Generally, evil is defined as the opposite of ‘good,’ but the meaning of evil is different in different cultures, societies, and even between individuals. Evil is contextual, based on religious or secular values—or both—thus this list is informed by my socialisation, experience, spirituality, and philosophical grounding. Broadly, it appears that the popular discourse on evil is informed by the deep structures of major religious and spiritual traditions, where the belief in evil requires a higher (or ‘lower’) metaphysical or mystical power.
My personal background as a son of a Christian minister and theologian has influenced my perspective on evil. In my twenties, I had a conversation with my father who confided in me that he did not believe in evil, the devil, or in any external dark power. This surprised me given all talk of evil and images of the devil in Christianity. What he said did align with what I was learning in graduate school about good and evil in Hawaiian, Pacific Island, Shinto, Buddhist, Hindu, and indigenous teachings and knowledge. Preliterate peoples and religions appear likely to have associated the violence and traumas associated with wildlife and weather with supernatural evil. Some belief systems support the idea of ghosts, disembodied evil, and bad spirits. My selection of evils follows Muslim and Judaic traditions that explain evil as a creation of man, not God. Similarly, my evils are not transcendent phenomena, but rather immanent, created by humans and inherent in human behaviour.
My choices of evil are predominantly products of the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and industrialisation. My list is neither exhaustive nor definitive, but exemplary of destructive human phenomena from my 2023 perspective. Some are material objects and others are phenomena. Some are policies or economic concepts. Some overlap. They are presented in alphabetical order, not in order of magnitude or degree of impact. Some have both positive and negative aspects.
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