Evil As Opportunistic Infection

Post Reply New Topic

Evil as Opportunistic Infection
A Faustian Metaphor By John Gallin

Most depictions of evil in popular culture; from Sauron in Lord of the Rings; to Agent Smith in The Matrix Cycle to Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars depict the existence of evil as a dignified, blatant force that is willing to destroy the entire world before compromising it’s anti-morality and was once descended from the highest form of authority. Sauron; like Lucifer was once a high-ranking angel. Agent Smith was a highly capable and respected program in the Matrix; other agents were subordinate to him. Emperor Palpatine, as the prequels show; was an efficient and competent Senator before he simply grew mad with power and turned to the dark side. But does this depiction have any basis in real life? Is evil primarily the choice of the power-mad ubermensch who wishes to dominate the very souls of men? We have reason to be skeptical.

The most obvious example of modern evil we can readily look at is Adolph Hitler; Hitler diverted vast amounts of military resources from the front to kill Jews, Poles, Homosexuals, the disabled and gypsies. Hitler rebuilt Germany’s economic system only to destroy it just as quickly through bombs, artillery and death camps. But is Hitler really the cinematic opera villain our society holds as an example of “ultimate evil?” or was Hitler merely a detestable bohemian and tramp who acquired godlike power in post-Imperial Germany?

The most interesting thing about Hitler was that he had less in common with an American super-villain and more in common with Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp; only with the power to exterminate millions whom he politically disagreed with. Before his rise to power Hitler made landscape paintings for the rich, bored gentry of Austria. The most striking thing about these paintings is their sheer kitsch-ness and amateur quality. We have seen Hitler’s painting style in every high-school art class and on countless fridges worldwide. There is nothing bad about Hitler’s paintings but there is not much good about them. Hitler’s style suggests a sophomoric, struggling high-school dropout more than it suggests a man who sent entire societies to the gas chambers.

Even more disturbing is Hitler’s writing style; Hitler’s speeches and books show not only his total infatuation with the glory of slaughter; but his sheer lack of literary technique. Hitler’s early propaganda shows the type of blatant lies and sheer tactlessness of radical propaganda worldwide. Hitler is merely telling the displaced drudges of Germany what they want to hear “Jews are responsible for your countries woes”, “Western society is controlled by a cabal of Jewish bankers”, “I will return Germany to past glory”, “War is inevitable but we will triumph as the master race”. It would be ludicrous and comedic if not for the fact that millions believed it. Mein Kampf; from a linguistic perspective has very little in common with the grand, philosophical pronouncements of 21st Century super-villains. It reminds us in writing style and tone of the journals of so many wannabe artists who desire recognition from society. Merely by performing a web-search on “abused artist” can we pinpoint Hitler’s style a thousand times all around the world. This man claims to have suffered greatly; he claims to have great talent and he claims to make the people who ruined his life sorry for what they did. Any live action role-playing game attracts people like this; Hitler only made his demented fantasies real with the help of the German people.

Even as a man; Hitler disappoints us. This is the man who butchered the Warsaw Ghetto, who tricked the world into trusting him and who shattered the peace of the entire world. This man is also very nice to his dog, he wins his secretary over with his charm and he fries his brain with amphetamines. If Hitler were alive in 2005 instead of 1925 he’d probably play drums in a mediocre punk band; Hitler’s love of animals, drug abuse and pseudo-political rambling would go over very well in the punk subculture.

What about Stalin? Surely Stalin is an impressive depiction of the nature of evil. Stalin starved countless millions in his five-year plan, he slaughtered his party twenty times over and he gutted Russia’s economy until murder was the only efficient industry. Even someone as ruthless and horrific as Stalin ultimately falls flat as a demonstration of evil. Like Hitler; Stalin impressed his secretary through his charm and love of literature. Stalin only became a communist in the first place because he got kicked out of the seminary. As a man Stalin strikes us as a backwards leader in a backwards nation.

The Western Archetype that Stalin most reminds us of is not the avenging saviour or the fallen angel; but merely the mob boss. Mob bosses interest us not because they are monsters; but because they are men. A mob boss will do anything, murder is merely a stepping stone; to acquire and hold power. Mob bosses wear the nicest suits, eat delicious food and project the air of a conservative businessman. They also beat informants to death with baseball bats and mow down entire competing families. Once you kill one innocent person in pursuit of power there’s not much psychological difference between killing a million or ten million.

Even Saddam Hussein, Stalin’s Middle Eastern equivalent strikes Westerners as being a pathetic charade of a man. Saddam surrenders to American marines like the pathetic coward he is; Saddam uses absurd defenses to the American press that the New Yorker and Saturday Night Live keenly mock and he cannot even die a warrior’s death like his sons. Outside of Iraq, Saddam Hussein is viewed as the type of villain one would see in a Warner Brothers cartoon; all flashy weapons and brute force with no cunning strategy or willpower to back it up. Conservatives spent more time laughing at Saddam Hussein and his minions than fearing him. Leftist opponents to the War in Iraq went so far as to claim that Saddam posed no threat to anyone outside of his dilapidated country. If not for the support of his minions and the Iraqi people Saddam would be a petty bandit.

What does this mean about the nature of evil? If the most corrupt and vicious members of our species come off as petty thugs and professional bohemians than where does that leave the nature of evil? Maybe evil is not a meteoric fall from grace but merely the spiritual equivalent of an opportunistic infection.

Every doctor and activist who works in the field of HIV relief is familiar with opportunistic infection. When something like HIV disrupts the human immune system it creates a power vacuum that is quickly filled. Bacteria and viruses quickly attack the body and replicate unchecked. When someone has AIDS they will acquire diseases no doctor has heard of yet simply because they have no way to resist them. Bacteria and Viruses are everywhere but most of them are stopped by a competent immune system. Perhaps evil occurs merely because some people lack immunities to a psychological infection.

There were millions of detached, ironic, cynical intellectuals in Early 20th Century Austria. Only one became Adolph Hitler. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sigmund Freud had similar origins in the spiritual and moral vacuum of 1890s Austria and yet they have written some of the greatest philosophy ever. Is it possible that Hitler the artist became Hitler the genocidal maniac because Hitler lacked the willpower and devotion to do any better? There were many artists and writers vastly superior to Hitler but none of them had his craven devotion to absolute power. Hitler was powerful because his spirit was weak; not because it was strong. One can merely hear about his final days, addicted to hideous drugs, devoted to his dog more to his fatherland and hiding in a bunker as Russian troops closed in. What cinematic super-villain would die like that?

Stalin strikes us as even more depressing. As a young man Stalin could not even find a revolution to whole-heartedly support. He originally supported Georgia’s independence then made it’s freedom impossible as an arbiter of total authority. If not for Stalin’s love of power and contempt for the human spirit the Soviet Union would be a mild, respectable affair having more in common with Canadian Socialism than Cambodian. Stalin’s death was even more embarrassing; he died of massive internal bleeding after partying instead of running the country. His death befits a Heavy Metal star more than an oppressor of human nature.

Even the words for evil come off as pathetic and embarrassing. “Villain” in dark ages French can mean “vile one” or simply “villager”; an equivalent term would be “hillbilly” or “redneck”. Even the Old Testament paints ultimate evil as a disappointing force; the first corrupter of human nature appears as a snake and uses a pathetic ruse to trick Adam and Eve. Cain murders his brother out of petty jealousy and begs God to spare his life like a whipped dog. When Satan does show up in the Old Testament he comes off as being a depressing figure, inspiring pity and contempt more than terror. Satan can’t even convince Job; a single good man to renounce his faith. Pontius Pilate is a petty bureaucrat who is forced to kill Jesus out of political necessity. Judas betrays Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, about the cost of a decent horse. Evil in the Bible is as depressing and nauseating as it appears in real life.

The HIV metaphor applies here as well. Cain is too weak to accomplish anything worthy of God’s glory; he compensates by killing his primary rival, Abel. Similarly Stalin would not last very long if the Soviet Union had any sort of accountability or electoral process. Stalin was the top leader in the Soviet Union merely because he killed anyone who could challenge him and brainwashed the rest. The spiritual bankruptcy of modern society shows itself best in people who inevitably become fanatics; soldiers who return to peacetime and find themselves lost; artists who never gain any real recognition; intellectuals who can’t gain tenure or prestige, bohemian ratbags looking for a higher goal. Without fanaticism a fanatic is a depressing, contemptible human being who shambles through life looking for something; anything to redeem himself. Who wouldn’t become a communist or a fascist in these circumstances?

The myth of the noble villain is essentially something we use to entertain ourselves. In original Frankish “noble villain” is an oxymoron. In real-life evil provokes disgust and contempt more often than hatred and rage. How many people have seen Osama Bin Laden’s tapes and remarked on the surreal blandness of his speeches? How often do people say about a serial killer “he seemed so average”? How many people have read the Unabomber’s Manifesto and found it indistinguishable from other forms of ultra-radical cant? How often do the pronouncements of domestic terrorists sound as vague, bland and downright banal as the press releases of the corporations they fight? Is it possible that their lack of willpower ruins them for anything other than spiritual jihad?

Evil in real-life frightens us not because it is so surreal but because it is so average. Every young boy who tortures neighborhood cats has an element of evil. Every corporate bureaucrat who steals his company’s gains has a little bit. Even high-school kids who form cliques and torment outsiders contain the basic elements of a one-party dictatorship. Most human beings are at a disadvantage in detecting evil simply because there is almost nothing to detect. We face a constant invisible barrage of nightmares from which the only defense is moral honesty.

Wow. Well put.

Thank you...

You're not so bad yourself...