Author M. Scott Peck was a class act. Now deceased for nearly ten years, Dr. Peck was the author of "The Road Less Traveled" along with his follow-up book, "Further Along the Road Less Traveled". TRLT is one of the only books featured on the New York Times best seller list for thirteen years. It is probably best known for its opening line which is this: "Life is difficult." As a psychiatrist and spiritual teacher, Dr. Peck's books have helped millions of people all around the globe successfully pursue the healing, positive change, and personal growth process in a truly integrated manner. Before his death, Dr. Peck was interviewed exclusively by Oprah; I was fortunate enough to watch the interview and consider Dr. Peck one of the great evangelists of our modern age...
In Dr. Peck's book Further Along the Road Less Traveled, he talks about people who are militantly ignorant. From the first moment I read the term, I knew exactly what Dr. Peck was referring to. The militantly ignorant are those among us who will go and do go to any length to ignore truth. Taken a step further, the militantly ignorant obtain a perverse sort of satisfaction when they feel they have subverted or destroyed the truth to accomplish their own selfish ends. If you haven't already guessed, to function as one who is militantly ignorant, or militantly unconscious, is to be evil.
Who are the militantly ignorant in your own life? Who has made a point of letting you know that when push comes to shove, they win and you lose---always. I have seen militantly ignorant mothers who have shut their eyes to husbands who sexually abuse their own children; I have seen militantly ignorant husbands and fathers who behave as if they are still 14 years old without a responsibility or care in the world. Whomever painted the picture of evil being limited to war mongers or middle eastern terrorists is kidding themselves. We are all capable of and of having committed evil acts because we are all of us human. The problem arises when we remain unaware of our own downward spiral in making our own needs-satisfaction the #1 priority first and always. Not unlike the frog that violently resists being placed in a boiling pot of water, we give a whole lot of lip service to the evil behaviors that are politically correct to abhor. And just like the frog willing to jump into tepid water without a moment's hesitation, once the heat is slowly turned up---it dies without ever realizing what killed it. The same is true for us. Once we have had enough practice at engaging in evil acts without suffering any significant consequences in our own minds, it is truly astounding how corrupted we can become without ever "consciously" realizing it. Another reason why evil is defined as being militantly unconscious oh by the way...
I have always found it fascinating how people can argue against the existence of evil and yet are the first to scream loudest when they are personally offended by someone else's words or actions. It does not follow that a person waves the flag of moral relativism only to complain when they feel the pinch of someone else's choices. This is like saying God does not exist but then blaming Him for what happened to your loved one who died prematurely. We can't have it both ways. We either do or do not believe in God. We either do or do not believe in truth. We either do or do not believe in evil. Period. And as writer Gustav Flaubert so aptly put it when writing his infamous novel, "Madame Bovary", "To declare that men have absolute power over truth is blasphemy, and the last delusion. The truth lives forever, men do not."
Evil is man's attempt to function above the truth, while at the same time actively attempting to destroy it. For many of us, we have looked evil dead in the eye from an early age and recognize quite quickly when we are in its presence. For others, being repeatedly thrown under the bus by our so-called loved ones is how love and pain get mixed up together to create a sadistic/masochistic dance only two can play. By dismissing evil as non-existent, we truly set ourselves up for the grandest delusion of all: that we are capable of peaceful coexistence so long as we focus our efforts on the collective well-being of our human family. Good luck with that. Show me a man who is incapable of being seduced by the lust for power, pleasure, and avoidance of personal responsibility, and I'll show you a figment of your own imagination...
In Dr. Peck's book Further Along the Road Less Traveled, he talks about people who are militantly ignorant. From the first moment I read the term, I knew exactly what Dr. Peck was referring to. The militantly ignorant are those among us who will go and do go to any length to ignore truth. Taken a step further, the militantly ignorant obtain a perverse sort of satisfaction when they feel they have subverted or destroyed the truth to accomplish their own selfish ends. If you haven't already guessed, to function as one who is militantly ignorant, or militantly unconscious, is to be evil.
Who are the militantly ignorant in your own life? Who has made a point of letting you know that when push comes to shove, they win and you lose---always. I have seen militantly ignorant mothers who have shut their eyes to husbands who sexually abuse their own children; I have seen militantly ignorant husbands and fathers who behave as if they are still 14 years old without a responsibility or care in the world. Whomever painted the picture of evil being limited to war mongers or middle eastern terrorists is kidding themselves. We are all capable of and of having committed evil acts because we are all of us human. The problem arises when we remain unaware of our own downward spiral in making our own needs-satisfaction the #1 priority first and always. Not unlike the frog that violently resists being placed in a boiling pot of water, we give a whole lot of lip service to the evil behaviors that are politically correct to abhor. And just like the frog willing to jump into tepid water without a moment's hesitation, once the heat is slowly turned up---it dies without ever realizing what killed it. The same is true for us. Once we have had enough practice at engaging in evil acts without suffering any significant consequences in our own minds, it is truly astounding how corrupted we can become without ever "consciously" realizing it. Another reason why evil is defined as being militantly unconscious oh by the way...
I have always found it fascinating how people can argue against the existence of evil and yet are the first to scream loudest when they are personally offended by someone else's words or actions. It does not follow that a person waves the flag of moral relativism only to complain when they feel the pinch of someone else's choices. This is like saying God does not exist but then blaming Him for what happened to your loved one who died prematurely. We can't have it both ways. We either do or do not believe in God. We either do or do not believe in truth. We either do or do not believe in evil. Period. And as writer Gustav Flaubert so aptly put it when writing his infamous novel, "Madame Bovary", "To declare that men have absolute power over truth is blasphemy, and the last delusion. The truth lives forever, men do not."
Evil is man's attempt to function above the truth, while at the same time actively attempting to destroy it. For many of us, we have looked evil dead in the eye from an early age and recognize quite quickly when we are in its presence. For others, being repeatedly thrown under the bus by our so-called loved ones is how love and pain get mixed up together to create a sadistic/masochistic dance only two can play. By dismissing evil as non-existent, we truly set ourselves up for the grandest delusion of all: that we are capable of peaceful coexistence so long as we focus our efforts on the collective well-being of our human family. Good luck with that. Show me a man who is incapable of being seduced by the lust for power, pleasure, and avoidance of personal responsibility, and I'll show you a figment of your own imagination...