by Steven Koch

Created on: January 12, 2010   Last Updated: January 13, 2010

All motivations of evil can be traced back to one overriding goal – power. The quest for power in and of itself is not evil. If that were the case then every person who ever ran for a political office or hoped to improve their lives by climbing the corporate ladder, would be classified as evil. No, the quest for power through the control of others lives leads down the road to evil. When there is resistance to that control the final and most damaging aspect in the quest for power kicks in – force. When the power hungry uses force to maintain control of others, we see an example of evil.

Evil as a concept can be defined as lacking morality, harming others or engaging in sinful acts. The first two of these can be traced back to causing pain to another person or group of people. A married man or woman who has an affair breaks the trust that was promised when they took their oath to be faithful to each other. The injured party is hurt by the broken trust. After being hurt in this manner, some will try to heal the rift by doing anything to make their unfaithful spouse happy. Thus, the individual who lacked morality in this situation gains control of the behavior of the other person. If the injured spouse decides the marriage is over, they will be reluctant to enter into another relationship, again allowing their behavior to be controlled by the actions of someone else. Similarly, when someone is physically hurt, they will usually do whatever is necessary to make the pain stop, thus relinquishing control over their own lives and actions to another.  Engaging in sinful acts is largely a religious concept and considered to be the willful disregard of divine law. Again the purpose is to cause pain to a Supreme Being.

The drive for power cannot be underestimated as the primary motivation for those who are evil. Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were all responsible for the death of millions of people during their drive to gain and maintain power. They used others who wanted to share that power to ensure that that control was maintained.

I can hear some argue that based on my position, parents must be evil since they seek control, sometimes by force, over their children. Children by their very nature are not experienced enough in the world to care for themselves and cannot live independently. Thus a parent may use force to change a child’s behavior. Ideally this force is used as a means to protect the child and to teach them the proper way to live in a civilized society. Once that child has reached their age of maturity and can reasonably care for themselves, a parent should no longer attempt to force behavior. At that point parents will usually relinquish control over the lives of their children. Those who are evil never willingly relinquish control.

We have all been given the gift of free will and, as long as that gift does not interfere with or damage the lives of others, we should be free to make our mistakes and to live lives that make us comfortable and happy.  We will hopefully learn from our mistakes and in the process become better people. When someone seeks to control our lives and actions by the use of force - even for “our own good” they are acting for their own benefit – not ours.  It is this quest for power that motivates them into committing evil acts.

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