{"id":162,"date":"2014-11-25T15:44:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T20:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2014-11-26T08:58:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-26T13:58:12","slug":"unmasking-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"(Un)masking Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evil loves to wear a mask.\u00a0 \u00a0Both Jason Voorhees, fictional character of the endless Friday the 13th<\/sup> movie series infamy and \u00a0the (unfortunately real) head-hacking members of ISIL both generally cover up when doing their dirty deeds.\u00a0\u00a0 Both hearken back to the \u2018headsmen\u2019 of old, who chopped off heads for the State wearing long black hoods.<\/p>\n

\"jason<\/a><\/p>\n

There are two related reasons for this masking of evil:\u00a0 Shame and fear.\u00a0 Since conscience never completely dies away, regardless of how one t\"hoodes<\/a>ries to repress it, we may presume that they at some level still \u2018feel bad\u2019 about what they are doing.\u00a0 Shame itself is derived from this \u2018fear of being found out\u2019, so anonymity is key.\u00a0 Just look at the shaded windows of triple-X pornography shops.\u00a0 People, I guess, generally enter by the back door, and don\u2019t want to be seen browsing in such an establishment.<\/p>\n

\"masked<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the masking of evil also allows one to instill fear into one\u2019s victim.\u00a0 Fear responds to an unknown future evil, one that is not yet \u2018upon \u2018 you, but you know is lurking around the corner, waiting patiently .\u00a0 Our imagination tends to magnify this evil, which is why we are afraid, or at least more afraid, when it is dark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This principle was used to good effect,\u00a0inadvertently, in the 70\u2019s thriller Jaws<\/em>, about a Great White shark that terrorizes a Cape Cod beach.\u00a0 Spielberg, the director, originally intended for the shark to have a greater role, but the mechanical model would not work properly, and was not all that realistic.\u00a0 So, it was decided to keep the shark out of sight for most of the movie, signifying his presence by the ominous basso-symphonic chords we now associate with impending doom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things enter a sort of denoument when the shark is \u2018revealed\u2019 at the end and chomps down on a screaming Robert Shaw, who ironically lived his entire life in fear and hatred of sharks.\u00a0 But the ‘Great White’, when he appears, seems a bit of a let down.\u00a0 A big, rubber, awkward monster.\u00a0 One is almost tempted to laugh (a healthy reaction to most horror movies, but in the hands Spielberg, Jaws<\/em> is a step above such).\u00a0 It is a testament to Shaw\u2019s acting ability that he made us terrified as he slid down the deck to the gaping, yes, \u2018jaws\u2019 (well, I saw the\"jaws\" film as a young child, so would likely have been terrified if the shark had been made of felt and paper mache).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is why it is requisite for us to unmask evil as much as we can, to make it present its true face.\u00a0 Only then can we fight it on equal terms, and see it as it really is.\u00a0 More often than not, the evil is more pathetic than we imagined.\u00a0 Recall Darth Vader when finally unmasked in Return of the Jedi<\/em>; he ends up being a misunderstood giant with a scarred face, suffering from Daddy issues.<\/p>\n

There is a philosophical principle that explains the limited nature of evil:\u00a0 Evil does not really \u2018exist\u2019, but is rather the privation of a good, the lack of something that should be there.\u00a0 Evil is an emptiness, like a cavity is the absence of a tooth; it may cause great pain, but only because there should be a tooth to cover up and protect the underlying nerve.\u00a0 Behind the mask of evil there is blankness and despair.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is also why it is a grace that certain evils are currently being unmasked of late in the world:\u00a0 Here I will focus on the \u2018unmasking\u2019 of Islam in the barbarism of ISIL.\u00a0 Do they in fact show the true face of this controversial religion?\u00a0 Is Islam inherently violent, coercive, puritanical and repressive?\u00a0 Its origins in the seventh century seem to evince as much, and there is no \u2018Pope\u2019 or \u2018Magisterium\u2019 of Islam to determine infallibly and with authority what Islam should be; hence its inherent fissiparousness and factionalism \u00a0(there are almost as many \u2018Islams\u2019 as there are Muslims).\u00a0 The members of the Islamic State (as well as the Nigerian Boko Haram) seem to believe they <\/em>are acting in accordance with the Qu\u2019ran, and that even their fellow Muslims are not Muslim enough for them.\u00a0 One can only hope that they soon begin quarrelling with each other about what Islam really entails, for a house divided against itself cannot stand.<\/p>\n

\"women<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the fact remains that the face of Islam they do present is not one that any right-thinking person would want to live under.\u00a0 No alcohol?\u00a0 No dancing?\u00a0 No music?\u00a0 No games and cards?\u00a0 Women dressed head-to-toe in shapeless burlap, undressing just long enough to serve the sexual desires of their, ahem, \u2018husbands\u2019? \u00a0What joy do they offer?\u00a0 \u00a0Just stern, inflexible \u2018worship of Allah\u2019 seven times a day according to the dictates of these angry young men?\u00a0 No wonder they all wear masks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet they do, partly perhaps out of shame, but also to instill fear in their intended victims.\u00a0 I have seen a few photos of them unmasked, and some of their members have been identified:\u00a0\u00a0 A Welsh medical student here, a British engineering student over there; disaffected youth, seeking a purpose and solid foundation for their life, perhaps also out for the camarderie and the sense of belonging to a group.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But many of them, w\"angrye may presume, flocking from Westerna nations, are not trained soldiers, and, as others have suggested, any disciplined,well-equipped army could defeat them.\u00a0 What they do<\/em> have going for them is their religious zeal, which gives rise to their willingness to kill and to be killed seemingly without remorse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the end, however, they are pathetic, which literally means to arouse pathos<\/em> \u00a0or strong feeling: Righteous anger, yes, but also sadness at their sorry plight.\u00a0 What a waste of what might have been a promising life, to be thrown away in the desert in the misguided zeal of a misguided interpretation of the worship of \u2018Allah\u2019.\u00a0 As Christ predicted, \u2018they will put you to death, thinking they are doing a service for God\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course, they must be stopped, with great force if necessary, but the most effective way to fight evil is to provide a contrary good, to fill up its emptiness with something valuable. \u00a0Beauty, truth and goodness will always triumph in the end. \u00a0 Unfortunately, a large part of the attraction to radical Islam, as others have commented, is the current vacuity of Western culture: \u00a0Casual sex, rampant abortion, using people as commodities, unemployment, dissolution, despair and the breakdown of the family are gnawing at our once-great civilization, and eroding its very foundations. \u00a0Youth unemployment in Spain is hovering around 50%, and many other countries are not far behind. \u00a0Population is in a demographic death spiral. \u00a0The young men (and it is almost always young men) see the futility of such a life, and run for what they perceive to be \u2018the truth\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0They want something they are willing to live (and die) for, as do we all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yet the truth is not to be found where they are going, and the sooner the masks are ripped off and they realize its emptiness, the better.\u00a0 But we all must look into our own emptiness, for without the true good in all of its fullness being given to our future generations, and without offering them hope, they will continue to seek the false good behind masks and images.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

November 25, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evil loves to wear a mask.\u00a0 \u00a0Both Jason Voorhees, fictional character of the endless Friday the 13th movie series infamy and \u00a0the (unfortunately real) head-hacking members of ISIL both generally cover up when doing their dirty deeds.\u00a0\u00a0 Both hearken back to the \u2018headsmen\u2019 of old, who chopped off heads for the State wearing long black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnpaulmeenan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}