„My name is Legion, for we are many.“

This is how the devil introduces himself in Mark 5:9. Evil consists of a multitude. Evil is when a group adheres to a collective ideology, where individuals merge into a mob and dissolve into a legion of many.

It’s nearly impossible to discuss with a person obsessed with an ideology, may the ideology be good or evil. Mob dynamics are always dangerous, especially when the mob is cemented together with a self-defined moral superiority. It is irrelevant what the target of holy wrath is, for nothing justifies a reign of terror, neither virtue nor good intentions.

When people who otherwise have little in common unite in the common disparagement of others, when identity forms around hatred of others, then danger lurks. It’s irrelevant who or what the other is, whether good or evil.

Mere opposition is not an ideal concept to move the masses. Therefore, for my part, I’m not against something, rather I’m for something. I’m not against a religion, rather I’m for equal rights for all followers, and especially for the right to fuck with all religions equally. I don’t have to be openly against anything, because as soon as I take a clear position for something, what I love, live and fight for, there’ll already be those who oppose me. For their part, they’ll erect walls in order to exclude me. Why should I help them?

Why should I waste my energy and help those who oppose me construct barriers they’re working on already?

I won’t clear the field. I stay firm where I am. I relate more what I like and not so much what I hate. I move freely. Whoever wants to walk a few steps with me is welcome.

I don’t have to be in opposition. When I voice what I’m for, I’ll automatically be excluded by those who oppose me. The nastiest things are often said about me as soon as I say who I am. Those who don’t despise Legion become victims of hatred themselves. The word for this is witch hunt.

A witch hunt is always bad, whether the hunted is a witch or not!

A mob defines itself more by exclusion than by beliefs. If the common denominator is exclusion, a momentum will develop, by which others with divergent opinions are defined as „deviants” and „traitors”. In such a group there’s no debating but instead dictating, and any diversion – be it a millimeter – is sanctioned with thunderous applause.

„Whoever is not for us is against us,“ is Legion’s slogan; all else is suppressed and sanctioned.

„Beware the beginnings!“ roar the goon squads, and yet they mean only the beginnings of a future they construct out of their own fear behind walls. Their fear is contagious and creates hostages of fear. Fear is the root of totalitarianism. It is preemptively violent.

The mob has no tolerance. The mob defines words as a type of violence, but only to justify actual physical violence against those who deviate or oppose. The mob reacts with a warped kind of violent self-defence against dissenters and critics.

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(Translation: William Wires)