I love my wikipedia. I learn a lot I didn’t know and I refine my thinking by finding fault too. (The problem is knowing what is worth learning and what needs unlearning!)
Consider the wikipedia definition of evil:
Evil is generally defined as any activity which takes advantage of another person for one’s own benefit….(In contrast, good is helping others, even sometimes self-sacrificially; see saint, sainthood.)
There’s something dodgy about the form of this definition and also something very familiar about its implications. For one thing, it fits with the the lable ‘anti-social’ which refers to behaviour which has ill effects, but good intentions – “well, in his culture that behaviour is normal”. Whatever happened to ill intent, though? (For another thing, what’s the counterpart to sainthood?)
According to this view all employers are evil because they necessarily pay their employees less than they earn (‘necessarily’ because otherwise there would be no profit).
The definition attempts to define evil by contrasting it with good. So far so, um, good. But then it weighs them up wrongly, and we are left with a picture of evil that is indistinguishable from graspingness and greed. According to this view evil might have ill effects on the other, but that is not the intention; its primary intention is to gain advantage.
This is a fine example of how thinking about evil can go askew. (And, I suspect, thinking about good too.)
By re-balancing the wording of the above definition another meaning of evil becomes clear.
If good is helping another (possibly involving self-sacrifice) then it follows that evil is harming another (possibly involving self-benefit).
This is all the difference in the world. Now we can see the true intention of evil – it is to do harm. Evil is only secondarily about want, appetite, greed, jealousy; it’s true nature is malevolence, envy, cruelty, viciousness. Indeed, for evil the getting of things is happily foregone if what is primary can be achieved: power over another.
What say you?
Hello Everyone: You know, I have been sitting here, this evening, ‘reflecting’ on the past dozen years and I simply must say that the poison was very damaging to the internal organs, however, I am finally getting that poison OUT of my veins, once and for all. I am finding a ‘new sense’ of myself. On 20Apr, I celebrated a whole year NC…amazing…amazing I could find myself after being held so emotionally and psychologically ‘captive’ by someone I happen to think is a very dangerous person.
The hardest part of all of this was finding someone, a counselor, who really understood where I was coming from and the things I was saying. Everyone else around me thought that I had completely lost my mind and that I was insane. I just didn’t seem to make any sense, trying to explain it. Just like “IT” told me: “Say whatever you want, nobody will believe you because you are insane.” While he laughed that laugh in a very BAD “C” rated horror movie about psychopaths…pffffft!
He was right about that though…it was immensely difficult for me to find a counselor that didn’t think I was crazy. I had to go through a few of them because I was determined to make myself completely understood as to the depth and degree of evilness I have encountered. Wow, it was like being pushed OFF THE EDGE down into a deep, deep, deep cavern…just falling and falling – the only thing is, “IT” thought “IT” would hear me smack bottom and I didn’t and I am not going to. You know why? Because I made myself understood – oh yes I did, absolutely. Definitely. I learned along the way that this can happen to anyone, at any time and you have to be on guard for it. Especially nowadays with all the crazy people and the way they are acting. It’s like a complete loss of virtue and morality.
There is not one day that goes by that I don’t THANK THE HEAVENS for my counselor/therapist. She doesn’t think I am crazy…in fact, she KNOWS I am not crazy. “I” was not the ‘crazy’ one….the ‘crazy one’ is the one demonic enough to laugh while sucking out your soul…and, it is still trying to but you know what? I am not giving “IT” the pleasure because I am too busy WITH MY LIFE AND MY WORLD to entertain the devil any longer. You know what they say: As long as you don’t invite it in over your threshold, it has no power over you…just don’t invite it in. If you made the mistake of inviting it in, banish it and smudge your place and your life and your mind of it. Let it go back to the hell from where it emerged because that is all they are: spawns of the devil himself. We all have been told about this time, in some form or another…we must make ourselves strong to defeat the wave of darkness that seems to be overtaking our earth. I believe that the good people are in the majority however, evil flourishes because good men do nothing. It is up to us to take a stand, not only against evil but also within and for ourselves. That strength is what defines us. Makes us all who we are. If you are reading this, and have gotten to this point, I KNOW you know what I am talking about….
Every day I am growing stronger now. At once, I am simultaneously, traveling toward my demise but also to my bliss, at the same time…still living and thriving more so than ever. I will never be the same person I was before the devil came into my life but I can tell you this: I am more careful who I let close to me. I never want to see; hear, nor smell “IT” within 200 miles of me…..and, the stalking better stop this time because I am in no mood for anymore of this. NONE AT ALL. Period.
Happy Spring everyone ~ where ever you may be in the world.
There ARE more of the good people than the bad and it’s up to us to make sure these demons don’t smother what good is left in the world….
With love ~ Dupey
Dupey – thank you so much for your inspirational comment. Yes, they are evil, and millions of people seem to want to put their head in the sand and insist that evil doesn’t really exist. It does, and we have all encountered it.
But you are right – the light of truth will dispel the darkness. Let’s turn on the lights.
Oh yes, Donna: the light dispels darkness….
There is no other way to put it: evil.
We can’t fight it so all we can do is BANISH IT from our
lives and our personal worlds and that is in thought as
well as how we live our lives.
Look around ~ the darkness is everywhere…
except for inside ourselves…
We have paid that price and banished that ugliness.
Love and blessings to you Donna.
I will never forget you as long as I live.
Dupey
Dupey,
Anyone who has ever fought this war with evil;(or banished from their lives)knows that more is involved than brain damage!Brain damage can be “fixed”.I loved your analogy of that bottomless pit!Life with the spath feels like being sucked into a bottomless pit!A VERY FOGGY bottomless pit!As we fall,they’re laughing their devilish laughs.
On Lovefraud we’re constantly talking about the lies,lies and more lies that spill out of the sociopath’s mouth.Today,many people feel they are ‘too educated’ to accept the Biblical concept of the Devil.What they don’t realize is that he has covered his ‘tracks’ well with lies!He says he doesn’t exist!He makes sure there are many modern “explanations” for the evil that abounds.Not that these studies don’t have some meaning.I heard a saying some yrs ago that I never forgot,”Distraction leads to Destruction”.If we allow ourselves to be distracted as to what’s really going on;to where the evil is really coming from-it could be a dangerous situation.I prayed incessantly before I was able to leave spath.That isn’t necessary when brain damage is the problem.Prayer is’nt a placebo either.
blossom4th: they are so good at lies, they lie even when telling the truth would serve them better. That is how good they are at lying: it just comes natural, like a second nature. They are always planning and scheming. There is a little ‘honor among thieves’ – so they say, though…they shine when they are with their own kind. It reminds me of a photo I saw once where two gigantic snakes were trying to devour one another at the same time.
The war with evil.
This war with evil goes back since the beginning of time.
At least, that is what I have surmised from all of my reading and studying through the years. It’s not likely that the passage of a few generations of humanoids is going to lessen the battle. We become flail and our bodies can’t withstand the passage of time, so we wilt and die away….
Somehow, I do think these ‘demons’ don’t die.
They only are recycled and keep coming back and coming back.
You know, “I” know what “I” experienced.
A few years ago, (I have been in counseling a total of four years now, all together), a few years back, just after my heart attack and two subsequent heart surgeries, I was being plagued by much more than just my stalker…it was almost like a force and an entity the same as you and I or any other person….very sweet; very charming ~ so “Adam Leven`ish” in appearance….the closer I got, the uglier it became. The closer I got, the more I saw and the more I saw, the more I became SHOCKED OUT OF MY MIND at what I was seeing and hearing.
I don’t even think, to this day, that I can recall it all enough, accurately, to detail it in a story, if I had to write it all down. THAT is what it does to you. Irreversible damage. However, I did need a ‘little toughening up’, after that mess with my heart and all…GRACE gave me my breathing, walking, talking LIFE BACK. Even after the darkness and evilness tried to suck it from me.
I used to stop, on my way home from counseling, at St. Catherine’s, and kneel at the altar and pray, like I never have before in my life. Of course, you can see and understand my immense hesitancy in trying to relay this kind of information to anyone, much less trying to accept it myself.
I used to say that knowing the “REAL IT” was like taking a mask off the devil himself. And, I am right. I still am, to this moment in time. I have never seen anyone so ugly in my entire life and I never want to see anything like it ever again, as long as I live. It is indescribable. It makes the mind want to just block it all out. “THAT KIND OF UGLY”.
I have been NC completely, on my behalf, for over a year now. I have managed to unwind the confusion and have discovered a great many things. One of which has been MYSELF AGAIN. I won’t ever allow anyone to have that part of “ME”, not ever again because that wasn’t love nor caring…that was that old battle between evil and good…that’s what it was. It turned my hair all white and I was an auburn-reddish from Scotland..it turned my hair all white and shocked me into a severe heart attack. I know full well how the devil operates and there is no way you can win. All you can do is banish it. It takes great strength of mind and heart and fortitude like you could ever muster in your life again, just to banish it. In between the scenes, you have been conditioned by a master….
I suppose “I” am too educated to believe in the very REAL truth that the devil is real…I seen it. I loved it. I loved the ‘lie parts’…those weren’t the real parts. Every single time I took the mask off, there was a hideous being behind it. So hideous unlike anything I have ever seen before.
I have learned the past year to be careful with my judgement and how I let others ‘around me’. I do not feel safe, at any given moment. I live alone in a very quiet place, by myself, for the most part and although that sounds abnormal it really isn’t…I have the caring and oversight of some wonderful ‘protectors’. The most and largest being truth. Honesty. If you don’t invite the devil in, over the threshold of your door, it can cause you no harm. It must be invited or it can’t do a thing to you. Now or forevermore.
No, it’s not just ‘brain damage’, it’s more than that…
evilness is in the genes – it’s the bloodline…
Prayer is not a placebo manifest, sometimes, then again, sometimes it is. It has saved me. Completely.
Very dangerous people among us.
Choose your paths wisely. And pray.
Dupey
Dupey,
I know you’ve been through a horrible ordeal and the way you describe it sends chills down my spine!You know you’ve seen evil when it has caused you to have a heart attack and caused your hair to turn all white!Evil tries to kill us!I feel like it very nearly did that to me!
I feel that evil seeks out the innocent to harm them.I was naive,and of course I’m a very spiritual person.Perfect target.My husband has aspirations to become a spiritual leader.He thought I was his ticket.Because it wasn’t working out for him,I was made to suffer.He’s still trying to look good-but I’m not there to help!
Hi blossom4th: it was a nightmare that left me in a ball of confusion but that was the intent. It took me a long time to accept the reality that someone could do these things to another person out of mere jealousy of that person. The whole while smiling in my face and it makes me want to VOMIT. Seriously.
Didn’t mean to send chills down your spine but, wow…This person is not playing with a full deck; seriously. It’s very scary to suddenly realize that the person you THOUGHT was a friend, has completely betrayed you and then walked away laughing about it. But, you know, karma is a very wondrous thing….just about the time you think that you are just stuck with the whole ball of wax and that ‘justice’ won’t ever happen….suddenly it does. Yes, I have been seeing sweet karma at work…
Yes, that is how I knew I had just danced with the devil itself…
my hair went completely white within a couple of years of knowing it. My health started failing….the confusion started setting in. I was weakened, physically, and psychologically, and then it tried to move in for the kill. The only saving grace I had was the one in white, standing by my bed, the morning after I died and awoke again, very much alive, hanging by a thread…the whole time it was still stalking and calling and threatening…the whole time. Just extreme ugliness – the likes of which I never want to see again. It makes my blood run cold. Truly.
Our kindness is what opened the door, as if we had a huge, big flashing neon sign on our foreheads. We were ripe to be taken down a peg or two; hm? I am an educated woman. All total, I have been to college three times for different things. NEVER have I EVER ran into a being like this. Never. With all said and done…I KNOW WHAT I SAW AND WHAT I WITNESSED. I have banished it in every way I possibly could; every way that I could find, in every language, in every faith – I sleep with cloves of fresh garlic in my home. I know it may sound silly and like I am a paranoid schizophrenic but I am not. I am just a safe person who can’t stand living like a prisoner in my own skin.
Evil DOES seek out the kind people.
To them, their harming us gives them evil pleasure.
I have never been a very religious person but I, too, am a
spiritual one…you are right: PERFECT TARGETS FOR EVIL.
My prayers and hugs are with you blossom4th…
I thank the Angels, every single moment, with every breath
I take, for giving me one more chance. I don’t know how many
more I will get so I have to make this one count and it sure
does NOT include the devil. While some people may think I am
surely over reacting and flopping – trust me, I am VERY MUCH
in control of myself now and I know what I am saying and what
it sounds like – like I just got off a banana boat from somewhere…evil lives, talks, walks, breathes, manipulates, among us, on this planet…we have to take up the armor of righteousness and wear it because it is what will save us.
Dupey
Dupey,
While I’m very sorry that you’ve experienced such evil personally,I’m glad to hear you believe it exists in more than just the form of personality disorders or brain trauma.
Your reference to wearing the armor of righteousness is taken from a scripture I keep close in mind as I think of the wrestling with evil that we have;Ephesians 6:11-18.
My prayers and hugs are with you too Dupey,take care!
I too have dealt with evil and to be honest It does try to destroy you ..but god will guide you ……..My battle is not over but I will win in the end and expose this evil….
Thanks blossom4th for your post above at 11:46am 6May…
Oh yes, I don’t know how people go through life not acknowledging that evil exists just as much as good. You can’t have one without the other in this life. If you close your mind to evil (I actually had one counselor who did just this very thing) it can sneak up on you out of nowhere.
I have seen evilness and it was and is much, much, more than just a personality disorder and/or brain trauma. Well, it’s neither here nor there any more. I think I have finally shaken it from me. The evilness. THERE IS NO SAVING EVIL. EVIL LIVES AND DOES BECAUSE IT CAN and no other reason. You have to invite it in for it to do any major damage to you. Woe if you open the door and invite it in over your threshold…
Yes, the armor of righteousness is the only thing that will save us. And that is much more than just a poetic expression. Yes, we have wrestled with evil. I have been spared one more time so that I can ignore it and have what is left for myself without the evilness in my life any longer. I think it has finally left me. And if it doesn’t, or hasn’t, it is going to need LOTS & LOTS of back up to keep me down….just LOTS. And it already knows it is going to lose and that is why it’s so ugly and hissing and spitting because the rays of light are falling upon it…it doesn’t like the light. It only likes the darkness because in the darkness it can work it’s poison.
Prayers and hugs to you as well, blossom4th.
We have been blessed with awareness and another chance…
I, for one, am not going to ever waste it any more because I know where MY SECOND CHANCE IS COMING FROM.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful Mom’s out there…
Dupey
I fight evil every day….it tires me out at times ..but when you know you are right then just keep going and you will beat it in the end ……
I am so thrilled…I just passed the one year mark of my remaining completely NC…in fact, a year and almost one month already!!!!!!
I do NOT ‘regret’ one thing about dissin’ “IT” and throwing it in the past…”IT” deserves to be there and “IT” IS going to stay there…in the past, where it belongs. Too bad I couldn’t have gotten it behind a hermetically sealed door, but, well, I am good with things the way they are: ABSOLUTELY QUIET. Imagine that….
I have been nonstop busy taking care of medical issues that seem to be cropping up all over the place now…I am in physical therapy 3 times a week now…trying to get rid of this ‘heart attack atrophy’ I have been in the past two years, since my heart attack and surgeries.
I have taken my life back.
It belongs to me.
Just wanted you all to know I was thinking of you and that I send my love and hello’s….we are not ‘victims’…we are ‘survivors’.
You just all remember that.
Dupey xo
Always great to ‘see’ you Dupey and CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Hoping all will be well for you always from now on. You deserve your peace.
Dupey – I’m so glad to hear about your wonderful anniversary of No Contact! You deserve all the peace that you are enjoying.