Could You Be An Evil Person?
We all have evil within us.
In “Water,” the second episode of Battlestar Galactica’s first season, a saboteur blows up their water tanks, forcing all the ships in the fleet to ration their water. If they don’t find water quickly, the approximately 47,000 people who are all that remains of humanity will die.
They send out pairs of pilots to survey nearby planetary systems for water. One by one, the teams report back—negative for H2O.
Finally, only one team remains. Lieutenant Sharon “Boomer” Valerii and her electronic countermeasures officer, Crashdown, check the planets in their assigned zone.
“Still nothing,” Crashdown says. “And more nothing.”
The screen in front of Sharon flashes the words Positive for H2O. “I’ve got nothing here either,” she says, despite the results on her monitor. She blinks in confusion as her mind can’t make sense of what’s going on.
What we know, but Sharon doesn’t, is that she’s the one who destroyed the water tanks. She’s a Cylon sleeper agent programmed to believe she’s human. During the gaps in her memory, she’s planting explosives and letting other Cylons infiltrate the fleet.
Crashdown notices the strange tone in her voice.
“What’s on your mind, Boomer?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I have this feeling. Let’s run that sweep again.”
The screen flashes positive a second time, and Sharon hesitates. She tells Crashdown, “I’m having trouble saying it.”
You can see the battle between good and evil, human and Cylon, warring across her face. What she knows to be right, the love she has for her friends back on Galactica, wrestles with something deep within her that she can’t name, something dark and hateful and destructive.
Her hand slides down toward the explosives taped beside her seat. Her fingers tremble, hovering over the detonator.
It doesn’t matter whether you believe that humans are basically good or basically evil. When you bring both views down to their common denominator, we all have evil within us.
It’s easy to convince ourselves that, because we don’t steal or abuse or murder, we’re free from evil. But I do things I’m ashamed of. I’ve selfishly put my own desires ahead of someone else’s more than once. In the heat of an argument, I’ve said unkind, even cruel, things. And I struggled for years with a heart full of hatred for the drunk driver who killed my best friend. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to feel the pain that everyone who loved my friend felt at losing her.
Evil isn’t always big and flashy like a Cylon basestar come to blow up your ship. Sometimes it sneaks around in the dark and hides under the seats. And when we refuse to admit we could do something evil, the same way Sharon couldn’t accept that she might be a Cylon, that’s when we’re most vulnerable.
Having the potential to be evil is part of being alive. What matters is that, every day, every second, we fight it.
In the end, Sharon slowly pulls her hand away from the explosives and manages to tell Crashdown they’ve found water. She overcomes her programing—the inherent evil within her. She fought and she won. She’ll face more battles, but that day, in that fight, good prevailed.
Do you think evil is most dangerous when we think we’re immune to it? What helps you win the daily battle between good and evil?
Never watched Battlestar Galactica before? Find out why it’s not just for sci-fi fans.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:11:57
My kids love BG (and STar Trek) but I never really got into this series. have to take a look
Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:33:45
BSG is much darker and “realistic” compared to Star Trek so it tends to appeal to people who don’t normally like science fiction.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:19:09
I guess I think of evil in different terms. When we say mean things or hurt other people, most of us are not doing it to be cruel. We do because we don’t know any other way. We are hurting and we want to get the icky feelings out of us and put them off on someone else. That’s not evil. We just don’t fully understand what we’re doing, or how we can do something else instead. I think evil is when someone lacks empathy, like a socio-path, and they choose to hurt people or animals. They are making a choice and they know what they are doing. That is evil. Luckily, I don’t think is a large majority of people. Most people are really doing the best they know how. I guess I believe in the good of humanity.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:49:56
Very true – there are a lot of different ways to look at evil. I tend to think of the things we do to hurt other people (both intentionally and unintentionally) as smaller evils, and then what matters is how we deal with it. By looking at it that way, for me at least, that takes away my excuses and makes me responsible for how I treat someone. My own pain might explain why I acted that way, but doesn’t excuse it. I really enjoy hearing other people’s takes on it 🙂
Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:53:25
I don’t watch BSG, but I do think we are all capable of evil. I think environment plays a big part in whether or not that’s cultivated – you see it over and over again with the worst of criminals.
And as someone else mentioned – the little things that hurt people are evil as well. We’re human, and we’re all inherently selfish, no matter how much we strive not to be.
Great post!
Apr 09, 2012 @ 14:54:21
Thanks. One thing I learned from my criminology and psychology classes (and that I’m sure you know as a thriller writer) is that how we’re raised and the experiences we have make a huge contribution to how we treat others. I don’t think it’s ever clearly nature or nurture, but rather a combination of the two.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 10:26:59
Very thought-provoking. I’ve never watched BG – and I’m not really a Trekkie either. I think we all struggle with making a choice that benefits only ourselves, or puts others first.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 14:54:49
Some days it’s easier than others to put others first 🙂
Apr 09, 2012 @ 11:40:00
Big fan of Battlestar. Just started rewatching it recently on Netflix, so it’s kinda neat seeing someone else talk about it.
As something of an anthropologist (mostly armchair), I don’t believe in a universal, definable evil. Seems when it comes right down to it, people think of anything that hurts them, the things they care about, or their view of the world (how things SHOULD be) as evil. So from the human perspective good triumphed in Sharon’s little drama, but from the Cylon perspective she failed to complete her mission, violated orders, committed evil.
As is always the case in war, the other guy is always the evil one, we’re always the good guys…
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:27:02
This is a really great point. To the Cylons, the Sharon model was considered weak because of her sympathy for the humans. Evil does sometimes depend on the side you’re standing on.
That said, I think that some things are objectively evil. Rape is always evil. Child abuse is always evil. Even in Battlestar Galactica, the Cylons are the aggressors in this war. The humans just want to be left alone to find a new home.
Apr 11, 2012 @ 11:30:45
Not all cultures believe that though. The definition of the words also becomes important, what is rape, what is a child, what is abuse. Granted, don’t mistake me here, I’m not an overly moral person by any stretch of the imagination, but those are two things I consider both “things I would never do” as well as “things I would interfear with”…I just know, having studied anthropology for a few years, there are places where what we consider rape and child abuse aren’t thought of the same.
Apr 12, 2012 @ 19:41:09
This seems to be a debate that comes up in almost every sociology and anthropology class (in other words, it never gets old). I guess it comes down to both the way you define the words and also whether you believe there’s an ultimate standard of good and evil.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 14:03:32
I loved BSG. I thought it did a great job of making you see more than one side to “evil” and how it isn’t always as simple as “us v. them”.
You make a great point – evil is more dangerous when we think it couldn’t possibly exist somewhere. Whether it is in ourselves, government, or religion, when we start to think that evil can’t exist, then it is so much easier for it to hide in plain sight.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:29:37
That’s definitely one of the strengths of BSG. At some points, you really came to like and root for at least part of the Cylons so the lines between “them” and “us” blurred.
We always have to be watching for the way evil can creep into anything. History has shown how even things that started with the best of intentions could be warped if people weren’t careful.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 14:21:23
Terrific insight, Marcy. One scary aspect of evil acts is that those commit them rarely seem them as evil. I believe much if boils down to our beliefs, values and priorities.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 14:53:00
I think that’s very true, August. I tend to be pretty exacting on myself because of what I believe, and so I’m always trying to analyze my motives to make sure they’re right and that I’ve done due diligence so my actions won’t hurt anyone else. Sometimes I succeed better than others 🙂
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:22:38
I loved BSG. For once we had to work hard to figure out who the bad guy was. And that’s key – evil never looks evil – which is why stories where the BBG (the big bad guy) is lovely and sweet and helpful hit even harder because we believe BBG to be a good person.
However, in life there are times when good people need to stand up to the BBG and it’s never easy because people with core values and belief in the human spirit constantly question their own motives. We’ll never get it right all the time, we can only do our best.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:35:45
So well put!
One thing I loved about BSG was the situations they created where the good side and the bad side (even within the human fleet) wasn’t clear. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the writers did a great job of giving the BBGs believable motivations, and creating that “evil doesn’t always look evil” quality.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:43:41
Oooh, I love BSG! And that scene is awesome 😀 It’s great that she wins against her programming, especially since it makes what she does later so much more shocking. We know she can control herself, but she isn’t able to overcome her programming every time.
Great Post!
Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:09:45
It does make for a great nature-nurture debate too, doesn’t it 🙂
Apr 09, 2012 @ 15:58:10
Battle Star Galactica was a really profound series. I think that the root of of evil is selfishness, and like Emma said, lack of empathy. Humans also seem naturally prone to us vs. them mentality.
It’s also a question of whether the right and wrong can be relative. People who believe fanatically in a cause, even a good one, can justify bad deeds because of a good end result. That’s why the dilemma of sacrificing few to save many never gets old.
Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:14:47
I often struggle with the question of whether the end justifies the means. I may have to turn that into another blog post.
Apr 09, 2012 @ 22:03:01
Loved this show, loved this episode, & love this article! My two cents on evil: Making a choice that hurts others might not be intentional or even obvious at first, but not fixing it once it comes to light *is* evil. And evil comes in smaller doses, too, absolutely. Every choice we make is a foot forward in one direction or the other. It’s up to us to decide where the foot lands each step of the way.
Andi-Roo /// @theworld4realz
http://www.theworld4realz.com/
theworldforrealz@gmail.com
Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:22:55
I love the imagery of every footstep taking us in one direction or the other. You brought out a great point in that if we don’t fix evil once it comes to light, that definitely is evil. We might do something evil out of ignorance, but once we’re no longer ignorant, it’s our responsibility to fix it.
Apr 10, 2012 @ 01:26:43
Oh, I agree with this so much. It’s so easy to think of evil in extremes, rather than all the little things.
Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:25:36
Thanks 🙂 Sometimes the little evil is the most frightening because it goes unnoticed while it grows.
Apr 10, 2012 @ 11:31:54
“Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.” Love the BSG! But had to go Star Wars too! Yes, ‘evil’ does depend on point of view, and history is written by the victors.
That being said, can evil serve a purpose? What if there was no evil in the world? Think about that one for just a second. Sounds like utopia, yes, but consider…how would we (we, the human species) grow if there was nothing for us to strive against? To quote another of my favorite movies:
“What is light without Darkness?” Yes, we all have the dark within us, we all have to make the conscious choice to do right, or to do wrong.
Love this post, Marcy! Great job!
Apr 10, 2012 @ 12:43:55
Even though I still believe the world would be a better place without evil, I have to acknowledge that striving against it can make us stronger, better, even kinder. My question in return would be whether there isn’t another way we could get those qualities without having to be exposed to evil.
Thanks for such a great comment!
Apr 10, 2012 @ 13:21:46
Oh I often have evil little thoughts. Of course I would never act on them, even if I knew no one would ever see me or I would never get caught. I’ve done some not so honest things in the past, but truly evil, I don’t think I’m capable of that.
Evil thoughts, yes. Evil intentions, maybe. Evil deeds? Not sure I could do that. I guess it’s my fear of displeasing God that keeps me on the straight and narrow. That and being true to myself. If I give in to those evil intentions, I haven’t been true to myself. I like being a good person. When my time to leave this Earth arrives, I want folks to say, “She was a really good person,” and for that to be true.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
Apr 10, 2012 @ 15:03:04
It sounds like your motivations for trying to avoid evil are very similar to mine. I know that God sees everything I do even if no one else were ever to know. And I hate when I hurt someone else. I end up with a stomach ache and lose sleep.
Thanks for a great comment 🙂
Apr 11, 2012 @ 12:14:56
Marcy, I so agree that evil (or anything) is more dangerous when we think we’re immune to it. The question “Could you be an evil person?” reminds me of a chapter in Brandilyn Collins’ excellent writing book, “Getting into Character,” where she uses a commonplace irritation to get us relating to a killer’s mindset.
Apr 11, 2012 @ 15:01:45
I use a variation on Brandilyn’s technique frequently when trying to understand the emotion my character might be feeling in a situation that seems foreign to me (at least at first). Good example 🙂
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Apr 14, 2012 @ 10:04:23
[…] Could You Be An Evil Person? by Marcy Kennedy. My answer: Yes, what fun is there in always being good? *grins*. […]