As most of the world knows, last weekend in the town of Isla Vista, my home during my college days, six people were killed. The killer acted alone, his primary motivation appears to have been to get revenge on girls who "ignored him," and "wouldn't date" him.
Since then I have watched and read news reports, as well as talked with friends and clients, and heard him be called everything from: "disgusting," "crazy," "sad," and "evil."
The concept of evil is what I wanted to focus on today.
Before I get to that, I want to take a moment to express my deepest condolences to the victims and the victims families and friends. My heart goes out to all of you. To the community of Isla Vista, aka IV, do not let this incident break your spirit.
This is what I believe:.
Evil exists because we allow it to exist. It exists in the bad vibes we send to strangers, it exists in the judgements we make, the resentment we form, the anger we hold onto, the finger pointing we do, etc... Evil exists because when it plants its' evil little seeds, we come running with our watering pail and start nourishing those seeds until they blossom into big nasty evil things. The only way evil can ever be defeated is with good and love. Herein lies the challenge to us.
If we want to eliminate evil then we have to be willing to have the conversation with the person in the mirror. We have to look that person in the eye and ask them why, "Why do I hold onto this, why do I choose to let my "stuff," control my life. Why do fill myself up with this evil "stuff," instead of filling myself up with love?"
Then we have to decide that good and love are worth more than the "evil" that we are holding onto.
Obviously this approach is most effective with the person in the mirror, but I do believe there is a residual benefit to the world at large. You having that conversation with You is going to give you the ability to influence others to have the same conversation with themselves. This is how the dominoes start to fall...
I often ask myself, What would the world be like if we became a culture where we no longer celebrated violence. What if it suddenly became uncool to have a massive body count in a movie or TV show. What if it no longer was hip to listen to music that glorifies violence and crime? What would the world become if we turned off the TV every time the news started broadcasting some sort of negative story. What would the world be like if we took as much interest in living our own lives as we do in how other people live theirs?
I believe that if each of us made more of an effort to love instead of hate, to tune out sensationalized and violent media, and tune into our own lives, then evil will slowly begin to die out.
Evil exists because of us, which means we have the ability to make it cease to exist.
Is it possible? I believe so. To make it happen, it starts with that person in the mirror.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, please share them below.
Carpe Diem,
Jesse
Thanks for the powerful words Jesse. I am in for the good and the positive. If every person just did one nice thing for someone else, the evil would disappear.
ReplyDeleteGreat insight, Jesse! I teach a class to 8th grade students about making good choices and setting up boundaries to prepare them for high school and I always tell them, "garbage in, garbage out; goodness in, goodness out." We must be careful what we fill our hearts and minds with. At the same time, we must realize that we fill other people's mind with either garbage (judgement, gossip, jealousy, hate, etc.) or goodness (love, compassion, kindness, honesty, humbleness, etc.).
ReplyDelete"There is a certain rush, at an increasing pace, trying to take care of humanity. The unrest has limited the serenity and joy. Energies, at times, seem simply exhausted. It is not difficult to become a 'rag'. Just leave the 'roll' take account of the concerns that life will lose enthusiasm and brightness. The material attachments suck the best energies that each carries. It's not good to have a heart attached to the material. Things are necessary, but they are not the whole of existence. Rest in the lap of the Lord can be an amazing experience. One day I would like to understand why many people have as much resistance as spirituality and materialism so easily? God will always be a vital reference. In the arms of the Lord, life is renewed, the forces gain strength, the heart back to normality. Hugs! "
ReplyDeleteIt's really terrible what happened to this evil there is no excuse, my opinion is that this young man had deep psychological problems and no one reacted at the time of his parents' friends, etc.. Perhaps he had an unhappy childhood, but it does not excuse what he wanted to draw attention to himself in such a bad way
ReplyDeleteGood Day ! Good week ! " We do not grow when things are easy and yes, when we face our challenges . " Would not life be so interesting if there were only facilities ! Clearly there is no need for difficult situations . Easy or difficult life must follow its course . The real growth , that consistent growth only occurs when challenges are faced when Hale pain treated and even dropped. Interesting how humanity has specialized in facilities ! The less complex and demanding better. Challenges exercise inner strength allow to group energy that seemed to exist. If there is a need and desire for growth , make peace with the challenges . Take away from the comfort zone is a hint and both . There is a fortress to be discovered : the interiority of each carries an extraordinary force . If growth is an option and an intuition , life is starting to absorb quite naturally what , at first, is seen as an obstacle . So no keep running from one side to the other in search of facilities . That dreams are made of surpassing , that there are challenges in the construction of life ! Hugs !
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds so simple as we write down our thoughts, but, how can we really banish evil from our lives? How do we show others that good is the way to go? How can we be sure that our methods work for those who have lived evil all their lives knowing this is the norm for them? How can we get through to those who are in the evil cults, who sacrifice living beings? There is a dark side in this world, and if we let ourselves get caught up in this, is it because we are weak and evil ourselves? Is it ingrained in us from the family or community we grow up in? I am not a traditional religious person but I do believe there is a higher being. But, what is it? If there is a higher force in the universes that is good, then is there not a higher force that is evil? Maybe you are correct, Jesse. If we think good things and teach love and kindness the evil forces will subside, or at least diminish. Oh my, when you think about it, no one really knows. We can speculate and continue to teach right from wrong and only hope that it will make for a better world. Some of us live our lives to please others, or to live the norm,. whatever that is. Why can we all not take a look at ourselves, I mean really take a look, and see if we like what we see? Some who are truly evil will look at themselves and like what they see. So nothing will change. Evil is a strong force and we (as humans) fight with it everyday. Is there a middle ground? Can some sit on the fence and let good and evil fight it out? I think not. We all need to do our part to keep ourselves and our loved ones as far from evil as possible. The parents of the kid who killed those in IV knew something was wrong with him. They appear to be nice and loving folks. so what could they have done to make it better for their child or at least protect him from doing the evil deed? If they could do it all over again what would change? I don't expect anyone to agree with my opinions but I do wonder what's the solution? Maybe we just continue to teach goodness and love and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteSo many inisightful comments. And such a hopeful blog from Jesse! There is a book by a woman who has been held captive for over 8 years in her teenager years in Austria, and she ( to the dismay of the public) always clearly pointed out that the culprit was not an evil monster. Even tough he was sick in one or another way and surely did evil things. She always said the society wants to see the monster because they don't want to look at the evil in the "normal" and in themselves!
ReplyDeleteIt is really surprising that it is socially not accepted to refuse to watch ( and thus fill your day) with extremely violent movies/ books/ TV shows, why do humans crave for this so much?!
I love reading all your comments! Thank you all for taking the time to share them and share your recommendations on books etc.. to read/look into.
ReplyDeleteIf you all have any suggestions about topics you would like me to cover in future blogs, please leave them in the comments :)
I apologise if I offend someone, but it am one person with one opinion and this is it.
ReplyDeleteIt can be so easy to as said point fingers or even have an opinion, however, no one truly knows what was going on in his mind or his life and it can be so easy to blame parents or people around him for not stopping this horrible from happening like it was them doing the actions personally. That negativity is like a virus. It was and will always be a tragedy and will affect a lot of people's lives forever, this is a very sad but true statement. But no one can judge or condemn anyone as they do not know what is going on in another's mind or life,present or past. Isn't it more productive to like as Jesse said turn off the news when things come on that are destructive and negative. It's not sticking your head in the sand, it's not taking on what negativity and hate that is consuming the world into our lives and letting that take hold. I'm not judging anyone for their opinion or actions, and not defending anyone's either. But I do ask, it's not a time to search for blame. When something horrible happens they want someone to stand accountable. I get that, but where does it get us. We find that answer and it installs anger and rage, very rarely does it give us peace. Sometimes we need & I'm not saying this as if no tragedy has ever touched me or had anyone in my life that I could condemn if chosen. But it doesn't bring people back. Answers don't bring people back neither does blame & most often, no one truly sees it coming, no one is truly in ones mind or life. Hurt is a painful thing that can bring up so many feelings, I'm not trying to minimalise what people feel that again is individual but who are we helping by sending this hate and negative thoughts out into the world. We hurt ourselves more. The more we judge others and their actions the more people feel they can judge ours and no one truly knows our lives nor we do theirs. Parents are people too, what good does it do anyone looking at them as if they are at fault, again searching for a thing that will ultimately bring us and the world around us more pain and more negativity. Negativity breeds negativity, chose to search for answers or point fingers but is it going to bring you or anyone else peace or do we chose to turn our minds to something we can control and find something anything that can bring positivity into this already very hateful world. It's hard.. But blame isn't going to heal anybody..