The news of full of crazy. Floods, war, and shitbags on trial for all manner of bad stuff. Let’s take a minute and thank God, the Universe (if you swing that way), or whatever higher power that we aren’t P-Diddy, Jeff Epstein, or any one of a mountain of rich assholes in the crosshairs of the law for some pretty bad stuff.
Why?
Mostly because I can’t imagine doing the crap they’ve done. Except I can. I write Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories after all. Those stories have villains and those villains do terrible things.
Which begs the question why them and not me, or us?
Well, they’re rich, someone might say, by way of explanation. Maybe, but that begs the question; why does being rich make someone more likely to do deplorable things than you or me?
I think it boils down to this:
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." —Oscar Wilde
Give a person near unlimited wealth, from our perspective, and you’ve given them the ability to actualize nearly any idea that pops into their heads. Some folk have the intestinal fortitude to resist. Some wind up fighting a badger to the death in a kiddy pool full of Jell-O and baby oil at 2am, others wind up on trial for some of the most heinous things one human can do to another. Not that money is necessary for much of the full range of human depravity but it is a force multiplier.
Now why is adversity a gift?
My opinion (totally worth the price of admission) is that sufficient adversity in a person’s life from birth to death keeps said person between the lines so to speak. Too little and people become whiny entitled shitheels. Too much and people break in ways that they will then try to medicate with an increasingly dark mélange of shit.
So what is a sufficient amount of adversity?
Short answer: It varies.
What is sufficient adversity for you might crush me and what is sufficient for me might crush the next person. And it varies over time. Adversity sufficient for my physical and moral development in my 20s is different than in my 50s.
What do y’all think? Let me know in the comments or over on my socials. (davidhensleywrites for FB, @DHensleywrites on X and Instagram)
If you’re interested in reading about the villains I write about you can find me on Amazon. Give me a follow and checkout my back catalog while I get back to making more stories with dastardly villains.
See you around,
Dave
this is a very well reasoned and though out answer to the question of "why does evil exist?"