How Evil Works

by David Kupelian

David Kupelian, veteran journalist and bestselling author of The Marketing of Evil, probes the millennia-old questions of evil—what it is, how it works, and why it so routinely and effortlessly ruins our lives—once again demonstrating his uncanny knack for demystifying complex, elusive, and intimidating subjects with fresh insights into the hidden mechanisms of seduction, corruption, religion, and power politics. Analyzing today’s most electrifying news stories and hot-button topics, Kupelian explores such profoundly troubling questions as Why are big lies more believable than little ones? How does terrorism really work? Why do so many celebrities who “have it all” end up self-destructing? Why are boys doing worse in school today than girls? Why do we treat the problems of anger and depression with drugs? . . . and much more. Fortunately, once we really understand “how evil works”—both in our own lives and in the world at large—evil loses much of its power and the way out becomes more clear.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, History, Politics, Theology, Spirituality

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 16, 2010

Reviews

[Jody Mena · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion, this was good for a few laughs and not much else. I wouldn't even use it as a door stop, because I would be embarrassed for visitors to my house to see it. As far as I can tell, this book demonstrates how evil works by demonstrating general right-wing thinking in America. The author's definition of evil is almost outrageously biased, most of the "facts" he presents are either misinformed, inaccurate or else completely made-up, and he has a nasty habit of presenting his opinions as though they are fact. It worries me that the author's target audience might not realize this - makes me despair of future generations. Basically, if you are a white, Christian, upper-middle class, conservative Republican male living in America, and you need your ego stroked, this book is for you. Anyone else who reads it will at best, be mildy irritated, at worst, experience a burning urge rip the book to shreds, incinerate the remains and force feed the ashes to the author in hopes that he will choke on them - I'm not the only one who thinks so either. Do your part to save the earth - buy a copy of this book and burn it. Your children will thank you.

[Kristopher Swinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toward the end, he does a remarkable job of explaining the ineffectiveness at times of charging across the minefield laid by liberal thought, while conceding that reason alone is almost never sufficient, and that we must learn the proper approach/tone. Yet somehow his early declaratives resonate with premature preachiness, such that--even when agreeing, mostly--I even felt he was likely left preaching to the choir. As with many great, prominent men in our history, he astutely pinpoints the problem as forward advance in nearly every area of human progress but morality (ix).

His courage to take stances on certain positions, as he himself admits, is almost retro...we have stumbled so far as a nation. He unequivocally stands for what is wrongly dismissed these days as "exceptionalism," the LDS, gratefully, not being the only ones to see the problem: "The United States of America has a transcendent heritage of liberty rooted in self-government and personal responsibility, the result of a revolutionary two-hundred-year-old 'experiment' so gloriously successful it became a shining light in an otherwise mostly dark world" (6). His section on "turning the tables on evil in America" cites an example from Charlton Heston of what is increasingly necessary. Having heard that Time Warner was selling Ice-T's "Cop Killer" CD, Heston decided to attend the stockholders meeting in Beverly Hills. There, "against the advice of [his] family and [his] colleagues," he took the floor and read "the full lyrics . . . every vicious, vulgar, instructional word." So degraded were they that when he read them again to the press corps outside, "one of them said, 'We can't print that, you know.' 'I know,' I said, 'but Time Warner is still selling it.' Two months later, Time Warner terminated Ice-T's contract. I'll never be offered another film by Warner Brothers, or get a good review from Time magazine. But . . . you have to be willing to act, not just talk.'"

As a journalist, Kupelian gives an insider view to what even the left can largely laughingly acknowledge now: their stranglehold on public information. He attended an event with prominent newscasters which was so riddled with profane jokes that he refrained from giving more than a glimpse of the cesspool minds that the public often allows to inform our decisions, even with their personal interjections of belief.

Kupelian observes--and I have notes going back to the 60s and 70s protesting the rise of this trend--how psychology has resisted any reference to sin whatsoever (see 176), touting man as a merely behavioristic being. With a small nod to some cases of necessity, he proceeds, "Dangerous substances are recklessly being relied upon to solve Americans' mental-emotional-spiritual problems" (101). As he points out very ably, there's now a diagnosis for nearly every flaw, weakness, or personality problem (105-106), opening the door to relief of conscience in either shifting blame or actually numbing one's psyche. In short, says the establishment, we have nothing to repent of any more, no need to apologize; we just need better prescriptions. Responsibility belongs only to the state.

Kupelian quotes one commentator who, from my own experience, with interestingly creeping diminution visible to observant along the way, accurately captures the perilous Zeitgeist:

Unless one receives a strong grounding in a religious school and/or religious home, the average young person in the Western World is immersed in a secular cocoon. From elementary school through graduate school, only one way of looking at the world--the secular--is presented. The typical individual in the Western World receives as secular an indoctrination as the typical European received a religious one in the Middle Ages. I have taught college students and have found that their ignorance not only of the Bible but of the most elementary religious arguments and concepts--such as the truism that if there is no God, morality is subjective--is total. (144)

While reviewing the alarmingly rapid erosion of Judeo-Christian values, such that even many of those few remaining who profess Christianity don't seem to understand or follow it, he talked about the rise of belief systems which promote the "victimless" sin lifestyle. One fellow, the author of Conversations with God, primarily advocates witchcraft and obtained a lot of his ideas via "channeling." He dismisses the reality of a heaven or hell and, predictably, recounts his inner sense as teaching him "there is no devil" (117). Kupelian pauses to indicate the harm done to Christianity by weak and hypocritical teachers within "the church" as well. In the fine tradition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (consistently picked up by the LDS general authorities), he condemns the "modern notions of 'cheap grace' and stadiums full of people being instantly 'saved' in great crusades and the like" (210).

As an aside, how many of us knew that Obama declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, something only Clinton had done once before? (175) And that he did so again last June, with a memorandum blatantly declaring his agenda? I think at the very least he should drop the formality to the signature line of "in the year of our Lord."

[Michael Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't say that I had too many "A ha" moments, but I did have a few "that's a good way of putting it" moments. I felt like I was listening to my Dad ramble on in the living room about how the world is turning stupid. You know, how you listen and think "yeah he's right". But then every now and then a statement is said you don't totally agree with and you think "Just keep smiling, Dad still has a point there."

Still a good read and I'd recommend it to a conservative for reinforcement and a liberal to understand the conservative mindset.

[Mario Lofaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an eye opener. I have the author's other book on order "Marketing of Evil".

With our God being pushed aside, and the several hidden agendas about, it's no wonder our morality is slipped into the sewer.
I believe every adult should read this and the author's other book as well.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

We often talk of evil in my bible study class and when strolling the shelves of the library recently, I saw this book and thought I'd give it a try. Very shortly into it, I realized it was from the view point of a conservative Christian. Kupelian makes some great points about Truth and has well documented his book. The example of truth related to anti-abortion clinics was passionate and beautiful, but it stopped there, there was nothing about these clinics helping to clothe, feed, shelter, educate and keep healthy these children which is my bias.

Also, with the chapter on the war on fathers, well I've missed that war. I understand that boys have a hard time in school and yet the males overwhelming still rule the companies, country and media - so how, they are making it when it really counts.

The chapters on terrorism, celebrity, drugs, false gods, and the power of hate were all very insightful and I felt fair.

Up until the last chapter, I was tempted to give this a 4. Then I read the chapter on "turning the tables on evil" and while Kupelian lambasted MSNBC Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper and Time's Mark Halperin as disgusting for particular stories (and for those examples he gave, he was correct) he went on to say "Maybe this is why Fox News dominates cable ratings: I've never see their hosts degrade and ridicule normal patriotic Americans" page 237 and on page 253 he refers to Rush Limbaugh as the great marketer of truth.

So, if a normal patriotic American must agree with everything on Fox, then we are going to miss a lot of the conversation on Truth. Limbaugh and Fox are often very far from the truth - just fact check it.

Seriously, if Limbaugh is the truth. . .

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing protestant book on much of the American culture, a lot of good information and critique of society. The information and ideas in this book should be carefully considered in context, as they have some merit. The work seems light on answers. In the authors view once we understand evil, it loses a lot of its power. But I think there is a big world-view difference between the author and his audience it would have made the book stronger if he started from a more neutral place and developed more of the why's. Still a good book that would benefit many, if the have the authors protestant background.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! A journalist takes an in depth look at the news stories that make us shudder, yet we don't know how to process. Why are predatory teachers who sleep with their underage students applauded when the teacher is female and the student is male? What has happened to the fathers in the inner city AND the suburbs of America? Does getting rid of God in all facets of society have any consequences? Read this book. It will open your eyes and your mind! And help you to be a better neighbor to those who really need your help.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book following the atrocity in Newtown, CT. I thought considering its message might be more constructive than joining the chorus of calls to ban guns. Firearms have been with us a long time, but as far as I know events like Newtown have not. Therefore, something else might be at work.

Kupelian states the basic problem thusly: "Despite the human race's extraordinary capacity for invention and progress, we clearly have a millennia-old blind spot." Specifically, "we don't understand ourselves."

Given all that has previously been written on self-understanding, adding something new would seem to be a formidable task. However, he does a good job of zeroing in on the urgent points of concern in modern life: the tendency of every government (even the most enlightened) to develop a tyrannical attitude with regard to its populace, the recent phenomenon in which marital unions and secure families are becoming the exception rather than the norm, the effect of terrorism on the human psyche, the esteem so many of us have for celebrities (and the damage that does), our excessive reliance on psychiatric drugs as a response to problems that may be "more mental-emotional or even spiritual in origin" rather than biochemical imbalances, the attraction of New Age religions and "feel-good" philosophies, and the emergence of militant atheism.

From there, he goes back over some of the same ground in more detail, showing for example how our culture weakens itself by consistently portraying men as "fools--unless of course they're gay."

Some will shrug this off as right-wing polemics, but Kupelian strives to make a case that stands up to criticism (acknowledging for example that some people are indeed helped by psychiatric drugs). Every chapter has significant footnotes, so this is more than one guy's opinions.

The latter half takes a somewhat more personal approach. He examines the mechanism of hate--the need people have for a scapegoat ("to avoid taking responsibility" for our own failings) and the way children are indoctrinated to carry on their elders' unfinished battles. He talks about the apparent absence of God in all these disasters. God is not absent, he says, but is being shut out by our prideful assumption that we know best. The remedy is learning to observe ourselves and recognize the turning points we take. His comments on the meaning of the verb "watch" in Scripture are for me the meat of the book.

The conclusion is more optimistic than seems warranted, I think. At least for the near term. I would have agreed with it, had I read this six months ago, but since then events have shown that evil can be revealed with all its warts and yet be accepted enthusiastically by vast numbers of people. I think we are bringing some very bad times down upon ourselves. But hopefully Kupelian is right when he says Truth will eventually prevail.

Read this book to understand yourself, not for affirmations about what is wrong with other people.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, the book was written in 2010, during Obama's presidency, and the author, an avowed conservative, can't stand Obama. Fine, but some of the arguments he uses against Obama and against our lower tendencies he could now use against Trump...but would he? I went to the website he was/is (?) a part of--WorldNetDaily.com--to see how it views Trump. Well, they sold out. I understand that in these fraught times, with socialists being the loudest representatives of the Democrat Party, one wary of socialism would be forced to seek the only real threat to them, and that would be Trump. Too bad that Trump is such a buffoon based on the author's standard of character because I would have loved to see how he defends him, but the author got to escape that mess by writing well before the 2016 election. Drat!

All that being said, the author is spot-on about the source of our ills and it's nothing new: original sin. And at the core of its festering presence in humanity is our refusal to forgive others. We all suffer this tendency due to innate pride. This book, though, is preaching to the choir, but it can be helpful for those open-minded enough to try to understand a conservative Christian POV. However, the author's blatant right-wing sympathies, as well as his awkward mental exercises, are distracting.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing protestant book on much of the American culture, a lot of good information and critique of society. The information and ideas in this book should be carefully considered in context, as they have some merit. The work seems light on answers. In the authors view once we understand evil, it loses a lot of its power. But I think there is a big world-view difference between the author and his audience it would have made the book stronger if he started from a more neutral place and developed more of the why's. Still a good book that would benefit many, if the have the authors protestant background.

[stormhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a regular read of World Net Daily and a subscriber to Whistleblower, their print magazine, so I am already familiar with Mr. Kupelian's editorials. The advantage of a book-length piece is that he is able to link the thematic elements of what began as a series of articles into a thematic whole. I don't fully agree with his thesis, but support his taking a proactive stance against disintegration of American Culture.

[jimsgravitas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unbelievably good read. If you are a christian you will get far more from this book than otherwise. There are a few particularly good chapters which reflect issues which I have been dealing with my whole life, this book gives perspective and is invaluable.

[Claire Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked every chapter of this book. a journalist's easy to understand explanations to many questions of our day. Much insight and well-expressed passages.

[Rosemary Biggio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, informative and well-documented. A must read for anyone interested in saving the American soul.

[Nina Dunton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book offers great insight into what is wrong with America today. Plus, it's an easy read. I recommend it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good at describing how evil often influences our emotions to get us in to "program mode," and the author has some good ideas for how to get America back on track.

[Barbara Carpenter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible! I have never thrown away a book, but this one is going in the trash under the garbage!

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend

[James Fredrickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a must-read for everyone, especially Christians.

[David Gee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This audiobook was quite the rollercoaster ride for me; a broad mix of enlightening, scary, insightful, and disturbing descriptions of the world and the author's view of why such things exist. Being a devoted follower of Christ myself I found myself agreeing with his views and conclusions in some areas but baffled by deep non-spiritual-based opinions and logical fallacies in others. I appreciate that he advocated for listening and understanding others and standing up for truth in a non-violent and loving way. However his strident views and far-right stances on some topics seem to leave little room for discussion and further understanding.

[seongchun park · Rating 1 out of 5]

On and off I am still trying to force myself to read this book to figure out how the evil of corrupt banality can make a person so utterly confused about the truth and lies. This book clearly contributed to the pandemic of Trumpism.

Trumpism never dies; it fades away for a while, to return in vengeance, stronger and more sinister than ever. This extensive evil can be defeated only through eternal vigilance by people of intensive and extensive good. Better fight like hell against all political corruption.

[Verminicious Knid · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s not totally without merit. The chapter about new age religions was particularly amusing - how Conversations With God sold a single copy is beyond me.

But the book operates on the idea that God’s existence and Christianity’s truth are irrefutable facts that everybody knows deep down.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book. I may not have agreed woth absolutely everything but overall it was on target I think.

[R.J. Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Great Read.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Wish the author would write another updated version. So much has happened since 2012 that could be added to this book.

[Charles Reimler · Rating 5 out of 5]

****Dark Side Dies***Bright Side Grows*** "Feel The Hurt-Let Go Of The Hate"*******
Book "How Evil Works Pages 179-182 Lesson On Forgiveness
"Feel The Hurt, -But Not The Hate!"
Forgive: Jesus Felt The Hurt, But Not The Hate "Father Forgive Them Know Not What They Do."
"Hate Sin, But Love The Sinner."
Movie: The Railway Man: Horrible Abuse By Japanese Too Forgive Awesome Example: End Movie "Hating Has Too Stop"
Book: How Evil Works
Pages 179-182 "Feel The Hurt-But Not The Hate." Is Core Wisdom!
****Dark Side Dies***Bright Side Grows*** "Feel The Hurt-Let Go Of The Hate"*******

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are called to preach the Gospel which changes the hearts and minds of people. Once converted, His followers aim to please their Lord and strive for holiness. The gospel spreads and the culture changes. We are not called to reclaim our nations The answer is the gospel and sadly, this book misses the point of it.

It is a good summary of historical events though and I found it to be helpful and interesting in that regard.

[LaDonna Remmers]

Sick!

This account of how all the destructive forces in this world are taking away our freedom as Americans was a real eye opener. A well written, informative account! However, it made me sick to see what is happening to us and gives me a renewed interest to continue my rants against the horrendous government. A must read.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book from start to finish. We must understand ourselves to overcome the evil in the world.

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great discussion on how evil has permeated our culture. Sadly, things have gotten exponentially worse since this book was written