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The Root of Evil

            Every single one of us is guilty of evil; even you grandma. So, what is at the root of evil, the cause, the base, the foundation. Well the answer is in the last sentence of my paper so just skip all the explanation, and read the answer contained within my last sentence. Ok so those of you reading this sentence don’t believe I know or want proof to back up my answer. I love to debate and one of the best tools I have found is to first define the word or words to which I am working with so; Evil is defined as “profoundly immoral and malevolent” Immoral is defined as “not conforming to accepted standards of morality” Malevolent is defined as “having or showing a wish to do evil to others” and morality is defined as “principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior” Now we at least know what where dealing with.

             We need to start with the first thing that comes to my mind when I read my title. That is that money is the root of all evil. Money generally is composed of paper and meddles; right so are you telling me that the paper this essay is printed on caused you to commit murder or that the meddle in the laptop it was typed on did? Money is not the root of all evil. The next thing that comes to my mind is “wait, the love of money is the root of all evil”. I am afraid to say that I am again wrong; a lot closer to my conclusion however. Mostly because I don’t think that anyone truly loves the material this essay was written on (no matter how good the essay is) or the medal contained within the computer used to type it.

            I also feel it necessary to say that there also physical ailments that cause people to do very bad things. I am not speaking of these cases because the people are unable to consciously conform to the principle of right and wrong, due generally either to a physical or chemical defect within the mind. I have no need to discuss the reasons for these people wrongdoings because they are not evil. The people themselves are not committing the crimes their ailments are. This is the way it is seen in both societal judicial and ceremonial realms.

            Is the answer demons. People demons is usually used in two ways one is the possession of people by an evil entity not of this world; the other are vices that people contain with in themselves. As for possession, I hardly believe that anyone would say that all people who commit evil acts are possessed by an evil entity not of this world. When a rapist commits his crime, he is acting on his vice for sex, when a junky kill someone for drugs he is acting on a vise, but then whenever a person kills the man who his wife had relations with he is not fulfilling a vice. Although there are cases where both demons’ cause people to do evil acts demons along are not the cause of all evil.

            A characteristic of humans unfortunately is that we enjoy to see pain and suffering. Yes, even you grandma it is almost a human instinctual characteristic. I have no idea why we are like this, but I like everyone else see it every day. On the interstate, we sit for hours and hours and you finally get to the accident and it is twenty feet off the road, and absolutely nothing is blocking traffic. This is just for that reason; people want to see gore. We see It in horror movies, the saw movies grossing over eight hundred and fifty million dollars is no coincidence. I only make this point to demonstrate why it is that people who have committed crimes become famous. Take Ted Bundy, Ted Bundy perhaps one of the most popular killers of the century. He is arguably better known then J.K. Rowling the author of the Harry Potter series, whom has donated millions of dollars to charity. This can be said for a lot of people it is simply easier to achieve fame through evil deeds then it is through good deeds.

            Not all evil deeds are done for fame though, going back to the husband who kills the man whom his wife slept with he does not fame. He is acting on vengeance and anger. He is also not even necessarily an evil person, but he still has a reason for the evil he has done. So the root of all evil is vengeance? The idea of that is almost laughable, no the root of evil Is not vengeance. I would go as far as to say that most evil acts are not out of vengeance. There is a characteristic that most crimes share though, and that is that most of them are committed as crimes of passion. Generally, there is no premeditation to a crime that is why cold blooded killing carry a higher penalty.

            Is love the reason for all crime? Certainly, not however I think it does cause some crime such as the love or lust of a women could cause a suiter to kill competition. This is not such a crazy ideal because it happens on a regular basis. I am not about to say that love is the cause of all evil acts; I will say that love must take its place among the reasons people committee evil acts.

            To kind of recap, we have found several sub reasons that people committee evil acts. The reasons are listed in receding in order like this; money, physical defect, possession and vices (our personal demons), fame, and love. None of these however can be called the root of evil. These are the branches of evil. The way in which evil presents itself a scape goat so to speak. We have still not answered our question though. We have talked a lot about the reasons that evil manifest itself, but not the basic cause of evil (nonbiological evil). One must ask the question then how could all these branches of evil be connected by one thing that is the root cause. Let us think about Pride for a moment all our teachers tell us to take pride in our work, but what is the real meaning of pride. Pride is defined as “a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired” and it is not always a bad thing. I ask you to consider for instance all the crimes that where discussed above.

            Money a branch of evil pride causes this branch of evil by causing people to want more then is necessary providing them with pleasure. Never does a humble person steal, there is simply to much risk in stealing money to just let it sit in the bank. Possession of is not of this world so if you were to believe in it then you must consider that the demon has pride itself that’s why it makes it self-known. Your vices are a little harder to rap your head around, but bear with me. Vary rarely do vices come from people who were intaking there vice for good reasons. Drugs, for example are most often used because people find them to be a good thing a social acceptance so to speak. For sake of the little kid in the back who likes to argue with everything we will take the example of the person who got hooked on morphine due to a car accident for with morphine was a necessary good. This would fall under the physical ailment which is exempt from the rule of course.  Fame the most obvious of all. Fame is cause because these people who commit these crimes want to be known for their achievements (pride). Finally Love what do love and pride have in common. When commits murder for the specific purpose of taking their wife or husband they want to make the achievement of being with them. They can’t just say well she or he was cute and move on. The husband who kills the man who had relations with his wife does it because his pride was hurt. The tree of evil has many, many, many branches some larger some smaller, some greener some darker, but the root of the tree is Pride.