Many people will admit in a heartbeat that there is much evil in the world. Would these same people say that the world itself is evil? Some may, and some may not.
Evil happening in the world
When you ask people to give examples of the world being evil, they may mention things like murder, terrorism, pedophilia, human trafficking, theft, corruption, etc. However, the items on this list are examples of evil happening in the world. Our world does condemn these forms of evil. There are laws against such behaviors. When people are caught doing these wicked behaviors, they are subject to prosecution under the law. Mainstream culture also will condemn these forms of evil. People who do these things are often seen as monsters by the surrounding community. Such people are usually ostracized.
What if, however, it was good behaviors that the community condemned and even punished? On the other hand, what if people who did certain evil deeds received praise by mainstream culture? In such scenarios, we are not just looking at evil happening in the world. What we are looking at is the world itself being evil.
When the world is evil
When mainstream culture and/or the government start to endorse certain forms of evil, that is when the world itself is evil. When people undergo condemnation, ridicule and adversity for doing something good, that is when the world itself is evil.
If, however, you conform to mainstream culture in your thinking and in your actions, it will be very difficult for you to see examples of the world being evil. The reason is that whenever the world around you endorses and praises certain forms of evil, you will be praising it as well. When the world around you condemns people for doing good deeds, you will be condemning those people as well. In other words, you will not notice when the world itself is evil, because you will be evil right along with it.
If you want to see examples of the world being evil, two places you can look are history and television. History contains many easy-to-find examples of the world being evil because many kinds of evil ways of thinking that the world adopted in history are now rejected by mainstream culture. One such example of slavery. In the antebellum South of the United States, mainstream culture viewed slavery as a normal and acceptable practice. Even most northerners did not condemn slavery. The North primarily fought the Civil War to keep the Union together. Freeing the slaves was not the primary reason for going to war. Recall that the treatment of these slaves was quite harsh. They would undergo beatings when they disobeyed their masters. As horrible as these practices appear to us today, back then they were considered normal. Though some people back then were against slavery, they were in a minority.
Television has its own world, which is not exactly the same as the real world. However, the more people imitate what they see on television, the more the real world starts to be like the world of television. As is discussed in the Television article, the world of television shows many scenes that depict bullying and harassment, which are presented as being comical. When you see a scene that depicts bullying in a comical light, you are seeing an example of the world being evil. You are not just viewing evil happening in the world. A world that is good will condemn bullying, not laugh at it. A world that is good will view bullies with contempt. In many movies and sitcoms, however, you will see characters that are bullies, and who are still well-liked by the other characters. Some characters are even sexual predators, and their behaviors undergo no condemnation or scrutiny, as discussed in the Sexual Predators’ Propaganda Through Television.
The world of television also will condemn certain behaviors that are good, such as telling the truth and “being too nice”. Lying is the norm among characters on television, even among the protagonists. I have seen characters apologize for doing the right thing, replace the truth they told with a lie, and then see them all live happily ever after. If you have ever watched The Big Bang Theory, you may recall the scene where Penny shouts at Howard about how horrible he is and how much she hates him (in response to his many unwanted sexual advances). Howard is sad for days afterward, and Penny is made to feel bad for what she had said. She eventually apologizes to him, tells him that she sees a good guy and that she kinds of likes him. Is he a good guy? No, he is a sexual predator. Does she like him? No. If she did, she would not have responded so negatively to his advances. She replaced the truth she told with a lie. In response, Howard regains his confidence, is no longer sad, and continues trying to prey on women like he did before.
Like telling the truth, being too nice also can be bad in the eyes of culture. If you are a nice person, and people decide to take advantage of you because of it, then according to some subcultures, you had it coming. It was your fault for being too nice. These subcultures view niceness as a behavior worthy of punishment and condemnation. Ever hear of the statement “nice guys finish last”? These subcultures often have more respect for the “assholes”. They associate meanness with strength and niceness with weakness. Such an environment tends to be survival of the fittest. Note that survival of the fittest is a sign of moral degeneracy.
What does it mean to walk in darkness?
You may have heard of the light versus darkness analogy where light represents good and darkness represents evil. To walk in spiritual darkness is more than just doing acts of evil that you know are evil and not having any remorse. Truly walking in darkness is when you start to convince yourself that the acts of evil you are doing are actually good, and some of the good deeds that other people are doing are actually wrong and worthy of condemnation. That is what it means to walk in darkness. You do not even know what is right or what is wrong anymore. You cannot even tell who is a good person or who is a bad person anymore. Some people you denounce may actually be good people. Other people you are friends with may actually be bad people who are evil like you are; but because you are in darkness yourself, these bad people look like normal, okay people to you.
When movies and sitcoms are walking in darkness
Normally in a storyline, the protagonist is the good guy or hero, and the antagonist is often the villain or adversary. When good triumphs over evil, it is a happy ending. When evil triumphs over good, it is a sad ending. When a movie is walking in darkness, however, the protagonist can be quite villainous while the antagonist may be the less evil one. The reason is that when we are walking in darkness, we are doing evil and are convincing ourselves that the evil we are doing is actually good. The people who try to stand up to us are good people doing a good deed by taking a stand against the evil that we are doing. In our eyes, however, these people standing up to us are the adversary. In other words, when we are in darkness, the people we see as the adversary are not necessarily evil, but rather are any people who stand in our way.
Movies that walk in darkness will feature protagonists that are bad people who do bad things while the antagonist may be the one doing good. Examples of such movies are Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Bad Teacher and a lesser known movie called Snow Day. In all of these movies, evil triumphs over good in the end, and it is presented as a happy ending.
In the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris commits a series of wicked deeds throughout the movie so that he can get time off from school, have fun and not have to bear the consequences. He convinces the student body that he is ill to the point of death even though he is in good health. Some people are collecting money to save him, only to be collecting such money in vain. Ferris convinces his best friend to impersonate his girlfriend’s father to the school principal so that his girlfriend can get the day off. Later, Ferris impersonates the Sausage King of Chicago so that the three of them can eat at a fancy restaurant. To get around town, Ferris steals a Ferrari, which would have counted as a felony. Ferris also uses his computer to hack into the school software system and reduce the recorded number of days he has missed from school. Meanwhile, Principal Edward Rooney is rightfully trying to catch Ferris in the act of pretending to be sick so that he can be held responsible for his actions. Edward Rooney fails, however, with the help of Ferris’s sister who lets a drug dealer convince her that it doesn’t matter whether Ferris is held responsible for his actions. Evil triumphs over good in the end. Ferris gets away with everything he did, and it is all presented as a happy ending.
Now imagine that there is a big snowstorm, and just when the men are finished plowing the streets, some kids come along and throw the snow back onto the streets just so they can get another day off from school. We could figure that such kids are not exactly good kids. In the movie Snow Day, though, the heroes of the story are the kids who want another snow day off from school so badly that they are ready to tie up the man who plowed the streets and use their shovels to unplow the streets, as shown in this video clip. Meanwhile, think of how terrible it would be if the roads were blocked off with snow for an extra day. People would be unable to go to work, unable to go to the shops to get needed food and medicine, and emergency vehicles would be unable to get around. Clearly anybody who tries to unplow the streets would be a villain. Indeed, the Snow Day movie is yet another movie in which the protagonists are the more villainous ones, and the “happy ending” features evil triumphing over good.
Maybe you think I need to lighten up. After all, Snow Day is just a kids movie. The problem is that television has affects on us that we are not aware of. It messes with our psyche and our subconscious. By showing “happy endings” that feature evil triumphing over good, we are being conditioned to experience glee when seeing wrongdoers triumph over good people in real life. We may even do it without realizing it. Is there actually a conspiracy going on in the film industry to condition people to be evil? Regardless of whether there is, this material is on television, and it is affecting people.
When laughing at people harming each other is the norm
Much of the humor in television is centered around characters intentionally inflicting harm on each other and treating each other like crap. Granted, we sometimes laugh at our own suffering, and television sometimes satirizes everyday life hassles. However, when television shows everyday life aggravations being caused by people treating other people badly, then we are no longer just laughing at the satires of everyday life hassles. We are laughing at people treating each other badly.
Some may argue that as long as nobody was harmed in the process of putting together these scenes, laughing at such scenes is okay. The problem comes when these scenes—such as the ones that depict bullying in a comical light—condition our minds to laugh at people harming other people. Eventually, we may start laughing as such things in real life, and without realizing it.
Culture does not care about you
There is an entity that will willingly tell you how to live your life. It will even tell you how to live your personal life. It is culture. When you do not live your life a certain way, the culture around you will judge you for it. You will receive messages that tell you that somehow if you do not do certain things, you are inadequate. Many of these messages come from television. Other messages come from people in our lives, whether it be loved ones or acquaintances.
For example, the jock may get laughed at in the lockerroom because he is a virgin. Although, let us say that this jock does decide to give into these messages and become sexually active. Harm may come because of it, such as contracting of a sexually transmitted disease. If such harm were to befall this jock, then the very culture that told him to become sexually active is not going to take responsibility or feel bad about what happened. The reason is that culture does not care about you.
Culture will tell you how to live your personal life, but not because it cares about you. Rather, culture tells you how to live your life so that it can sustain itself and sustain its power.
Summary
When one’s mind is in darkness, he/she does not see acts of evil the way a normal person would. He/she may see a wrongdoer as a hero, and see the person standing up to the wrongdoer as the villain.
When the whole world sees certain wrongdoings as praiseworthy, that is when the world is evil.