There is no evil, only suffering

"We cannot choose evil" - Sartre

In the netflix show “beef", my main takeaway is that seemingly evil people are people who have suffered and do evil things. I try my best towards compassion and understanding, but it is hard to not think there are evil people/forces in the world. I’ll try to sum up my scant philosophy studies that affirms there isn’t evil in the world.

Nietzsche literally has a book titled “Beyond Good and Evil.” This will be a gross butchering of it, but the concept of good and evil is what made religion so popular. It rallies people together to fight evil.

Sartre’s “The Anti-Semite and the Jew” describes anti semitism is the result of humans not being able to handle their own condition. So they blame others, and everyone ganged up on Jews as a scapegoat. When I read this in class, people were pretty adamant in that he’s wrong, and racists are evil people. Admittingly I’m a Sartre fanboy, but I side with him on this.

I’ve been in therapy and have studied a little bit of psychology. It’s pretty clear any big or little traumas shape personality. In Buddhism, the acceptance of suffering is a basic tenet. It is part of the of the human condition, and we can work towards reducing it.

Trump seems like an evil person. But I bet you could trace it to his childhood. Maybe ignored by his father, or pressured to live up to him. His father was an immigrant and worked his way up to real estate mogul. That immigrant mentality of gaining wealth and fame is also passed down to Donald J. I see it in my parents, they only care about money. Sometimes they do sketchy things just for money. Are they evil?