Podcast Episode

A General Conversation On Evil

The Merge Lab Deep Dive··2 August 2026·5 min

About this episode

Evil persists in societies not merely because individuals commit harmful acts, but because networks stabilize those acts through collective agreement. When a bounded group shares an implicit or explicit understanding to tolerate exploitation, cruelty, or predation, the behavior acquires structural support. It is no longer an isolated deviation; it becomes embedded within a protected social order. The central hypothesis advanced here is that evil endures when three structural conditions converge: collective agreement, normalization within a bounded climate, and sanctioning mechanisms that deter deviation.