How evil operates

What a weird topic I find myself thinking about. Evil.

Evil can be a variety of things — individual or systemic. It can cause destruction and death. It can also be a source of chaos. Evil can be manipulative, oppressive, greedy, exploitive, and more.

And for some people, it’s appealing. Although I don’t understand why. In the evil, no one actually benefits from evil — even those who use it and somehow benefit from it. They really don’t benefit from it — they are used by evil and rewarded for a time. But that always ends. Evil doesn’t see the humanity of anyone. People are just tools to be used and discarded when they become inconvenient or unhelpful.

So how does evil operate? I’m playing around with the idea that evil can only do something if it gets permission. Let’s flesh that out a bit because I’m sure just about anyone can point to an example of how evil did something without stopping to ask for permission.

Permission doesn’t have to come immediately before an action. But I wonder if at some point permission needed to be granted to go forward.

The most famous example of evil is probably Hitler. He is responsible for the death of millions. He didn’t ask for permission to do that. However, could it be argued that he was granted permission to pursue his evil path because he was elected to office and then given the chancellorship? That set things in motion for him and his party to take over and carry out their plans.