In this book, the author looks at the root of evil, admitting it exists and that people freely choose to be mean, cruel, lie, cheat, steal and so on.
For me reading this book while still relatively young, I was faced with someone who understood original sin and the person of satan.
I know that I have met, perhaps, more evil on line, in twitter, with trolls and with those readers who seem to read my blog only to try to insult and undercut what I have to write irrationally. One reason, which I alluded to in the last post, I left twitter, was that I discovered, with the help of two other people, two women who were imitating other writers, including priests, and making horrible comments about others online. These two women seemed to be taking a perverse pleasure in just being cruel. Now, some others online had been doing the same type of ad hominem comments against bloggers, journalists and others, but most were using either their own names or a known nom de plume.
But to adopt multiple personas in order to attack seemed to indicate either troubled minds, or, people who were choosing evil.
Such are the dangers of living in the blogosphere or in twitterdom.
Thinking about these occasions, I began to rethink M. Scott Peck's definitions of "group evil", as including the ability to hide in a group and commit even atrocities, such as the My Lai Massacre, he studied.
Now, of course, such massacres are not equal to the evil tongues or fingers on twitter and in com boxes, but the impetus to remain anonymous in order to perpetrate maliciousness is similar. We must accept that some people just choose evil, and, therefore, hell.
Those who have fought in wars know something of the choices men and women make which are truly evil. We have many examples daily of atrocities done either individually or in groups which are just downright satanic.
Those on the net who choose to insult goodness, undermine goodness and drag reputations into mud think they are hiding. But, there is Someone Who sees all and will judge evil as evil and good as good.
God ultimately judges each action we do, each word we say. He watches us use our free will either to follow Him or move away from Him into darkness.
The group evil and anonymous evils on the Net will not remain hidden.
Luke 12:2Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known.
Written on a train somewhere in Virginia.