The Working of Evil

Introduction

Introduction

Evil is a word thrown around daily, referring to feral dictators such as Adolf Hitler or Kim Jong-Un, or perhaps groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis. People who performed actions so devastating and world changing that they could never possibly be forgiven even in death. In our modern world, we may refer to groups such as ISIS or the Taliban as the crusaders of our time.

Along with many things, we as people of the West often take for granted the word "evil," using it to regard whoever we wish in an attempt to express -and in many ways exacerbate- whatever feelings they feel towards the group or individuals; "How could he have done this? That's pure evil!"

 So what is evil exactly? From a viewpoint of a historian, I assume it to often refer to the groups and individuals above. However I, nor the majority of people reading this are historians. So to an Everyman how do we define evil? Now as I am sure many would do I immediately looked to Oxford for help, and while my initial question was answered, I found myself far more puzzled at the working of Evil.

Oxford dictionary gave me two definitions, the first referring to a person and seemed to of initially made sense to me; "Profoundly immoral and wicked." This seems simple, rational in fact. At this point I thought my search was over, it was time to return to procrastinating to avoid various pieces of Homework. And then I looked again. Wicked. What does wicked actually mean? Of course, I had heard it countless times when watching pantomimes and moaning with my friends about our teachers, but like the word evil I had never questioned its meaning.

So I searched, just as before for the definition of wicked. Oxford, once again coming to my rescue informed me that it was in fact to be "evil or morally wrong." Wicked is not merely a way for lazy writers to make their audience fear their antagonist, nor a hit musical. Wicked is a synonym for evil, they are one in the same. So obviously to include wicked or evil in either defintion is null in use, leaving us with "Profouncly immoral" and "morally wrong," once again leaving us with a synonym. So if wicked, holding no more value than evil simply means immoral what is the real point of either words? That is one of the many questions I aim to answer in this book.

Now there was another definition, one which instead referred to evil in a supernatural sense rather than that of a man or group; "embodying or associated with the forces of the devil." Now I must confess that I am no man of faith in any form, which limits my knowledge of the "Devil" himself. However what I do hold pride in is my knowledge of words. Their origins, their defintions and their structure. And I can assure you that a word that is dedicated to the Devil and his deciples is not the norm in the Oxford dictionaries. Perhaps this show's the importance of evil? Or maybe its insignificance? This is yet another question I wish to answer.

So it is obvious to us all that I will find no answer, there is no undisputed definition to the word evil. As any one who values themselves as any form of writer would never allow this to remain the case, and so the only natural course is to create my own definition. I doubt I can reach the elegance in my writing of Grimm, Johnson or Hill, but I can assure you that I am pretentious enough to try. 

Evil: A term used to define a person, group or thing driven to immorality due to greed, paranoia and ignorance.