Thread by @_Zeets

I'm going to go write, but first, Simone Weil said:

"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating."

And Auden wrote:

"Evil is unspectacular and always human, / And shares our bed and eats at our own table."

I've had a theory since like college that we are too fascinated with imaginary evil. And think of goodness as uninteresting. More intriguing to read about serial killers than people sheltering the homeless. And the fascination is justified under the idea of depth in evil.

And again, it's imaginary evil thats about individuals. Killers are fascinating until you look at the society that makes them possible and their victims disposable. One targets sex workers, and to look away from the evil of the world that allows that, we elevate the killer.

Anyway, for me to remember it, I called it the Cain Affliction. That when Cain kills Abel in the Bible, Abel, the good one, goes to the dust and is forgotten (and then replaced), but Cain, the killer, has led to so much literature of sympathy. Even statues are built for him.

So much of that is the idea that Cain, with his flaws, is more relatable than Abel, who was just good. But what's more human history than the weak one being crushed, forgotten, and then his murderer becoming The Great Subject of History?

I had a whole essay lined up for my philosophy final about moral evil called: "We Need To Remember Abel". But then I did a project on rape culture instead. I still believe strongly in the idea though.