What is Evil?
Arthur Hayes recently wrote a post called Pure Evil, which details why Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are evil; a compelling topic to dive into but perhaps at a later date. Pure Evil is also a favorite creator and gallerist of mine. Alas, the below has nothing to do with street art either.
So what IS this post about?
Well, in the the spirit of New Year beginnings, while everyone else is busy being joyful or pretending to be so I’m here to help you diagnose the evil you may encounter in 2023 in order to protect ya neck.
Do you know there are several different types of evil 😱 ?
How can “good or moral” people be seduced to act immorally or in an evil way? This is the crux of The Lucifer Effect by Phil Zimbardo. He is the (in)famous creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, during which he simulated a prison environment with prisoners (played by white male university students) and prison guards (played by white male university students). I point out who played the roles not to malign white males but simply to convey that as far as I can recall racial dynamics were not part of the experiment.
The simulation was intended to last for weeks, however he stopped the experiment after only 6 days when a former graduate student (who soon thereafter became his second wife) observed inhumane conditions and encouraged / demanded that he stop it.
The first half of the book is a play-by-play of what happened in the experiment. It’s fascinating because it allows you to be a fly-on-the-wall observing the devolution and moral depravity of the participants. To summarize: the “prison guards” became sadistic and broke the will of the “prisoners”, inflicting real pain and suffering on them. They knew it was a simulation and not real so WHY did the prison guards act so cruelly? Why didn’t the prisoners just walk out?
The second half of the book analyzes what happened and why, then goes on to discuss the same manifestation of human dynamics via atrocities that took place at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. Of course in these cases the prisoners could not have simply left, however interestingly many of the guards at A.G. and Gitmo were Reservists who were not trained in extreme black ops interrogation techniques. They like the guards from the SPE were essentially “students” of what they were being asked to do. (Note: Zimbardo was called as an expert witness during the Abu Ghraib trials to provide testimony on how good people can turn evil amidst situational factors.)
I believe this book and the SPE are important because they showcase how an average or seemingly good person can act heinously. Now-retired Marine Corps Major General Michael Lehnert was the one tasked with building the first cells at Guantánamo and setting up the prison and in recent times he has provided Congressional testimony encouraging its closure. Since its inception almost 800 Muslim men have been imprisoned, many tortured and almost none of them have been charged with a crime. Approximately 35 prisoners remain at an annual cost of $13 million per prisoner.
“Who we are cannot be separated from what we do.” - Michael Lehnert
Lehnert’s quote is spot on. However, the reason I’m writing this essay is that in our society-at-large we prefer to narrate stories from a perspective of positional evil. For example, I recently wrote about SBF in Issue # 2, who since then has been indicted on 8 criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy by misusing customer funds.
SBF is a “bad guy” for sure but it’s derelict to stop there. Same goes for the convicted soldiers at Abu Ghraib who tortured prisoners but again we can’t stop there. What were the factors that enabled situational evil to occur in the first place? Do you think these these individuals acted in isolation and solely in self-sovereign ways?
The SPE is perhaps the best modern example of simulated situational evil but with Abu Ghraib and the FTX fiasco we also need to ascertain the level of systemic evil (aka institutional corruption) at play. Could SBF have misappropriated customer funds and created a multibillion dollar hedge fund in the first place without the blessing of the financial (eco)system and its greedy insiders? Why is Guantanamo Bay still open 20 years later if not for a system that perpetuates or turns a blind eye to its evil?
The Media will always prefer human stories over situational ones because the former sell better and painting such pictures is less complicated. Most readers don’t have the time or inclination to handle the truth but I encourage you to keep asking why in order to contemplate the whole story.
Don’t fall for Fundamental Attribution Error; when we allow ourselves to give primacy to an individual’s psychological profile over the external context. There will always be bad apples but if you repeatedly hear about rotten fruit it’s probably a sign that you need to investigate further.
Recap: when assessing evil try to figure out which of the three evils are at play (they are not mutually exclusive):
Positional Evil
Situational Evil
Systemic Evil
Hibi Matches
Ok we need to clear the air after that post! At $44 for 30 matches your initial reaction might be 😲 but trust me Hibi incense matches are worth it!!!!! (5 exclamations worth it). I first discovered this brand in the West Village at the SKU store, where I bought a Cedarwood “match book of 8”. Best incense hands down. I re-upped before finishing my first set. The burn time is ten minutes but unlike pretty much all other incense, the scent lingers for hours afterwards (depending on room size). For a medium-sized bedroom if you have the door closed the scent might even be too strong - perhaps consider cutting the match in half or leave the door open. You’ll probably experience a pleasant afterglow(?) of scent the next day.
These matches are made by the Kobe Match Company, based in the Harima region of Awaji Island in Japan, where matches have been artfully made for the last 150 years. Who knew? They are Made in Japan baby, so no chemical smells; instead “it is mostly the foliage (from trees grown in the Atlas mountains of Morocco, or Virginia in the USA) that is steam-distilled to produce the intense oil”. 🌋
Lastly, at risk of stating the obvious because this is incense in match format you don’t need a lighter or ahem another match to light them. Winning!
Song of the week - How I Feel by Wax Tailor
Remixing Nina Simone’s Feeling Good is a daunting endeavor. 9/10 times you’re gonna fail. French producer Wax Tailor kinda pulls it off though. I dunno what do you think? To me it sounds like Feeling Good mixed with the Imperial March; apropos for a New Year’s post discussing evil.