There has been a story which has captured the attention of most people across Europe over the past couple of weeks – the prosecution of Anders Behring Breivik. This is the white supremacist who on 22 July 2011 detonated a bomb in the Norwegian Capital Oslo, killing 8 people and injuring 209, before dressing as a police officer and travelling to a small island  on a lake NW of Oslo and saying he had been sent to protect all the children on a Youth Camp before slaughtering 69 young people with an arsenal of firearms.
What has particularly caught the attention of so many Europeans is the detail by which Breivik is openly discussing the reasons behind his decision to create the worst peacetime atrocity in Norway’s history. His graphic explanation of his desire to teach the nation of the risks of multi-culturalism has not only shocked but sickened anyone following the story.
This has really got me thinking about what makes people evil. Is it something you are born with or is it something that permeates your soul as you go through life with societal influences compounding how you think.
You only have to look at modern history to see a back catalogue of infamous ‘evil’ people, intent on showing the world audience their views through manipulation, violence and ethnic cleansing.
Hatred and prejudice are evidently taught. Young children shouting ‘Poof, Faggot, Nigger’ and other terms of hatred to people in the street can surely only have inherited this behaviour from those living around them, but what is it that causes the catalyst that escalates people from the levels of ignorance and prejudice to wanting to carry out crimes so horrific that they create history?
People that choose to chase a dog down the street before kicking it so violently it dies or abducting and murdering a child surely are born with the gene to be evil. What is it in society that creates this kind of mindset that even tells this person that this kind of behaviour is anything but abhorent?
Thankfully these kind of people really are few and far between and these kind of atrocities rarely happen which I hope this is in part to society becoming more accepting of the human race no matter how diverse it is. There will always be evil I guess but lets just pray that this gene pool eventually becomes so weak that it can’t survive how fast society is changing.
Janna
Apr 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Hi Craig, this tale of evil is so hard to read and take in that you may not get many people responding to this post. I almost feel as though we need an antidote to this bit of HIS Story you retell. My solution is to reflect on the life of a great proponent of Ahimsa, non-violence, in the person Mohandas K. Gandhi, known to many as Mahatma, meaning Great Soul.
I personally like to think that the number of people in the world who have the courage to live non-violently are quickly surpassing in numbers of those who exemplify violence. I believe there is a shifing in the consciousness toward acceptance of diversity on many levels; a movement toward goodness and union. Perhaps the tales of evil doers is much more sensational and attention getting. People like Gandhi changed the consiousness of an entire nation and of the world, influencing people like Martin Luther King and others. For the average seeker of truth, we should never underestimate the power of even the simplest act of conscience or kindness performed with great love. To quote Gandhi, “We must become the change we want to see” and “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strongâ€.
From this website: http://www.socialchangenow.ca/mypages/gandhi.htm
Gandhi’s main tactic in his fight against the British was what he called Satyagraha, which means “Soul-Force†or “The power of truth†(Miller 61). Gandhi developed Satyagraha as the practical extension of ahimsa and love; it meant standing firmly behind one’s ideals, but without hatred. Satyagraha took the form of civil disobedience and non-cooperation with evil. Civil disobedience involved breaking a specific law if it was believed to be unjust, and then facing the consequences. The Salt March of 1930, which I described above, was one of Gandhi’s greatest successes in civil disobedience.
Aunt Jan
DanCF
Apr 25, 2012 at 5:01 pm
I don’t think evil is genetic. I just can’t see how anyone could be born evil. I do, however, think that it could be the result of mental illness that might be caused, at least partially, by some experiences very early in a child’s life, over which they have no control. I think evil people generally hate themselves and take it out on others. Why they are so filled with hate, who knows. Anders Breivik is clearly mentally ill. No human could do what he did and feel no remorse. It is not human. He is missing a part of what it means to be human. What has caused that, who knows. It could be an imbalance in his brain, a horrible early life, who knows. But it is beyond what I can ever comprehend.