Evil is Inversion

Vox Day did a good livestream yesterday, This is the Actual Upside Down. He said that, when asked to define what evil is, the best he could come up with is that evil is inversion. He referenced a Bible quote.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

We could certainly expand on that verse today. Who put criminal for victim and victim for criminal. Who put brave for weak and weak for brave. And so on.

Isn't it interesting that the major ailment of our modern society was described some 2800 years ago? Inversion is nothing new. I think that is something to take comfort in. We find the modern times so insane that, at times, we wonder how we could even maintain our own sanity. And yet, we see that inversion has always been the dark side of the coin. What is happening now is merely what we've always been warned is the reality of life (for those raised in the western, Christian tradition). What we're going through is not unprecedented, we're not alone, and there is a world of advice from our predecessors on how to live a dignified life in undignified times.

There is little need for despair. Inversion is the work of dark forces. Those we see promoting darkness are not evil, necessarily, but they have fallen prey to evil forces. They have lost the moral struggle. They could not resist temptation. The good news is that, in every religion and virtually every movie or story ever written, there is also a dark time where evil forces seem insurmountable. [Spoiler alert: the light always wins.]