"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." -- Keyser Suze
Some of you may remember that line from the movie The Usual Suspects. The movie stands as one of my favorites and it was the line that first came to my mind when I sat through a workshop I had to attend last week. The presenter uttered a line that I took for granted and a number of the participants did as well. He simply said that we all know that there are some bad kids in our schools. The new assistant principal on my campus took me to lunch that day and said she utterly disagreed with that statement.
This brought forth the question you see in the title. Does evil exist in the world or has the world of psychology taken such a hold that we are left to believe that everyone that does evil is really disturbed in some way? We see it in subtle questions all the time. Is Dick Cheney the devil incarnate or is he simply a sociopath? Advance that noodle a little further and we could label him as having anti-social personality disorder. Suddenly, it makes it all better. He can't help it you see. He has one of those psychological disorders that no one has found a cure for.
Naturally, I look at it from a school perspective. In my two years as a counselor I have really done more teaching than counseling. The problem with serving as a teacher is that I see kids more often and therefore cannot think of them in the same way. When you see them every day, the students that misbehave every day become an impediment to the other kids learning. If I served as a counselor then I could see them the way that I should. I could work with them individually and hopefully rehabilitate them.
Human behavior is too complex to pigeonhole all students that misbehave into the same category. Some are seeking attention and just don't know how to do it. Some haven't developed the social skills necessary to interact properly with their peers. Some are just druts (turds spelled backwards). However, the philosophy laid down is that even those students are not bad kids and therefore need to be loved and nurtured.
As a counselor, I tend to agree with this line of thinking. In a perfect world, I do not deal with any misbehaviors directly, so I can continue to play the "good cop" in any situation. In many cases, the good cop gets more out of a situation than the bad cop. However, I have always recognized the need for the "bad cop". When someone does something wrong there must be a consequence and when someone habitually does the wrong thing they must be removed for the safety and educational needs of the other students. They also must be removed for themselves.
What I suddenly realized is that either I would have to become the bad cop or we would have a counselor/principal team without a bad cop. That to me is a dangerous proposition or maybe it is a leap of faith I am having difficulty making. My assistant principal wants to include the habitual misbehavers on the student leadership team. There are some students I'm willing to leap on for that role. There are others that I want nowhere near leadership. Consider it the Cheney Principle. How close do you want him to leadership?
Moreover, I thought about what would happen if this thinking continues up the chain and into society. Would we throw lawbreakers into prison anymore? Would a group of psychologists and motivational speakers replace our wardens and prison guards? We cannot have a world where the presence of evil is not assumed to be present. I understand the need to avoid labeling kids and I don't want to do it myself, but for those of us that deal with children on a daily basis, we have all seen the child we knew would end up prison. We have to try to keep them from that destiny, but we also have to protect the other children in our care.
Evil exists wherever good men close their eyes to the bad things happening around them and ignore or condone the people making it happen.
Evil and bad are two shades of the same color, whether they are merely a component of human psychology or a manifestation of a metaphysical force is a pointless inquiry best left for the pursuit of those with too much time on their hands.
Malevolence is more troubling than evil and seems to be more widespread with every passing day. Our courts in the United States have ruled that the threat of rape is allowed in military interogation.
Are our courts bad, evil or malevolent? If schools don't teach malevolence does it then become the governments role?
Ultimately, does it make a difference?
I mean, is an untreatable psychological disorder that causes one to do bad things actually distinguishable from "being evil"?
Both are equally predictive. Both result in one being forced to accept that if you put those kids in a classroom, they will disrupt it. Both leave you with a decision to make about how you're going to handle that reality.
The main difference is that the psychological approach upholds the possibility that maybe some day we could find a treatment. The "just evil" approach permanently writes off a class of people with no hope of ever allowing them to become productive members of society.
Rewarding kids who regularly misbehave just seems like a bad idea, whichever approach you take. It's magical thinking: "If I treat them as if they had been behaving well, maybe they'll magically start behaving well". No, you're just rewarding misbehavior, which will beget more misbehavior.
ok, easy question...hard answer... :O)
actually an easy question....
Is there good in the world? Yes, there are people whose first reaction is compassion, mercy, love, and understanding. Therefore, there are also people whose first reaction is hate, callousness, and inhuman disregard for his fellow man.
Psychology made an error...in seeking to sweep away the old superstitious way of seeing things they tried to replace it with pure reason. Unfortunately pure reason is an abstract ideal that none of us can achieve. Most unfortunately, in the zeal to remove outmoded ways of thinking the science of psychology discarded as worthless ALL the old ways and beliefs. That's uncomfortably too similar to the way some of our fellow citizens act when dealing with a political opposite. If it doesn't fit their narrow view it's discarded as a product of irrational hatred and fear.
I'm old school....I know evil exists. But I also know that good exists. We should be cautious not to let explanations become rationalizations.
As a counselor I choose to believe that some students are just not cut out for a traditional educational environment. Unfortunately, options are limited in that capacity and it is really bad at the elementary level. In many cases, keeping them in an environment where they struggle unnecessarily is more cruel to them.
Predestined is a great desrciptive term alien. Conservatives see many of the poor as predestined for prison. Progressives don't believe in the inevitibility of predestination. Just like a car, it's easier to perform preventive maintenance than replace the car.
I use to coach little league baseball with a teacher that made the comment..."Just imagine that some of these kids we're coaching will end up in prison some day." I never thought in those terms but I was surfing internet newspapers one day and happened across a story about one of our kids (now years older) had been stabbed the night before...He was one of the kids predestined for a bad end. One or two of the 'good' kids...outstanding athletes, managed to get themselves incarcerated.
That's such a hard question...
As an army ranger co-worker use to say: Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out... :O)