Theodore Dalrymple's Essay: The Frivolity Of Evil

"The Frivolity Of Evil"

Theodore Dalrymple, 2004
Essay by, Marcelo Vargasluna

Theodore Dalrymple was actually born Anthony Malcolm Daniels on October 11th, 1949. Theodore Dalrymple was Mr. Daniels pen name for the purposes of his writing's. Theodore is an English writer and retired prison Doctor and Psychiatrist of 14 years, whom wrote an article in 2004 in a magazine called "The Frivolity Of Evil" discussing his thoughts on Evil itself.

Let's now take a moment to address exactly what Theodore's main arguments were concerning this particular paper "The Frivolity Of Evil". He begins by expressing his personal views on paying debts to society, and the different aspect's of it. Our current Judicial system in the United States Of America

upholds the belief that once a man has served the allotted time for his crimes he has then, "paid his debt to society". However, this is not a shared belief by Theodore. The accomplished author questions if his work has caused him to be unhealthily preoccupied with the problem of evil. The biggest questions on his mind being," Why do people commit evil? What conditions allow it to flourish? How is it best prevented and, when necessary, suppressed?". Let me make it very clear that these thoughts and views are based on Theodore's personal experiences and feelings regarding this matter.

Theodore spent several years touring the world to such places as, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, and Liberia, where he had witnessed many evils in the ways of torture, tyranny, and ultimately death.

It is no surprise that these questions would then arise in one's mind. All of these were political evils to which his own country had been blessed to have avoided. This leads him to believe that, "Widespread evil was impossible". Unfortunately, he soon came to realize that this was in fact not the

case.

During Theodore's 14 years of employment in both the prison and medical industry, he witnessed "Evil" in many different forms helping him to further his own understanding in the matter. His main focus for the purposes of this article is in regards to his home state of Great Britain. Theodore touches on how their own welfare system is currently allowing evil to flourish. In part because the system has protected the people of Britain from some of its economic consequences. Without consequences for one's actions, man will continue to test the limitations or lack thereof. Allowing this atrocity to continue over the years has helped to promote the widespread growth of evil.

Theodore conveys his own perception of evil pertaining to learned behavior in respects to his own personal interactions with patients over the years, his mothers' experiences growing up, and the atrocities he witnessed in his travels.

He implies that this is a vicious cycle that is passed from one generation to the next. Britain's welfare system in the process fueling the fire of his beliefs. Theodore goes on to uncover some of Britain's dark secrets hidden behind closed doors, e.g. tortures at the hands of drug lords collecting debts. These are just a few examples of what Theodore had come to understand as an equally great Evil just in a different form. Theodore makes an enlightening argument "A ridiculous pas de deux between doctor and patient ensues: the patient pretends to be ill, and the doctor pretends to cure him. In the process, the patient is willfully blinded to the conduct that inevitably causes his misery in the first place." From this, I take that he believes that all circumstances surrounding misery endured are self-inflicted, and can only be rectified by a drastic change in ones way of living and

thinking.

Ancent Greek Philosopher Aristotle conceived that one's Virtue is acquired through, "teaching, experience, and time", assuring that "none of the virtues of character are acquired naturally". In a comparative manner, both Theodore, and Aristotle believe that man's actions, whether "good" or "Evil" are a combination of learned behaviors throughout one's life.
On a personal note, although I share the belief that one can be a product of their environment I assure that we as humans have a choice as to what path to take and opting to take the high road despite everything that's telling us otherwise is an option we're able to make without prejudice from our upbringing. To elaborate I do not believe that someone who's only been subjected to misery, Evil, and negativity throughout their life is without morality. I once knew a man that at the age of 25 started his own multi-million dollar company which he built from the ground up. This very same man came from poverty, a long line of drug-addicted criminals, struggled with autism, and despite everything he'd ever known, and all odds aginst him changed a life of misery into one of happiness and contentment.