The dog was tied to a post by his leash outside a shopping center. His fur was soaked and he shivered uncontrollably. It was 27F with high winds and wet sticky snow and the dog cast about desperately, looking with a pleading face at people entering and leaving the mall. The look in his eyes was too much to ignore. I walked over to him and untied his leash. He seemed confused and frightened as I coaxed him into the entryway and retied him to a nearby door away from the wind and snow. As I did so, I felt a disgusted rage towards the dog's owner (a shop attendant informed me it was some horrid woman who had gone into the dollar store) but there was little more I could do. Taking the dog with me was not an option, though had I been at home it would have been a given.The nature of Evil is so poorly understood, particularly in the context of Black Metal and its forebears. The spectators have incredibly misgiven ideas about what makes one Evil and what behavior reflects it. Evil and cruelty are two different things, though they are constantly confused. A violent man is generally not so much Evil as he is angry at whatever pain life has delivered unto him. Being Evil does not mean to be without passion or compassion, but rather to have those qualities and motivations on one's own terms rather than having them mandated by society or the church. Evil means we are masters of our own destiny. Evil is the courage to demand absolute measures to make this world one in which we wish to live. Evil is a rejection of moralism and post-moralism, and an adaption of a mixed code of conduct that may seem outwardly inconsistent but internally coherent. Evil is to choose the dark rather than to accept the light. We can smile, laugh, and even love, and this does not invalidate our nature. We find meaning in dark places and in dark practices. If this was not true then we would not make this music. Our passions show in our art and Evil is the fuel that drives it, the prime motivator.
I reached out in kindness to an animal yesterday, and some would say this contradicts the idea of being Evil. They know nothing. They are not of us.
