February 19, 2004

ampersand project

An Ampersand Project entry...

Topic: The evil that men do. (This can be interpreted any way you like.)

I am having a terrible time with this particular topic. I'm sitting here, just not knowing what to write. Do I write about my own personal experiences with the evil of men (gender specific), or my personal experiences with the evil of men (as in mankind)? Do I write about the horrible things going on in the world right now, or of specific incidences of heartache brought on by the immoral, criminal actions of others? Or perhaps I should write about how this has been happening since the dawn of human civilization - or perhaps just go down my own family tree.

I guess the conclusion I came to is that evil is evil. Whether you're discussing a concept, an action, a memory, history, or just one person. You may having differing standards on what defines evil. Perhaps it's just "the way they are" or perhaps it's because of an action taken. Perhaps everyone outside of your chosen religion is "evil" or all those who sin?

So, what do I believe personally? I think evil is. I believe both that there are evil people out there, just through and through, and I also believe that there are people who have simply done evil things. I DO believe in sin, believe everyone is a sinner, but do NOT believe that every sinner is evil. Evil, to me, is that icky, dark, menacing force that takes us over when we do something we shouldn't. You can feel it, right before you tell a lie, or anything else you know is wrong. Doing it anyway doesn't make us evil, just weak or perhaps deceived. But there are those people, where that icky darkness I mentioned just seems to ooze out of their pores. Those are the people you just have an innate distrust for. The ones you don't want to be left alone in an elevator with. The ones who, if you make eye contact with them - you wonder if they saw inside you, and what the consequences of that will be.

Hopefully, you've never run into those kind of people.

But if you, like me, have had dealings with those people - you realize that you either turn your own life around, or end up dead. That's the true power of the evil that men do.

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12:05 p.m.