Evil is a lack of Goodness

Take a stab at these:

"Evil is not a force, but comes from a lack of goodness" 

~ St Augustine of Hippo (354   -430 CE)

"Evil is a lack of something, rather than a thing in itself."

~ Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 - 1274)

"Evil is banal. 

Evil does not come from malevolence 
or a delight in doing wrong."

~ Hannah Arendt (1906 - 1975)

We have a predisposition to believe that doing something bad, or 'evil' requires an action. And that this evil action is violent and shocking.

E.g. Mr Butcher takes one of his cleavers and chops someone to bits. That's an act of evil.

However, Mr Butcher is not doing evil if he does not take enough care to lock his knives away, i.e. leaves them lying around and/or does not stop a kid from taking one of his knives for play and perhaps to stab another or himself in the process. He is not 'as evil', coz he did not carry out the actual stabbing.

(A) We have misconceptions about the form which Evil takes.

I agree with these famous philosophers that Evil is a lack of goodness. I also believe that an evil act or person need not appear to be violent or overwhelming in form.

(i) Evil is a lack of goodness

Everyday lack of doing tiny good results in bad consequences.

Example: Not keeping records of decisions made and to be followed up with in office. It's a small thing. Everyone on the email thread has a record of that discussion what!

But what happens when these people leave the company and their email accounts get terminated? What about people simply forgetting? Then too bad? If it's so important, someone will remember it or eventually find it?

(ii) An evil act or person need not appear to be violent or overwhelming in form.

An evil-doing person sounds cruel in his beliefs and speech, wear black all the time, looks menacing, enjoy heavy metal music, worships the 'wrong' deities etc.

But in fact, a person doing evil can have Bambi eyes, sound like a mother telling bedtime stories, and have ever helped an old lady to cross the road.

An evil act can be something which you are so used to that you refuse to start to believe that it is a problem.

E.g. Your family and you have grown up playing mahjong late into the night in your HDB flat for the past few decades. There had not been any complaints for decades until the new neighbour moved in last month.

Your family and you decide that nothing has changed on your side, so the problem must be with the new neighbour being over sensitive.

A few months later, your neighbour leapt off the parapet and was found dead on the ground floor, leaving behind a letter stating that she could not take the noise and this wretched life anymore.

(B) Shifting the Blame to the faceless Organisation/System

If you are part of a system which perpetuates the lack of good (e.g. care, prudence, due diligence etc.), then you are guilty of being evil by association. 

Just because everyone does it, doesn't make it alright.

Example: How the Town Council responded to the recent Woodlands-corpse-in-water-tank incident. The guy-in-charge said,"There are no foolproof ways to restrict access to HDB rooftops." 

Really? No foolproof ways at all?
How then does a bank allowing its contractors to clean or service a safe vault? By giving the different contractors the keys and passwords to the vault?

You can't claim that 'Everyone in the industry does it this way, so it's okay.' or 'As long as I'm not the one who carries out the action, I'm not evil. I'm okay.' 

Or the worst type: 'Nobody knows, so it's okay.' 

Once found out, use the 'Everyone in the industry does it this way' excuse instead.

Let's not kid ourselves. Many many people say the above to themselves and to others when questioned. Imagine yourself at the receiving end.

(C) Apathy = Lack of doing good = Evil 

I think such a belief that 'inaction and apathy are acceptable' is absurd. 

And I am very aware that most 'educated' people like to choose to be 'neutral', i.e. a euphemism for being apathetic and doing nothing.

Because this is the easiest way out. 

..........................................................

Yeah... Nobody said it was easy to be good.

So, Mr Butcher must keep his knives locked up everyday after use. He must also ensure that he cleans and maintains his stall and equipment so that no bits of decomposing meat are allowed to mix with the fresh meat coming in tomorrow. He must also be honest about the freshness of his meats, even to a poorly-informed customer. He must also keep up with current affairs to ensure that his meat sources are credible. That eating meat is still relevant to today's diet etc.
Very troublesome to do good!

But the good news is that it's really easy to be evil and destructive... Even when you choose to do nothing.