Pathogenic Evil

The possibility that outbreaks of evil – that is, of systematic malice, cruelty, utter disregard for the lives of other humans, and wanton destruction raised to the status of an ideology: the quasi-deification of wrongdoing – not only have some of the aspects of a disease epidemic caused by a pathogenic organism, but actually have a biological cause, deserves more attention than has been given it. There are some pathogens and environmental toxins that produce symptoms of major mental illnesses. The rabies virus, for example, produces demented behavior that turns the host into a vector for the pathogen. There is fairly good documentary evidence that historical localized outbreaks of demonic possession and witch-hunting hysteria were correlated with the ergot disease of rye, which thrives in wet, cool weather. Consumption of infected grain produces hallucinations, a burning sensation in the extremities, miscarriages and birth defects, and withering of limbs due to stoppage of circulation. An outbreak of this vegetable pathogen is believed by many historians to have been responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in Salem in the 1690’s.

 

Short of ascribing it all to Satan, there is surely no one explanation for the evil of Nazism, or of that global eruption of evil called World War II, from which none of the major participants was completely immune. I do wonder, however, what role the use of nitrogen mustard in the trenches in the First World War might have played. Survivors of gas attacks (of whom Hitler was one) suffered lasting neurological damage, which coupled with the psychological trauma of trench warfare might, for all we know, produce evil thought patterns as a symptom.