Good is Dumb

There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance. -Socrates

If what Socrates said is true we have an excellent loophole here. This means that we can do no evil willfully. It contends that we always do what we consider is for our own good. Sure, we may understand that that 7th shot of vodka will give us a hangover, but we still drink it. We may know we risk lung cancer by smoking. We may know that robbing a car could put us in jail. But, while we are doing something, we always believe it is for good and not for evil. If evil can only be the result of ignorance, it suggests a thrilling possibility:

Our most sinister plan, so long as it is done willfully and without ignorance, is entirely for the good.

This is a lovely fact, and a great relief, but also a bit disappointing. Evil, being so much more fun compared to good, has occupied my entire worldly effort...or rather, what I thought was evil. Now that I realize it was not evil so much as I understood it, I am much less enthralled by it. Perhaps I enjoyed evil simply because it was evil, and now that I know it was not necessarily evil, I am no longer as drawn to it. Much worse, in attempting to participate in evil I was learning things, which, according to Socrates, is the exact opposite of evil.

If I could prove Socrates wrong on this I could be very rich and famous, I think. If I could intelligently, without ignorance, do harm to myself, his theory would be completely disproved. Yes, that shall be my goal...to disprove Socrates by blatantly and knowingly harming myself! I will be rich, rich, rich! But, wait, if I succeed in this goal, and become very wealthy and famous, assuming fame and wealth are not harmful, I will be foiled. I will have succeeded in doing good after all. Damn.

In order to be truly evil I need to be as active and as ignorant as possible. But, how do I be both ignorant and effective at the same time? True evil requires I flagrantly overlook some valid truth or fact, but, to do that I need to consciously remember to avoid thinking of that fact. To avoid thinking of a fact requires a very potent deception of one's own mind. Actually, to remember to forget something is not possible at all.

I know. Perhaps I can assume, since I don't know everything, that all actions are evil. After all, it is impossible to remove all ignorance, right? I am the first to admit that persistent ignorance pervades my every waking moment. In fact, I am currently faced directly with my own ignorance. I just realized that doing evil willfully is impossible because it is synonymous with ignorance (of which we cannot will). But then, since I am almost infinitely ignorant, I almost simultaneously realize that all my actions are evil by definition because I am always somehow ignorant.

But, this is good. This means that I can pursue evil actively without worrying about any lack of ignorance. In fact, since no amount of knowledge will ever allow me to remove ignorance completely, I can ferociously dedicate myself to learning how to most effectively produce evil with no worry of ever doing the slightest bit of good. Yes, I approve of this, and can now resume the evil of which I was formerly engaged.