When thinking of the word 'Evil', what readily pops up in your mind? Monsters? Horned Satan? Lex Luthor? It is very commonly depicted in the media that 'Evil' is all about destruction and inflicting pain in others. Since we were kids, we developed this idea about the eternal battle between the forces of 'Good' and 'Evil'. We watched superhero cartoons on the television. The good guys are represented by characters with cool costumes while the bad guys depicted as disfigured creatures with ugly faces. The good guys always win at the end.
You see, that is all an oversimplification. As a child this idea is very enlightening to us. You have 'Good' and you have 'Evil'. We should not be 'Evil' or we will perish like the bad guys on the television.
But we all reading this are now old enough to understand about the reality. Anyone still clinging to this oversimplified notion: you need to let it go. There is really no 'Evil'. It is nothing like that depicted in your typical superhero television shows.
Two things I'd like to point out: (1) 'Evil' is nothing but Selfishness. (2) The fight between the so-called forces of 'Good' and 'Evil' is nothing but just two conflicting point of views, each trying to survive (but as you will see, duality is part of nature).
If you don't care about other people, you are less likely to care about what happens to them. That makes you kind of... 'Evil' doesn't it. This is exactly what happens in the movies–the bad guys don't care about others. They only care about themselves, or their own group. Ergo, 'Evil' is really Selfishness.
On conflicting point of views, let me give you an example: Imagine aliens came down to our planet and wishing to eliminate us so that they could take over our Earth. Of course, to us, they are evil. But what if you belong to the alien race? This is akin to the idea of European Settlers who colonised the American continent[A]. To the European Settlers, the Native Americans were the 'Evil' forces. To the Native Americans, of course, it's vice versa. Another example would be humans poisoning vermin to control their population to avoid destruction of the crops. But if you were one of the rats, who's the 'Evil' force now?
I'd like to emphasise here, that 'Evil' is really nothing like what we came to understand as a child. You see, a quality cannot exist on its own. It has to be in relation to another quality. To illustrate this: there has to be a 'Short' in order for a 'Tall' to exist. There needs to be a 'Slow' so that you can have a 'Fast'. You need to have a 'Hot' so you can have a 'Cold'. 'Cold' would be meaningless if there's no such thing as 'Hot'. So there needs to be an 'Evil' in order for there to be a 'Good'. I realise that sounds a bit wrong, but hey, I think you get my point. Note the symbol on the top of this article. It is, of course, the famous symbol from Taoism–the Yin and Yang–denoting duality as part of the nature.[B] It is totally natural to have these dualities. 'Good' and 'Evil' are merely labels to describe qualities.
Next time you see/hear the label 'Evil', I want you to roll your eyes and think "Evil-Schmevil". Selfish is more like it.
Footnotes:
[A]. Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas. (2012, April 14). In Wikipedia. Retrieved 09:44, April 28, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Population_history_of_indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas&oldid=487278861
[B]. Yin and yang. (2012, April 27). In Wikipedia. Retrieved 10:50, April 28, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yin_and_yang&oldid=489436708
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