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Understanding the Nature of Threats Generated by Evil
A Perspective for Families, Organizations, and Governments
To paraphrase Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good people to do nothing.” Evil intentions, evil thoughts, evil actions: when it comes to threats and hazards, acts of evil have a special place on our collective lists of bad things. Evil can generate significant , including life-threatening ones.
Some of us may think we can focus solely on what we believe are evildoers, and then end up with reduced capabilities and capacity for those natural and human-made hazards which become significant threats, nonetheless. Others will disregard the possibility of evil actions or intent, which has significant downsides as well. Lack of planning for what is considered consequence management possibilities is a bad path to be on.
Why do bad people do bad things (threats which become hazards)? In most cases it boils down to one of four reasons, . — Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego. None of these cover a possible worst-case scenario, which is evil. People who are evil want to hurt or destroy beyond any reasons we can think of. What we all can do is to be ready for something evil — that is to be better prepared before, during, and after…
