We’re crazy if we think evil will be honest

I used to get really upset. I used to get really frustrated. I still do experience these things, but for different reasons now. I used to expect that evil would just be honest about itself. How naive of me. I used to get frustrated that evil would lie and say one thing and then do the exact opposite. What was I thinking?

I was thinking that evil would play by the rules because I try to play by the rules. I thought evil would do the things that someone reasonable would do. How silly of me.

I don’t know why it took me so long to finally see evil for what it is. I don’t know that I’m thrilled that I do though either. It’s more of a settling for what is, if that makes sense.

Here’s what I’ve learned. We should expect evil to lie. Doesn’t matter if we are talking about evil systems, belief systems, institutions, religious beliefs, political systems, ideologies, governments, businesses, organizations, groupings of some sort, or individual people.

Evil is based on a lie. Lying is the very foundation of evil. Evil knows no other way than lying.

When we expect evil to just be honest, we’re fooling ourselves. Evil doesn’t know how to be honest. How else do you explain that evil lies even when it doesn’t have to?

We should expect evil to lie right to our face, without a hint of guilt or shame. And we should expect evil to try to cover up the lies with more lies. We should never expect evil to experience remorse or feel bad about lying.

And we should get better at looking, discerning, and watching to see the truth of the matter so that we know when a lie is going on, regardless of what we are being told.

I don’t know if this is a universal law or not, but I know it to be true – that our actions are always in alignment with our actual core beliefs. We cannot act in opposition to what we actually believe. Our actions display for all the world what it is that we actually believe. Our words are really just what we aspire to. But they can mislead.

So listen to what is said, and then watch to see what the truth is. This takes some patience. It means not reacting to what is said. Another thing that I have learned about evil is that it is impatient. Give it enough time, which it usually doesn’t need much time, and evil will show its hand. And we’ll see it for what it is.

The truth sets us free from the frustration of expecting evil to be honest. Evil will never be honest. Because it’s not part of its nature. Being honest is a rejection of what it is at its core.

The short version of this is don’t project what you would do onto evil and assume it will do the same thing. It won’t. That’s what you can expect.