Kenneth McKendrick

Is it a bad thing?

So sort of asking questions is one of the things I really try to do.

You know, again, I'm not after the existential question of whether these things exist or not.

I'm interested in what people do with the word evil.

And as a human being, as a non-academic, just in like on the street in my everyday life, yeah, sure, I may use the word evil when I want to control a situation, right?

I mean, if I call something evil, that gives me a little bit of control over the situation.

And if people buy my conception of evil, that gives me a lot of power, right?

As an academic, I have to stand back and say, like, so, Dr. Ken, how have you used the word evil?

I'm actually studying some of my colleagues who use the word evil too.

I turn them into my data whether they like it or not.

I'm interested in the people that use those terms and how they get used and what they do with them and how effective they are.

I for sure use it.

I mean, I teach it and yeah, I use it, but I don't think I use it really seriously.

Like if, you know, I'm having a conversation at the dinner with the family and we're talking about a political decision or transphobia or something like this.

And I try not to use the term because it comes with so much baggage.

It comes with so much freight that to introduce it into conversation is just, it's not really helpful.

It's easier to use less loaded terms.

Like religion is the same way.

As soon as you use the word religion,

People make lots of assumptions about what that word means and maybe who you are or what that entails.