HOW TO NAVIGATE THE PERMEABLE MEMBRANE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

No man can be called good or evil.

But, to become an angel or a devil,

Is a daily choice we must make.

It is certainly not a piece of cake.

If good is capricious in this universe,
Then angels can also turn perverse.

If wrongness is not permanent,

Then devils can become penitent.

If a man is a victim of his situation,

Then evil is not in his disposition.

If good is not from a Holy decree,

Then evil is only a matter of degree.

If unfamiliar situations test our will,

Fixed social roles we'll blindly fulfill.

If an individual bows to conformity,

He will be dehumanized to inactivity.

Against our situational difficulties

That are systemic in our societies,

Humanity's collective moral power,

Is actually as fragile as a flower.

At heart, evil is being self-centered,

And seeking to get others exploited.

From love, our eyes are turned away,

But, to resist evil, there is a way.

There are among everyday people,

Whose morals are much less supple.

Notice the nurse, donor or teacher,

Volunteer social worker or preacher.

Learning from these habitual heroes,

We'll fight all evils as our natural foes,

From being heroes of each moment,

To being in a heroic world movement!

*This poem was inspired by Professor Philip Zimbardo's more than 30 years of psychological research into the Lucifer Effect. This concerns the factors that lead seemingly good people to engage in evil actions.  His research was summarized in his 2008 Random House book: "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil".  Professor Zimbardo is Emeritus Professor in Stanford University, having also previously taught at Yale, NYU and Columbia University, and now teaches at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology and the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey.