Evil Technique: Dehumanization

One of the essential elements to the success of large scale evil is the dehumanization of your intended targets. This allows you to direct the will and effort of large populations against other people with a minimum amount of resistance.

"Why would we want to do this?" you ask.  Simple.  For the payout.

First, it enables you to take whatever resources your targets may be sitting upon. Africa has diamonds, gold, and other precious metals and minerals. The Middle East is rife with oil. South America has oil, medicinally useful plants, and fertile soil. North America has fertile farmland. Asia has farmland, oil, forests, and minerals as well. Europe also has great farmland, and mineral deposits.

Second, harvesting resources can be messy and destructive, rendering the surrounding environment uninhabitable. Pillaging a distant land keeps the mess away from where you live.

Third, conquered people make great free or cheap labor. Building robots to build all of your stuff is expensive and a hassle to maintain. Dehumanized people are cheap, and no one cares enough about how you treat them to really do anything to stop you. Look at how many middle class religious people use iPhones, shop at Walmart, and buy clothing made by virtual and/or actual slaves in Indonesia. This is despite very public incidents of clear human rights issues that resulted in hundreds of deaths.

So, how do you go about dehumanizing people?

First, you isolate and bring focus to the differences they have from the people you are manipulating. It's easier if there is a difference in skin color, or if they speak a different language. These are obvious differences that even children can reliably identify. Lacking these, the next major difference to target is religion. People will actually volunteer for persecution for their religion. They think it makes them special.

Next, you convince your rubes that they are superior to your targets because of their skin color/language/religion/hair color/shoe size or whatever. This is the easiest step, because everyone wants to believe they are special. Your rubes will rapidly internalize that feeling of superiority, and will begin helping you create rationalizations for why they are superior, and why the targets are inferior.

Third, label your target group in such a way that it reinforces their status as an outsider. America is actually quite good at this. European-Americans are always just Americans. Everyone else is a something other than an American, i.e. Asian American, African American, Native American, etc. 

You also give them derogatory names, which may or may not make sense. One to two syllables words should be used, preferably words that children can rhyme with things.

Fourth, make your rubes afraid of your targets. Fear is the primal force that motivates people to action, and it shuts down rational processing. If you can instill fear of your targets into your rube population, you can get away with the most vile acts, and no one will stop you. You're mad scientists will love you for providing an endless supply of test subjects.

How do you accomplish this?  Lie.

Tell your rubes that your targets will rape their women or molest their children. Tell them that they are violent sociopaths, bent on the destruction of their way of life. Find a few actual examples of criminals among your target population, and blow those way out of proportion. Portray your targets as criminals and terrorists in a constant barrage of media. Images you use should make your targets seem less intelligent and aggressive. If you tell your lie loud enough and long enough, people will believe it.

Once you've accomplished this you can plan your invasion, and reap the rewards of exploitation for generations. Enjoy. 

Evil Shout Out: Police State

Malevolent Genius would like to take a moment to salute America's Shadowy Overlords, and their dedicated minions in the Boston PD, the FBI, and USDHS for successfully locking down the city of Boston.

For our international followers, Boston proper is home to 626,000 people, while Greater Boston is home to nearly 4 million people.  The effected area consisted of about a million people.  Boston was the site of several key events of the American Revolution.  It was one of the first American cities to forsake Safety in order to fight to secure Liberty.

It takes quite a bit of organized manpower and effort to lockdown a populace of a million people on short notice.  More importantly, it takes years of dedicated psycho-social management to condition a populace that large to quietly accept military rule. It is fitting that a test run of military rule should take place in Boston, in the name of Safety.

More over, it takes a superior mastermind to corrupt a force that was supposed to be dedicated to protecting civil liberties, and the American constitution, which guarantees those liberties, and convince them to instead focus on the task of locking down an entire city in order to capture or kill two men.  These are soldiers who unthinkingly follow orders in the name of Duty, in the name of "Defending the Homeland."  History tells us what can be accomplished with a cadre of soldiers like that.  The best part is, they aren't even soldiers.  They're police officers.

Finally, masses of Americans are clamoring that the government discard due process, torture the captured suspect, deny him a right to a trial, and revoke the freedom of religion to begin systematically purging Muslims from America.  Essentially, they have discarded their constitution, and are on the verge of collapsing into mob rule.  Once that occurs, police states takeover or the country falls into civil war.  Either way, the populace is culled and cowed, America is weakened, the ideas of Democracy and Personal Liberty will be dealt serious blows, and America's people will have done it to themselves.  All in the name of Safety.

Well done, Shadowy Overlords.  We salute you.

Here are some news sources for those who enjoy pictures and such:

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/22/178446136/boston-lockdown-extraordinary-but-prudent-experts-say

Officers are trained to focus on the task of capturing or killing suspects, and have no regard for civil liberties.

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/04/bpd_big_frustrated_cops_wanted_more_time_when_lockdown_ended

US Senator wants to revoke 8th Amendment (protection from cruel and unusual punishment)
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/index.html#http://video.foxnews.com/v/2319606116001/sen-ball-advocates-torture-of-bombing-suspect/?playlist_id=86924

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/04/manhunt-underway-boston-under-lockdown/100500/

This blogger knows to much.  Someone will eventually silence him.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/we-dont-cower-in-fear-reconsidering-the-boston-lockdown/275165/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22229434

Evil Shout-Out: Steubenville

It's time for another evil shout out. This time, Malevolent Genius would like to acknowledge an evil threesome: Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, who raped a young woman over the course of several hours; their classmates, who stood around and watched; and the American media, for lamenting the lost sports careers of rapists instead of grieving the ruination of a young woman's life.

Remember, evil is that which diminishes or deprives people and things of value and potential, regardless of intent, or gain.  In light of that definition, let us celebrate these dastardly fiends.

Mays and Richmond are recognized for diminishing and depriving a whole slew of people.

First, they diminished themselves.  People have a tremendous capacity for compassion and nobility. We are capable of caring for those who are weak and vulnerable without need for so much as a "thank you."  These boys obviously recognized this potential; they told the girl's father the following morning that she got drunk, they took her back to Mays' place, and they looked after her.  So, instead of being noble, they took advantage of someone who was vulnerable, and became rapists, and then lied to her dad about it in such a way that would make then seem heroes.

Second, instead of keeping their savagery quiet, they paraded the young woman around like a trophy.   They raped her repeatedly over the course of six hours in  front of dozens of witnesses , many of whom filmed it, took pictures of it, and tweeted about it, and none of whom stopped it. Rather than take action against these emerging villains, their classmates became spectators, some silent, some cheering. This is the single greatest act of corruption this town has probably ever seen. Well done, dastardly fiends.

This leads to shout out number two, the spectators. The Boston Marathon bombing provides a great contrast. In Steubenville, the crowds watched and remained silent about the victimization of their classmate for six hours.  The following day, none of them reported it to the police, and only one person told the girls parents.  (That kid is exempt from this shout out.  You don't get an evil shout out for doing the right thing. )

In Boston, the crowds immediately ran to help, despite a risk of danger to themselves.  They did everything they could to help the police, they raised funds for victims' medical bills, and even helped capture the assailants.

The kids in Steubenville all missed out on their chance to be heroes, and gave up their chance to be counted as decent friends as well.   They lived up to the old adage that silence is all that is required for evil to thrive.  Well done minions.

Finally, the American media gets a tip of the evil fedora. This case presented the perfect opportunity for the media to step up in defense of young women. It was the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of the issue of rape in a society where one in three women are sexually assaulted each year. It was  moment that could have been used to teach young men to be better men, or at least not to rape.

Instead, they lamented the ruined sports careers of two rapists. They also used the opportunity to argue that America's rape epidemic demonstrates a need for broader distribution of firearms, and less gun regulation. Given that most rape victims are raped by people, generally men, they know, this means that they are advocating women killing people they go to school with, or work with, go to church with, or are related to. 

It takes a special kind of black heart to ask young women to kill people they know in one breath, and defend and lament the very people you say they should kill in the next. Well done, minions of evil. Well done.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case#section_3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-ungemah/friends-belong-to-each-ot_b_2974818.html?utm_hp_ref=steubenville-rape

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/01/professor-steven-landsburg-rape-_n_2984755.html?utm_hp_ref=steubenville-rape

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/03/exclusive-steubenville-teens-on-tape-describe-night-of-sexual-assault/

Defining Evil

What is evil?

Before these lessons progress any further, its important to stop and clearly define just exactly what evil is.

Webster's defines evil as "1 a : morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct 2 a archaic : inferior b : causing discomfort or repulsion"

The problem with the dictionary definition of evil is that it depends on a culturally defined sense of morality. The issues with that are, 1.) Cultural morality is not universal. What may be immoral in one culture, religion, or subculture, may be a required courtesy in another. 2.) Culture changes over time. Earlier this century television was regarded as the devil's playground. Now, every church of noteworthy size has its own studio.

As such, it is not truly effective to define evil by culture.

Many people (not including Wall Street executives) think that greed, in any of its forms, is the definition of evil. Good old Webster's defines greed as "a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed."

This, I think is closer to the truth, but does not cover the scope of the many facets of evil. Serial killers, for instance, aren't trying to acquire anything. They kill out of a psychological need.

I submit to you that evil is that which diminishes or deprives people and things of value and potential, regardless of intent, or gain.

Now, what does it mean to diminish or deprive someone of value?

This is not a reference to a measure of monetary value. Humans, depending on one's belief system, are either the result of billions of years of evolutionary processes, divine bio-engineering, cosmic karmic forces, or various combinations of the three. Either way, sentient life is rare, which makes each instance of it precious.

People are deprived of value when they are convinced that they are worth less, and somehow should be subjected to a host of arbitrary deprivations and abuses. People who understand their value, and the value of humanity, rarely submit to various "isms" (sexism, racism, classism) which make institutional exploitation easier.

What does it mean to diminish or deprive people of potential?

Humans are capable of tremendous things: beauty, art, science, poetry, music, humor, love, honor, and nobility. Even people born with mental or physical disabilities are capable of offering and accomplishing amazing things. When you convince people that they can't do something that is within the realm of possiblity, or harm them psychologically enough to abandon hope, you are diminishing their potential. Physical harm can accomplish this, but is much less effective than psychology, and much easier to overcome.

Now, why would we want to do this?

Diminished people are easier to control and exploit. That makes it easier to use them for your own ends. Also, people make interesting noises when you squish them.

Which Kind of Evil Are You?

Types of Evil

As you embark upon your journey of evil, it is important to understand what type of evil you are and the types of other evil beings you will meet.

Here's a quick rundown:

The Henchman
The henchman is driven by primary motivations, such as greed, status, sex, and an enjoyment of violence.  They lack either drive, focus, or the intelligence to aspire to greater heights of evil.  You will commonly encounter henchmen.  Pay them well, and use them for what they are worth.  Don't leave them in charge of vital projects or prisoners.

The Scientist
The Scientist is interested in the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake, and welcomes the opportunity to conduct their research.  Some will not realize the military applications of their research, some are chomping at the bit to see people destroyed.  The latter are known as Mad Scientists.  Beware of them.  Carefully monitor your scientists, and be prepared to pull them out of their labs at a moment's notice.

The Burner
Made famous by Heath Ledger's Joker, this type of villain enjoys destruction for destruction's sake.  Perhaps they have come to the realization that life is futile.  Perhaps they enjoy the various colors of material and flesh burning.  In the end, their motivation doesn't matter.  They have accepted the fact that everything dies, including themselves, and are determined to enjoy the ride.  You cannot negotiate or reason with these individuals.  Avoid or eliminate them at all costs.

The Shield
The Shield's primary motivation is to protect themselves and what they love. They have drawn a very clear circle about what and who are important to them, and consider everyone and everything else to be disposable.  You can rely on these people if you can ingratiate yourself into their circle, and you can provide a sense of security for them, or for who and what they care about.  Their essential concern is loyalty, and as long as you are loyal to them they will be loyal to you.  Acquire as many shields as possible, and be careful to take good care of them.  Be warned, however, that betraying a shield will prove to be fatal.

The Hungry
The Hungry are motivated by an insatiable desire to acquire power and status.  They can be manipulated by their greed, but they will eventually desire more than you can provide.  Be wary of the hungry.  Use them to meet your goals, and then dispose of them in the most efficient way possible.

The Corrupter
The Corrupter has embraced their evil,  and specializes in seducing and luring others into darkness and malfeasance.  Their motivations vary from the principle of misery loving company to the perverse pleasure of watching something pure being twisted.  Corrupters make valuable allies, as long as you can satisfy their appetites. They are quite useful in ruining enemies with scandals, and overseeing hordes of downfallen rabble.

The Crusader
The Crusader believes they are doing a service for the greater good, or a higher power.  They, like the burner, cannot be negotiated with.  They believe that the ends justify the means, and will pursue their goal like a rabid pit bull.  It is important to note that crusaders often think that they are the good guy.  If you can manipulate people into becoming crusaders, you will have a brutally focused, and highly disposable force.  If crusaders target you, they must be swiftly eliminated.

The Architect
The Architect is attempting to build a better world.  They frequently believe that destruction or suffering on a massive scale will either cull the weak from humanity, or bring out the best in humanity.  They, like the crusader, are motivated by the greater good, or a calling from a higher power.  As long as your goals coincide, they can be relied upon.  When they discover that you have divergent goals they will seek to eliminate you, and will often have several contingency plans in place to ensure success.  Beware of architects, and understand that you are playing a deadly game of chess against a grand master.  It is best to preemptively eliminate architects unless it is entirely unavoidable.

The Mastermind
The mastermind is cold and calculating.  They're motivations are varied, but generally center around the acquisition of wealth and power in order to steer events in a desired direction.  They do not necessarily believe in a greater good, and are not primarily motivated by the acquisition of wealth and power for its own sake.  Wealth and power are a means to an end for masterminds.  They share similar traits to Architects, and Shields, but without moral or emotional constraints.  Cold logic is their guiding principle.  Masterminds can be predictable, and obvious, but are able to execute dastardly plans in the open because people are generally unwilling to believe others who look like them can be so cold.  Masterminds are not to be trusted, nor allied with.  If you encounter a mastermind unmasked, he or she has already decided that you can be trusted and used, or they are about to eliminate you.

Spreading Evil

One of the best ways to advance your evil cause is to recruit unwitting followers. For a truly diabolical twist, make your followers believe they are doing good for the world.

Ironically, one of the best recruiting grounds for unwitting followers is among the world's deeply religious communities.  It's not that they are particularly less intelligent, its that they relate to the world primarily on an emotional level, and secondarily on a rational level.  That is to say, if you can communicate a message that appeals to them emotionally, they will create intellectual safeguards to defend that idea. Additionally, if you can appeal to them personally, they will rationalize any of your inconsistent behavior.

This is why there are vast gulfs between what religious texts instruct people to do, and what followers actually do. Parts of the teachings appeal to them emotionally, so they embrace them. Parts of the teachings clash with how they feel, so they rationalize their behavior rather than modify it.

It is essential that you understand this point, or you will fail miserably in your endeavors.  Most evil geniuses, like many scientists, relate to the world primarily on a rational level, and secondarily on an emotional level. It is the reason there is such a vast communication gulf between the religious community and the scientific community.  Though we are using similar words, we are literally speaking different languages.

Religious groups are particularly useful for persecuting other groups of people.  If you can convince Religious Group A that People Group X are irredeemably sinful, or are attacking their core values, Religious Group A will oppose them at every turn. They will even do so to their own detriment.  This is particularly useful if you are playing a long game and wish to garner public support for People X.  After all, who doesn't love an underdog.

I caution you that many more experienced masters of evil have been exploiting religious people for a long time.  Be wary of crossing a fellow diabolical genius.  We aren't know for our mercy.

HSBC: A Salute to Evil

Evil Recognition: HSBC

I would like to take a moment to salute a fellow evil genius, who has been quite successful in advancing the cause of evil in the world.

Douglas Jardine Flint of HSBC has successfully assumed leadership of a multinational bank that the United States government has deemed to large to prosecute, even though they are directly aiding terrorists and drug cartels.  This is an evil empire with some real Chutzpah.

HSBC, we here at Malevolent Genius salute you.


http://www.nbcnews.com/business/banking-giant-hsbc-pay-record-1-9-billion-money-laundering-1C7541128

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18880269

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/hsbc-said-to-near-1-9-billion-settlement-over-money-laundering/?ref=business

Patience is an Evil Virtue.

Evil Virtues: Patience

Patience is the second essential trait for successful evil. More plots have been foiled by an impatient mastermind than by any determined investigator.   Toppling nations, subverting religions, and unleashing targeted plagues takes time. A moment of frustrated impulsivity can ruin decades of work.

Henchmen will argue that there is no point in being evil if you can't instantly have whatever you want.  These henchmen are playing checkers, while the masterminds are playing three-dimensional, four-player chess.  Such henchmen are disposable tools, and should be disposed of quickly.

Cultivating patience is difficult.   Most people are not able to master all of their impulses, and are not honest enough to admit their impulses can be plan killing.  But we are not most people.  We are evil masterminds, capable of presiding over multi-generational  plots for universal domination.  I say universal, rather than global, because truly ambitious evil seeks to rule over all of the material plane, not just one planet.

A good starting point for developing deeper patience is to learn to sit quietly and still for ten minutes. Many masterminds find classical music helpful in this. Cats are also a useful tool, as it is a time consuming and largely futile task to bend a feline to your will. It can be done, which is why so many successful masterminds have small white cats.

The cultivation of patience will be an ongoing pursuit, and a constant admonition on our journey toward mastering evil.

Honest to Goodness Evil.

Evil Virtue: Honesty

There are many important aspects and facets of evil, but the foundation of any true evil is blunt honesty.  This is shocking to many evil novices.  They think evil entails lying and deceiving nonstop.  This is simply not the case.  Being evil requires the ability to stare unblinkingly at reality and call a spade a spade.

This is not to say that deception isn't a tool of evil, but in order to be truly evil you have to be able to admit what you are and who you are to yourself.

You also have to be able to analyze any given situation and recognize it for what it is, for the opportunities it presents, and the road blocks it places.

For instance,  "No one is coming to save you. "  This is a hard truth for many to accept. As such, they sit around waiting for some nebulous "them" to solve the big problems in life, when in reality it is entirely up to each individual to solve life's big problems.

Here's another one, "People are stupid." We chuckle, and agree; but then accept the judgment of doctors, lawyers, politicians, and so many others.  The truth is, these people are just as stupid as everyone else.

Here is the hardest one: "I am flawed.". No one is good at acknowledging their flaws, and Western Civilization strongly discourages it, but everyone is flawed.  Being able to acknowledge your flaws means you can take steps against them. Failing to do so means others will take steps to exploit them.
So, yes.  The first step to being magnificently evil is learning to be unflinchingly honest.

We begin cultivating evil honesty with a hard look at ourselves.  Here is a simple assessment:

1.) What are your greatest accomplishments?
2.) What are you most skilled at?
3.) What are you least skilled at?
4.) What brings you joy?
5.) What frustrates you?
6.) What do you want to accomplish this year?
7.) How realistic is that goal?
8.) What is your new, realistic goal?
9.) Who can you rely on to keep your secrets?
10.) Who can  you rely on the show up to help?
11.) Do they have a sturdy shovel?
12.) Who relies on you?
13.) How important is that relationship?
14.) How much time and effort have you put into that important relationship this week?
15.) If you're neglecting them, won't they eventually turn on you and spoil your whole evil plot?
16.) Are you going to invest time and energy in your important relationship, or sacrifice them to Cthulhu?
17.) What measures have you taken to dispose of the forensic evidence from your sacrifices?  (Seriously, CSI has been on for twenty years.  Plan for this stuff.)


The next step is patience.

Evil 101

Welcome to Evil 101.  I am going to take you on a trip to the Darkside, covering the basics of evil plotting, getting away with the petty crimes necessary to move on to diabolical schemes, and recruiting talented henchmen.

Welcome, my minions, to the world's greatest course on evil.