I saw a fascinating show on television the other day that recounted the crimes of John Wayne Gacy, the mass murderer who dressed up as a clown and inspired Stephen King to create the horrific Pennywise in the novel It. Towards the end of the show, however, it became obvious that modern man with his tools of science has forgotten the basic nature of good and evil.
Specifically, Gacy's brain was removed following his execution in order to find what was "wrong" with it. Expressing shock and dismay, the person who conducted the analysis said she had found nothing unusual whatsoever. From my perspective, pardon the pun, this is a no-brainer. Evil is not a defect or an anomaly -- it is embedded in us all as part of our nature. What is truly rare is the ability to resist and overcome evil, which requires a level of self-honesty that few people have the strength to engage in. Though not everyone goes as far as Gacy in evildoing, this is a difference of degree rather than of kind; every day, people do things they know to be wrong and seek to bury them from view, just as Gacy buried his victims by the garage. When confronted with what they have done, people will deny it, rationalize it, or even blame the victim. What matters most is protecting one's self-image, as evil has its roots in self-love.
In point of fact, the effort to identify what makes someone like Gacy evil is itself an ego defense. It is far easier to condemn others than to take a serious look at yourself, plus it makes you feel moral to join a chorus labeling a particular villain as the embodiment of evil. This is the lesson of tragic heroes such as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Grendel, or even the Wicked Witch of the West -- they are condemned not merely for their own sins, but for the sins of humanity, who cry for blood in a desperate attempt to project their own evil onto the villain and dispose of it with his or her death. To paraphrase the great Al Pacino in Scarface: "You need people like me, so you can point your [expletive] fingers and say, 'there's the bad guy.' What does that make you, good? No. You just know how to hide. Me, I don't have that problem."
Specifically, Gacy's brain was removed following his execution in order to find what was "wrong" with it. Expressing shock and dismay, the person who conducted the analysis said she had found nothing unusual whatsoever. From my perspective, pardon the pun, this is a no-brainer. Evil is not a defect or an anomaly -- it is embedded in us all as part of our nature. What is truly rare is the ability to resist and overcome evil, which requires a level of self-honesty that few people have the strength to engage in. Though not everyone goes as far as Gacy in evildoing, this is a difference of degree rather than of kind; every day, people do things they know to be wrong and seek to bury them from view, just as Gacy buried his victims by the garage. When confronted with what they have done, people will deny it, rationalize it, or even blame the victim. What matters most is protecting one's self-image, as evil has its roots in self-love.
In point of fact, the effort to identify what makes someone like Gacy evil is itself an ego defense. It is far easier to condemn others than to take a serious look at yourself, plus it makes you feel moral to join a chorus labeling a particular villain as the embodiment of evil. This is the lesson of tragic heroes such as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, Grendel, or even the Wicked Witch of the West -- they are condemned not merely for their own sins, but for the sins of humanity, who cry for blood in a desperate attempt to project their own evil onto the villain and dispose of it with his or her death. To paraphrase the great Al Pacino in Scarface: "You need people like me, so you can point your [expletive] fingers and say, 'there's the bad guy.' What does that make you, good? No. You just know how to hide. Me, I don't have that problem."
No comments:
Post a Comment