Dealing with evil is a massive challenge for us. We condemn things that happened or are happening right now, accuse ourselves and others for not preventing it. Quickly we bring a zeal to our mission of fighting evil. A sense of duty establishes, we feel obliged to monitor all evil as it unfolds and constantly point towards it. We create the need to always give our attention to as much evil as we can, and never stop accusing it. The news make sure that we are always well informed about many evil things happening all over the world. But where do we direct our accusations? The evil, that many like to spend so much time with, comes into our field of view in newspapers and on screens. Through books and reporting. It is somewhere out there, often far away, and affects us directly just in a few rare occasions, in the shape of higher energy prices or mask requirements. The attempt to fight the evil on the screen is a futile effort. We cannot find any point of attack there, not even a valve to blow off some steam. We can only make a difference where we are. In other places we can only have an effect through our money. Today, there are other ways of remote action, for example phones and video streaming. That way we can also become an actor on a screen.
People who turn away from news reporting often find themselves confronted with the accusation of having no interest in the world, or being ignorant and selfish. That they are not fulfilling their obligation of looking at the worlds sorrow and suffering with it. That they only want to deal with pleasant things. Or that they indirectly support evil by ignoring it. The opposite is true. The above way of thinking was established to give evil the attention it requires to gain control and have an impact on a large number of people. What is reported to us are the symptoms of a lost world. The consumption of those symptoms is like poison, and too much of it makes us ill. Consuming the symptoms supports the evil in the world because it distracts us and leaves us without time and energy for the development that we should tackle to overcome evil. Our task is not to loose ourselves in those symptoms, but become aware that we got lost and to regain orientation. For us and, as a consequence, for the world.
An occupation with evil reduced on its symptoms helps nobody. What we must understand is cause of it. And the purpose of it. Watching people in war zones does not prevent wars, and neither does our indignation. Not even prohibiting war will prevent it. Symptoms cannot simply be forbidden. We can get as angry about them as we like, can accuse them nonstop, it will change nothing at all. It would be like forbidding sickness and expecting everyone to be healthy for the rest of their lives in consequence. That is not how problems are solved. We must understand that large parts of todays reporting, together with the way it is consumed, is not a solution approach but a big part of the problem.
We should think about what problems we make our own problems and why. Simply sucking in and “knowing about” all problems of the world is not a heathy way to live and neither desirable nor admirable. There are people who find their mission in reporting other peoples problems. And that can work for them, if they find their vocation in it. But we should not fall for the illusion that we turn against evil simply by giving a big stage to evil actions. Then we easily get paralyzed, or get lost in blind activism, driven by the power of all the terrible symptoms. Problems should be communicated selective, in places that are connected to their origin, their immediate impact or their resolution. On an interpersonal level we can of course share our burdens and ask for compassion and comfort or simply an open ear.
There are two ways to deal with evil reasonably. If we picture evil as darkness, then we achieve the biggest impact not by accusing this darkness, but by lighting a candle. People who have a an intuitive capability to differentiate good and evil do not need to waste time with an observation and analysis of the darkness. They can just emit light. They can do good and make the world better by doing so.
The other way is the endeavor to find truth with our own strength and ability to judge. When we make an effort to find truth ourselves and resist the temptation to just adopt popular opinions, revelations and ideals, then we do not so easily become a piece of evil players. This is a difficult task, because we carried over many beliefs and assumptions when we were younger, and during our life we concluded even more beliefs based on them. We build our Weltbild on a foundation that shaped the world as it is today. If we want to change the world, we must question our beliefs. We have to be ready to rebuild our Weltbild from the ground up, until no stone is left where it was. Until we found and solved our own conflicts and uncertainties that we like to cover and forget. For us and, as a consequence, for the world.