THE PROBLEM OF EVIL TODAY
C.G. JUNG
The Christian myth remained unassailably vital for a millennium-until the
first signs of a further transformation of consciousness began appearing in
the eleventh century.
From then on, the symptoms of unrest and doubt increased, until at the end of the second millennium the outlines of a universal catastrophe became apparent, at first in the form of a threat to consciousness.
This threat consists in giantism-in other words, a hubris of consciousness in the assertion: “Nothing is greater than man and his deeds.”
The otherworldliness, the transcendence of the Christian myth was lost, and with it the view that wholeness is achieved in the other world.
Light is followed by shadow, the other side of the Creator. This development
reached its peak in the twentieth century.
The Christian world is now truly confronted by the principle of evil, by naked injustice, tyranny, lies, slavery, and coercion of conscience.
Its first violent eruption came in Germany.
That outpouring of evil revealed to what extent Christianity has been
undermined in the twentieth century.
In the face of that, evil can no longer be minimized by the euphemism of the privatio boni.
Evil has become a determinant reality.
It can no longer be dismissed from the world by a circumlocution.
We must learn how to handle it, since it is here to stay.
How we can live with it without terrible consequences cannot for the present be conceived.
In any case, we stand in need ofa reorientation,. a metanoia. Touching evil
brings with it the grave peril of succumbing to it.
We must, therefore, no longer succumb to anything at all, not even to good.
A so-called good to which we succumb loses its ethical character.
Not that there is anything bad in it on that score, but to have succumbed to it may breed trouble.
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
We must beware of thinking of good and evil as absolute opposites.
The criterion of ethical action can no longer consist in the simple view that
good has the force of a categorical imperative, while so-called evil can resolutely be shunned.
Recognition of the reality of evil necessarily relativizes the good, and the evil likewise, converting both into halves of a paradoxical whole.
In practical terms, this means that good and evil are no longer so selfevident.
We have to realize that each represents ajudgment.
In view of the fallibility of all human judgment, we cannot believe that we will always judge rightly.
We might so easily be the victims of misjudgment.
The ethical problem is affected by this principle only to the extent that we become somewhat uncertain about moral evaluations.
Nevertheless we have to make ethical decisions.
The relativity of “good” and “evil” by no means signifies that these
categories are invalid, or do not exist.
Moral judgment is always present and carries with it characteristic psychological consequences.
I have pointed out many times that as in the past, so in the future the wrong we have done, thought, or intended will wreak its vengeance on our souls.
Only the contents of judgment are subject to the differing conditions of time and place and, therefore, take correspondingly different forms.
For moral evaluation is always founded upon the apparent certitudes of a moral code which pretends to know precisely what is good and what evil.
But once we know how uncertain the foundation is, ethical decision becomes a subjective, creative act.
Nothing can spare us the torment of ethical decision.
Nevertheless, harsh as it may sound, we must have the freedom in some circumstances to avoid the known moral good and do what is considered to be evil, if our ethical decision so requires.
In other words, again: we must not succumb to either of the opposites.
A useful pattern is provided by the neti-neti of Indian philosophy.
In given cases, the moral code is undeniably abrogated and ethical choice is
left to the individual.
In itself there is nothing new about this idea; in prepsychology days such difficult choices were also known and came under the heading of “conflict of duties
As a rule, however, the individual is so unconscious that he altogether fails to see his own potentialities for decision.
Instead he is constantly and anxiously looking around for external rules and regulations which can guide him in his perplexity.
Aside from general human inadequacy, a good deal of the blame for this rests with education, which promulgates the old generalizations and says nothing about the secrets of private experience.
Thus, every effort is made to teach idealistic beliefs or conduct which people know in their hearts they can never live up to, and such ideals are preached by officials who know that they themselves have never lived up to these high standards and never will.
What is more, nobody ever questions the value of this kind of teaching.
Therefore the individual who wishes to have an answer to the problem of evil, as it is posed today, has need, first and foremost, of self-knowledge, that is, the utmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness.
He must know relentlessly how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of, and must beware of regarding the one as real and the other as illusion.
Both are elements within his nature, and both are bound to come to light in him, should he wish-as he ought-to live without self-deception or self-delusion.
In general, however, most people are hopelessly ill equipped for living on
this level, although there are also many persons today who have the capacity for profounder insight into themselves.
Such self-knowledge is of prime importance, because through it we approach that fundamental stratum or core of human nature where the instincts dwell.
Here are those preexistent dynamic factors which ultimately govern the ethical decisions of our consciousness.
This core is the unconscious and its contents, concerning which we cannot
pass any final judgment.
Our ideas about it are bound to be inadequate, for we are unable to comprehend its essence cognitively and set rational limits to it.
We achieve knowledge of nature only through science, which enlarges consciousness; hence deepened self-knowledge also requires science, that is, psychology.
No one builds a telescope or microscope with one turn of the wrist, out of good will alone, without a knowledge of optics.
Today we need psychology for reasons that involve our very existence.
We stand perplexed and stupefied before the phenomenon of Nazism and
Bolshevism because we know nothing about man, or at any rate have only a
lopsided and distorted picture of him.
If we had self-knowledge, that would not be the case.
We stand face to face with the terrible question of evil and do not even know what is before us, let alone what to pit against it.
And even if we did know, we still could not understand “how it could happen here.”
With glorious naIvete a statesman comes out with the proud declaration that he has no “imagination for evil.”
Quite right: we have no imagination for evil, but evil has us in its grip. Some do not want to know this, and others are identified with evil.
That is the psychological situation in the world today: some call
themselves Christian and imagine that they can trample so-called evil underfoot by merely willing to; others have succumbed to it and no longer see the good.
Evil today has become a visible Great Power.
One half of humanity battens and grows strong on a doctrine fabricated by human ratiocination; the other half sickens from the lack of a myth commensurate with the situation. Carl Jung, Meeting the Shadow, Page 170-172
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