“Sometimes the fight is all you get”: Fighting the banality of evil
Recently I was watching the movie “Seven” and after a very long time , a particularly poignant sequence captured my attention. It’s the one in which an already cynical Somerset is explaining to his relentlessly motivated younger colleague, Mills ( a particularly brilliant performance by the ever so handsome Brad Pitt), that the horror of the murders is not that the killer seems to be the Devil. That would have been a relief. The horror of the fact is that he is just a man. If he were Satan himself, the divine battle would have had some meaning to it. But the absurdity of a human committing such crimes with no motive in a city which is a cesspool of apathy and cowardice is what killed his drive to try to rage and roar in the Armageddon.
It was then I realized that we have grown up with a very different version of evil in our minds . It was defined. It was tangible. Most importantly, it was external and a human could fight it. The fates and the prophets ordained that good would win over evil. All the suffering, all the pain would lead upto a victory albeit sometimes at the cost of your own life. And what a day that would be!
But much like Somerset, our courage to fight was chipped away bit by bit. The first time we were silenced in a family conversation when we tried defending deviant notions such as homosexuality or patriarchy. The first time we remained silent when someone cracked a derogatory joke in front of us. The first time we couldn’t give up on relationships which were becoming abusive.
How could good win? Why were we told these lies? All the money is with coal lobby, pro-gun lobby, anti-abortion lobby, pro-war lobby. Environmental firms, human rights organisations, LGBTQ groups, feminist movements are all “philanthropic activities”. They aren’t the norm. These are initiatives you undertake when you have free time and in any case , what war can you possibly wage against those you deem evil. They have all the tools to win. You don’t. We live in a system that is designed to reward evil and opting out of it will tear you to the very core of your existence. The sacrifice demanded from you is too much. So you opt for apathy.
Then comes another forest fire, another mass shooting, another degree rise in temperature. Your mind tries to silence the rage you feel but you can already feel the chasm inside you. You want to be apathetic but you fail. You try to fight it and be like everyone else who seem to be happy. You want that too. But it’s as if your soul was branded to suffer a long time ago and there is no opting out of it. You just can’t obey the dictates of logic and practicality.
Obedience doesn’t come naturally to a few people. This little streak of rebellious behavior always gets them branded as the the outcast.And the rebellion need not be accompanied by brilliance in your field such as openly contradicting geocentricity like Copernicus (what a slap in the face of reigning authorities though!). It was more of a refusal to respect dickish elders who demanded your respect when you were a kid, to be the one person in the group to not laugh at sexist or homophobic jokes and be branded as a “faggot” , to be the one to opt out of working for an oil and gas client at a consultancy which could cost you a promotion or simply taking a lower paying job because it aligns more closely to your ideals.
Happiness then is no longer a desire among this group of people. All they want is a goal worth fighting for. But there is no one fight to be fought or a final showdown in which go a fixed number of rounds in the boxing ring. The childhood vision of what victory day will look like need to be forsaken. No such day will arrive. Maybe you will just keep losing one battle after another no matter how small or big.
But you must keep fighting because the alternative is apathy that your heart can never reconcile with. The alternative to tears of frustration are vacant eyes which have no light or life in them. It’s okay. Maybe there is no victory in the end. Maybe there are short lived moments in which you feel relieved from this constant pressure of failing. But you must keep fighting because sometimes the fight is all you get!
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