I am not Evil, is one of the most common and most ridiculous human conclusions ever reached.

But blaming others is powerful because, as Victims, with or without any evidence that is the case, we separate ourselves from our own wrongdoing and our own capacity for evil.

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. Eric Hoffer.

Evil thrives in a vacuum. Not a vacuum of belief, religion or even commitment to our society and State, but a vacuum of Soul. When we live in an environment which regards others as subhuman and deserving of great suffering and death, we live in a huge vacuum where Soul suffocates and Evil thrives. Love is the oxygen which keeps Soul alive.

When we lose our humanity and our compassion for others, for any reason, we sink deeper into a great airless pit of Evil and cruelty. And because humans are hardwired to make sense of our world, no matter how Evil it or our actions may be, we need to build higher and higher walls and find more and more reasons to hate those who are forcing us to be Evil. Golda Meir revealed this aspect of Israeli society when she made the evil statement that the occupied Palestinians were forcing the brutal occupiers, to kill their children.

This is why societies committing great Evil need a powerful Blame Game. For Israelis, to admit they are committing Evil requires them to acknowledge that the Palestinians are human and deserving of the same rights and compassion they would demand, indeed, have demanded, for themselves.

It takes a huge leap of courage for humans to admit they are wrong about anything and never more so than when it means admitting they have been responsible for great Evil.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. Henry David Thoreau.

The psychiatrist, Morgan Scott Peck, wrote a book, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, which was published in 1983.

“the twin progenitors of evil: laziness and narcissism.”

― M. Scott Peck.

Which takes us back to the great Evil we face today committed by Israel. The society is lazy because it has been enabled, encouraged, allowed, supported, funded, by others for so long it is incapable of standing on its own feet or even thinking about or questioning its actions.

And it is narcissistic because both Judaism and Zionism have encouraged a belief in supremacy, eternal rightness, victimhood and licence to do anything to anyone, including the most Evil acts, and never be held accountable.

Evil rejoices and thrives in such an environment.

“This is a dangerous book,” M. Scott Peck begins People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. “I have written it because I believe it is needed. I believe its over-all effect will be healing.”

Peck raises the question:

Where is the line between mental illness and sin/evil? As a psychiatrist he saw certain patients that seemed more than just mentally ill, but evil.

Peck was a Christian and that flavours his writing. Peck draws a distinction between evil and ordinary sin. “It is not their sins per se that characterize evil people, rather it is the subtlety and persistence and consistency of their sins. This is because the central defect of the evil is not the sin but the refusal to acknowledge it.” (page 69)

“One of the places evil people are most likely to be found is within the church. What better way to conceal one’s evil from oneself, as well as from others, than to be a deacon or some other highly visible form of Christian within our culture,” said Peck.

So religion, by omission and commission, is more likely to play a part in creating Evil in a society and never more so than when the society is narcissistic and isolated from the world at large because of their beliefs and situation.

Peck clarifies “I do not mean to imply that the evil are anything other than a small minority among the religious or that religious motives of most people are in any way spurious. I mean only that evil people tend to gravitate towards piety for the disguise and concealment it offers them.” (pages 76-77)

Peck states “Spiritual growth requires the acknowledgment of one’s need to grow” (page 74). Where there is fear/avoidance of self-examination or self-criticism, it can stunt our spiritual growth and create a fertile environment for evil to develop. Evil people are hiding from themselves. Peck notes that evil people will usually not submit to psychotherapy because they hate the light-shedding process of therapy. To benefit from therapy you must acknowledge your need of it. And indeed, therapy can never work unless the individual first accepts they need it, want it and are prepared to commit to it.

When we project all Evil onto others we deny it in ourselves and are doomed to become Evil increasingly. It is only the light of conscious questioning which can limit our capacity for Evil.

As Peck says “How do we heal that which we don’t even dare study?”

“The problem of evil…can hardly be separated from the problem of goodness. Were there no goodness in the world, we would not even be considering the problem of evil. It is a strange thing. Dozens of times I have been asked by patients or acquaintances ‘Dr. Peck, why is there evil in the world?’ Yet no one has ever asked me in all these years: ‘Why is there good in the world?’

One could conclude that the theme of the great myths pondering the existence of Evil and often concluding that it is a battle between Good and Evil have more substance than we might like to believe in our modern world. The human mind is hardwired to create and comprehend opposites. There can be no Evil without Good, which contains the word God, and perhaps that is the point, even for someone like me who follows no religion but it open to a concept of God and believes in a spiritual nature.

Evil exists as part of our lesson to make a choice, between Good and Evil. Peck describes how evil manifests.

Peck explains that evil is inability to tolerate oneself as imperfect. Not being able to tolerate the idea that you are not perfect means that you cannot recognize your need to grow. It means that you need to maintain the pretense of your goodness and perfection above all else. People who demonstrate evil see the world as they want to see it rather than how it actually is. To maintain their version of reality, they must scapegoat others and project their own faults onto them. They must attack any and all who jeopardize their self image. All of this means that those who demonstrate evil are entirely incapable of true empathy and can be utterly destructive in their relationship with others in the name of self-preservation.

Any understanding of Zionist Israel in foundation and function makes this explanation profoundly appropriate as to why and how the State commits the evil that it does and has done so since it invented itself. If you are brainwashed from birth to believe you are superior as humans, perfect, never capable of wrong, never to be held accountable and yet your conscience niggles, then that is inevitably the path to mental instability.

“When I say that evil has to do with killing, I do not mean to restrict myself to corporeal murder. Evil is that which kills spirit. There are various essential attributes of life -- particularly human life -- such as sentience, mobility, awareness, growth, autonomy, will, ”said Peck.

Evil then, for the moment, is the force, residing either inside or outside of human beings, that seeks to kill life or liveliness. And goodness is its opposite. Goodness is that which promotes life and liveliness.”

― M. Scott Peck, People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil

Peck also says the principal weapon of Evil is Fear. And when a State is founded in Fear, functions in Fear and brainwashes its people from birth to live in Fear, then it will never escape Evil. The entire raison détre of Zionist Israel is Fear. A state created out of the Fear that Jews cannot be safe unless they have total control of their society and State. It is an irrational belief because of course most Jews do not live in Israel, never did and never will, but Fear does not need to be rational or even real to be powerful.

And the function of the State has always been sourced in Fear of the Palestinians, translated as fear of Muslims and real and imagined Islamic fanatics and fear of Arabs, because there are hundreds of millions of Arabs, looking to destroy Jews and poor little Israel. Again, not sourced in reality but irrelevant when you want a fearful populace.

If Israel did not have enemies it would have to create them and that is exactly what it does and has always done.

“Orders are given and executed by individuals. In the last analysis, every single human act is ultimately the result of an individual choice.”

― M. Scott Peck.

So perhaps, Evil exists because as humans we possess a capacity for free will, a capacity to choose, and if Evil did not exist there would be no choice. Because Good exists it requires the existence of an opposite if we humans are to make conscious choices which enable us to Live and grow in healthy ways.

The problem of Evil is only a problem when we fail to make the right choices. Condemning the acts and not the individual does not negate accountability or responsibility and neither does it condone. And when we face the problem of evil as we perceive it in others, we need to remember that it is calling us to choose to think and act either in the name of Love and Compassion or the name of Evil and Hate and that is for everyone, even those who commit acts of evil.