Halima Onotu A lot of people have thrown a lot of words on the source and nature of evil, and yet I have never seen anyone get down to the root of it quite as well as writer Terry Pratchett. There’s a passage from Carpe Jugulum that shows a grasp of the question better than that of any philosopher or religious scholar I’ve ever read:
"There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment about the nature of sin, for example,” said Oats.
“And what do they think? Against it, are they?” said Granny Weatherwax.
“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.”
“Nope.”
“Pardon?”
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is."
“It’s a lot more complicated than that…”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes…”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things.”
It has consistently and repeatedly been my experience and observation that, in countless circumstances, in countless ways great and small, the fundamental essence of evil is treating people as things.
