When You’re Convinced Someone is Just Evil
by Michael Feeley
I’ve met people who seemed born to punish. Vindictive to their core. And I’ve caught myself thinking: maybe some people are just wired for cruelty.
That thought is seductive because it lets me off the hook. If they’re monsters by design, I don’t have to struggle with the harder truth—that goodness exists in all of us, buried under fear and pain.
Here’s what I’m learning: When I decide someone is irredeemably evil, I’m protecting myself from believing in human potential. Because if I believe in their goodness, I have to believe in my own.
And here’s another thing—you can’t extend respect to others while you’re ruthless with yourself. When you practice contempt as a daily habit, even toward your own failures, you become contemptuous. The brutality doesn’t stay contained. It leaks into everything.
Contempt makes you smaller. It drains the color from your days. It turns you into someone you don’t recognize.
Resistance (your inner bully) wants you cynical. It wants you to see heartless power as smart and kindness as weakness.
But you have a choice: to meet the world—and yourself—with respect and goodwill even when it feels undeserved. Not because everyone will reciprocate, but because choosing kindness over contempt is how you become who you’re meant to be.
Your goodness is the deepest truth in you. Don’t let anyone’s darkness convince you otherwise.
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
Please share this Daily with your tribe.
This also matters – The Choice for Contempt or Respect.
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