Why Ordinary Evil? by A. B. Asher
The question posed is "Why Ordinary Evil?" For me, the more compelling question is "Why not?"
"Evil," as defined here, is the focus of one's will, intention, and action to hurt other people for the purpose of personal gain of any kind. "Ordinary evil" is that deemed not to be criminal. An "ordinary evil person" is defined as someone that, when observed over a period of time, consistently chooses to do evil, as defined above, when confronted by opportunities where there is a clear choice for good or evil. One can predict that this person will do evil when put into new situations.
The definitions cited above are so intrinsic to the human condition that my question, "Why not ordinary evil?," seems to me almost a rhetorical one. As evidence I cite the following: A mother who, fearful for her own safety, allows her husband to sexually abuse their son; Another mother, a light-skinned African-American, who chooses to abandon her heritage in order to pass for white and, in so doing, forsakes her young daughter who cannot pass; A man who is convinced that another man, facing execution, is, if not innocent, then at the very least not responsible for his actions, and who, fearful for his own standing in his community, does nothing to stop the execution; Another man who is gay but is thought by friends and acquaintances to be heterosexual who not only chooses to pass as straight but also joins in the laughter and takes actions that hurt other gays and lesbians. Some of these circumstances are more unique than others some more mundane. What they have in common is that each one has happened and I have written about them all.
In each of our lives there is a veritable litany of circumstances in which we find ourselves, from the time we are aware of our own thoughts and actions to the day we take our last breath, in which we have no choice but to make a choice for good or ill better or worse good or evil. I remember as a little boy of about six I witnessed a fight between a friend of mine and another boy. As I cheered on my friend my mother saw me and lit into me for doing so. That was the last time I ever cheered on a fight, the last time I ever encouraged one person to harm another. But since that day I have been witness time and again to instances in which I have seen people, adults as well as children, actively encouraging people to cause harm to others. I am not talking about flipping on the television set and seeing all the cruelties that humankind inflicts on itself. I am referring to personally witnessing this behavior. Much of it is mundane, some of it is appalling.
So the fundamental question is this: How can writers who purport to examine the human condition not concentrate at least some of the focus of their attention on the question of ordinary evil? Each story, comedy or drama, cannot help but present its characters with choices. This is the dramatic tension that makes the audience want to come back after the intermission instead of heading off for a drink or a bite to eat. "What do you think will happen next? " That's the question that is music to a playwright s ears as that group in Row G lines up for their diet soda or Chablis.
Of course, let us not forget that the question on the flip side of "Why Ordinary Evil? " is "Why Ordinary Good?"Evil, I submit, is practically meaningless in and of itself. Only when compared and contrasted with good can evil truly be examined and understood. Recently I wrote a short piece, a scene really, based on the plight of Abdul Rahman. He is, you will recall, the formerly Muslim Afghan man who had embraced Christianity and because of this was branded an apostate under Islamic law and faced the possibility of execution. Why? For his personal religious beliefs. For his conscience. And as I read the various accounts of his circumstance and watched the news unfold on CNN, as I witnessed via satellite the bloodcurdling calls by certain imams and other Muslims for his humiliation and violent death, I heard quieter voices of still other Muslims who did not want this man to die. Even some devout Muslims who perhaps were offended by his "apostasy" but they were there ten of them?, were there ten million? did not want him harmed. Let us not forget them because they exist. Those Muslims who defended, if not his beliefs but his safety and his very life, are, I believe, ordinarily good.
Abdul Rahman's situation was but the most sensational in very recent memory. Every day all over the world and just around the corner people are confronted with situations in which they must make a choice for good or ill better or worse good or evil. Which will they choose? And when I project myself, in an act of creative fantasy, into these situations I ask myself, which would I choose? I have lived long enough to know that I do not always know the answer. And that is what makes the question "Why Ordinary Evil?" so compelling.
A.B. Asher is a participant in the OrdinaryEvil.info Project with his play "Flight".
Published by permission of copyright owner A.B. Asher on April 19, 2006.