What makes a basically good person go evil - how does it start?

Question

Does it start with lies, deception and self deception?

Answer 1

Good question. I think we all are born with the innate tendency to do evil, but, for a conventionally "good" person to become actively "evil," I think a few things need to take place:

That person needs to:

1. become despondent; apathetic
2. become self-pitying
3. hate his/her self
4. disconnect from other people
5. objectify people

Once you objectify people, it is easy to inflict harm on them, and to not care about them, etc. But objectification of others begins with objectification of the self. Once you hate yourself (see step 3), it is easy to become an object to your own self.

Answer 2

Lies, deception, and self deception? I suppose that's as good a start as any... but laziness will get you doing evil as well, as will pride- Pride's a big one, got to watch out for that... and then sometimes circumstances will put you in a position to do evil... and you just do it for a change, eh? Being good constantly could get a bit boring after a while...

...and maybe people just don't understand what they're doing, eh? If no-one ever told you it was evil, and you didn't have the capacity to understand it was evil, then you would have no qualms about doing whatever it happened to be. Or maybe your conscious mind and perception of reality would be such that you saw the evil thing to be good. That's not necessarily self-deception, that's just having a different outlook from other people.

Answer 3

This is such a complex question. First, we have to decide what we mean by "evil." There are those who enjoy causing the suffering of others, and then there are those who cause suffering by not thinking about the consequences of their actions. In the second case, a self-involved person may become immoral by finding the benefits of evil behavior to be greater than the consequences---say, for example, someone who sells drugs for easy money. If the consequences were too large--going to prison for example-- that person may change. But, I think you may have been asking more about the second type of person who intends to harm others. Many of the other answers touched upon the myriad reasons why someone might become evil--abuse, poor upbringing, difficult life circumstances--all very valid. ( I am leaving people with mental illness and substance abuse issues out of this debate because they are not in full control of their own thought processes.) Yet not everyone who has had those life experiences winds up becoming evil; some people show amazing resiliency and strength. Some go on to become more compassionate. Why is that? There is always a bit of free will involved. And how we feel about our experiences determines how we will act. A very hard question! I hope this helps.

Answer 4

Poor upbringing. Good morals, values, and integrity are intrinsic to a person that has been brought up well. The attributes that make someone "good" and not "evil" are self monitoring and don't require a witness; what that means is -given the opportunity to steal without penalty, would not be stolen. Basically good starts at birth and ends with death.

Answer 5

A taste for Money, Power. And they usually have an unhealthy narcissism, they want attention from the world and if they don't get it they act out.

I don't think there a "slippery slope" you go down by telling lies or committing small crimes. Truly evil people simply lack empathy for others and see themselves and their needs as the only ones that matter.

Answer 6

Good question. Your assumption is that all human beings came unidimensional, and that is not accurate. Even a flattened object such as a coin has a second dimension, the bottom side.
What changes the position of this coin? Great unsettling changes to his stability. Enough to make it lose its grounding, making it falter and wobble, and fall-- on to its other side.

What makes it easier to wobble and fall on a different side is the nature of a human beings shape. It is NOT unidimensional as a coin. Far from it.

Answer 7

Its my opinion only.........

We all have good and evil in part. We choose to be good or we choose to be evil. The potential is in us all to be either.

There is a school of thought that believes that some people are born inherently evil like Jack The Ripper. And some who were born inherently good like Mother Therese.
These are the two extreemes.

Most of is fall into the first category with the potential to be or to go either way.

Answer 8

I think that it only appears that the person is good. The moral foundation for most people is very insubstantial. It is basically just behavior modification performed by our society through years of praising good behavior and punishing bad behavior. The result of which is a good feeling when we do something good and a bad feeling when we do something bad. In either case, it is merely a feeling with no authority behind it.

That kind of foundation of good feelings will easily collapse under enough temptation.

Answer 9

You could tryreading some of the books on the subject by Philip Zimbardo. He has written a lot on the studies he has done over the years and has explored many theories on causes.
An interesting man in interesting times.

Answer 10

It starts with deprivation and is nurtured with lack of parental support. The new born child is clay to be moulded by parents and some good luck. Unfortunately I see 'evil' as part of evolution; "survival of the fittest". In civilised (and privileged) societies we are able to fight evil easier than in deprived or non-democratic societies. DB