The Psychological Power of Satan | Social Evils; Causes And Its Solution...

Some types of behaviors are clearly anti-social.

• Organized crime
• Scams
• Pedophilia
• Trafficking in contraband (drugs, guns, etc.)
• Murder
• Robbery
• Theft
• Assault
• Extortion
• Kidnapping
• Rape

                        

Irrespective of one’s ethical, moral, or religious views, these are all clearly harmful to society and they should be illegal. In terms of the original question: people do these kinds of things for various reasons. Greed, selfishness, sociopathy, psychopathy, anger, and stupidity are some that come to mind. Other so-called “social evils” are not so easily classified, however.

Here are some examples:

• Alcohol use
• Drug use
• Prostitution
• Adultery
• Polygamy
• Homosexuality
• Sex out of wedlock
• Gambling

The main problem with the concept of classifying behaviors like those in the above section as “social evils” is that such classification is based purely on subjective opinion. For example, although many people consider adultery, polygamy, sex out of wedlock, homosexuality, and prostitution to be moral “crimes” that “threaten the fabric of society”, these behaviors are, in fact, only deviations from cultural norms. One can readily find cultures that accommodate these behaviors and still function very well.

                

The second meaning is systemic rather than subjective. This sort of social evil is where the assumed purpose and function of a society or part of a society is dysfunctional, or not achieving the expected purpose or goal. The first type can be seen as an aspect of the second. It’s a matter of expectations rather then design.

If an education system is designed to produce literate, aware citizens ready to take their place in society but 40% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate, someone can be personally affronted, even self righteous. To that person, the results are a ‘social evil’ but the reasons may be asserted to be almost any personal prejudice.

                       

Examining social evil from the second perspective is systematic. The question is more objective, seeking to understand which assumptions about components of the system are not working as expected or designed. Conflating the two concepts is not going to lead to effective results. In fact, conflating the concepts can be to a social evil itself.In the education system, for example, teachers may say the problem is not with the education system but with the students themselves. They may conclude 40% of students are not going to become good citizens. They may be too dumb or mentally unstable to be taught.

                    

This sort of conflation is teachers assuming the education system doesn’t include the students. It’s a common conclusion for those who don’t distinguish between academics and vocational learning. I suspect that this question may have been originally intended to be a troll that was looking for answers like “godlessness,” or “unwillingness to obey God’s will”, or, just “man’s sinful nature”. Dismissing this out of hand seems to be the first step, because such assertions are merely based on one’s particular religious views and perspectives.

Before we can discuss the cause of something,

                    

we need to be clear about what it is. “Social evil” can be defined as anything that might be considered unethical, harmful, or dangerous, to a society and/or community, as a whole. The term “social evil” has two closely nuanced meanings as I understand it. Both meanings refer to systemic issues. The first is a pejorative from the view of a subjective concept of morality or ethical behavior. This is someone saying, “That’s not what I think is right.” It can refer to something as inconsequential as a rude or insensitive remark to a self righteous pontification about the whole of society. Systemic social evils arise when someone doesn’t consider all the stakeholders (or components) of a system; or the system is based on false assertions and cannot achieve its goals. Another source of systemic social evils is when a system is designed at cross purposes, such as using an education system to indoctrinate students and teachers to a political ideology. The goal is indoctrination, not education. 

                

The definition of a ‘good citizen’ is obscured or different than a literate, aware person. Subjective social evil is a matter of personality. It’s a personal problem. It has to be resolved by the person, if at all. Everyone has a right to their own opinions, biases and prejudices. Systemic social evils may be issues of design, policies, or emergent practices; implementation issues. Without agreement about the goals of a system, it’s impossible to rectify such social evils. Disagreement about system goals lead to poor design based on unproven assumptions, policies that hinder achieving the goals and, subsequently, emergent practices that may even contradict the stated purpose of a system.