The Illusion of Evil

Fear, Pain, and the Machinery of Power

"Evil" is a comforting lie. A convenient shortcut. A way to simplify the unfathomable cruelty and suffering of the world into a neat, digestible concept. It tells us that some people, some systems, are simply malevolent, existing outside the spectrum of human experience. It allows us to pretend there is a force to rally against, a dark entity we can oppose. But there is no such thing.

What we call “evil” is fear. It's pain. It' s history and trauma, sharpened into power and violence. It's manipulation, inheritance, and strategy. Evil is the name we give to human suffering, when it's wielded as a weapon.

It always has been.

The great conflicts of our world—wars, genocide, economic oppression—are not battles between good and evil. They are battles over land, wealth, ideology, and control. They are contests of pain, driven by the inherited wounds of history.

The modern world is no different. The atrocities we witness today—corruption, exploitation, violence—are not supernatural forces at work. They are decisions. Deliberate, rational, and strategic. When we call them "evil," we absolve the perpetrators of their motives. We transform calculated actions into moral mysteries.

This is why the idea of evil is so dangerous. It's a fog that obscures the truth.

The Construction of Evil: How We Shape Our Monsters

Evil as a Political Tool

The language of "evil" has always been used by the powerful to control narratives. Nations and leaders define their enemies as evil because it makes war and punishment easier to justify. "They are not like us," they say. "They are monsters."

The Nazis used this framework against Jewish people. The United States used it to justify slavery and the extermination of Indigenous peoples. The United States is using it today against anyone that isn't a white christian nazi. Every empire has wielded the idea of evil to create an "other"—a dehumanized enemy who deserves destruction.

Even today, leaders brand their opposition as evil to consolidate power. Protesters become “terrorists.” Whistleblowers become “traitors.” Migrants become “criminals.” Meanwhile, the actions of the powerful—the wars, the economic devastation, the quiet theft of democracy—are explained away as “necessary” or simply ignored.

Evil is never assigned to the system, only to its opponents.

Evil as Religion’s Crowbar

God and evil have always been intertwined. Every major religion contains a framework in which suffering is either a punishment, a test, or a battle against dark forces.

• In Christianity, evil is personified as Satan. A figure used to explain disobedience and justify punishment.
• In Islam, the concept of "Shaytan" serves a similar role, reinforcing moral boundaries and submission.
• In Hinduism, karma provides a model where suffering is deserved, stripping the individual of the right to question their circumstances.

Religion’s greatest trick has always been making suffering the fault of the sufferer. If you're oppressed, it's because you lacked faith. If you're poor, it's because you didn't pray enough. If you were killed, it was because God willed it.

This structure does not prevent evil—it prevents resistance. It turns rebellion into sin. It makes questioning authority a spiritual crime.

Evil as Economic Doctrine

If the church was the original machine for moral control, capitalism refined it.

The capitalist world does not need evil as a supernatural force. It defines it in material terms:

• If you're poor, you are lazy.
• If you're sick, you are weak.
• If you're homeless, you are worthless.

This version of evil does not burn people at the stake or stone them in public squares. It starves them. It denies them healthcare. It leaves them in gutters, abandoned, so the system can claim no direct responsibility.

Economic evil is statistical. It exists in policies, budget cuts, and silent genocides. It's a number on a spreadsheet deciding how many children will die in underfunded hospitals. It's a legal clause allowing corporations to poison rivers. It is quiet, unassuming, and deeply rational.

And because it wears a suit and follows procedures, we don't call it evil.

The Manifestation of "Evil": Pain and Fear as Currency

If we remove the idea of evil, what is left? Pain. Fear. The inheritance of suffering.

Pain, Passed Down Like Property

There is no child born evil. But there are many who are born into pain. And pain spreads.

• A father beats his son, because he was beaten before him.
• A politician hoards wealth, because they grew up poor and terrified.
• A soldier tortures prisoners, because he was trained to see them as animals.

At every level, harm is not an isolated incident. It's generational. It's systemic. It is taught.

The most dangerous people in the world are not “evil.” They are wounded, twisted by the environments that shaped them. This is not an excuse. It's an explanation. And explanations give us tools.

If we understand that oppression, greed, and violence are learned, then they can be unlearned. They can be fought—not with exorcisms or moral condemnation, but with understanding, strategy, and direct action.

Fear: The Engine of Power

Fear is the single most powerful currency in the world. Every system of control is based on it.

• The police do not keep order by force. They keep it because we fear them.
• The rich do not stay powerful through skill. They stay powerful because we fear poverty.
• Religion does not sustain itself through faith. It sustains itself because we fear hell.

Fear is the leash. It doesn't need chains. It doesn't need walls. It lives in our heads, inherited from generations before us.

Those who understand, this rule the world.

Who We Call "Evil": The Broken and the Strategic

Some people are truly broken. Psychopaths exist. Sociopaths exist. There are those who cannot feel, who do not experience remorse, who treat other humans as objects.

They are not monsters. They are still human. Their condition is not supernatural—it's neurological, psychological, and environmental.

More importantly, they are the exception. The great crimes of history were not committed by the deranged few. They are committed by the rational many.

• Hitler was not clinically insane. He was politically effective.
• The architects of colonialism were not foaming at the mouth. They were calculating.
• Modern billionaires do not cackle as they crush workers. They optimize efficiency.

This is why the myth of evil is so dangerous. It makes us believe that cruelty is rare, when in reality, it is structured, deliberate, and widespread.

The Real Fight: Understanding and Dismantling the Idea of Evil

If we abandon the idea of evil, we are left with something both more terrifying, and more useful: a world where harm is not mystical, but mechanical.

• Wars are not waged for good or evil. They are waged for resources.
• Corruption is not a moral failing. It is a logical move in a broken system.
• Oppression is not sadism. It's a strategy.

And strategies can be countered.

If we want to change the world, we must stop believing in evil. We must see harm for what it is—pain, fear, and deliberate action. We must learn to fight on those terms.

Not with prayers. Not with outrage.

With understanding, resistance, and the precise dismantling of the structures that sustain suffering.

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Thanks!

B

Proconsul 🇨🇦 (@proconsul.bsky.social)

Visionary Strategic Growth A guide for ambition, bridging strategy with implementation for modern business: clarity, structure, and sustainable impact. I listen. If it’s possible, I’ll show you how. proconsul.ghost.io

Bluesky Social

Evil isn’t real. Pain is. Fear is. Inherited suffering, turned into power. Religion, war, greed—just fear and pain, leveraged. The world isn’t run by demons. It’s run by the wounded, the desperate, and the strategic.

Fighting evil is useless. Fight the system that feeds it.

Thank you Larry :)

PS -