Humans are, intrinsically speaking, bipolar not in the clinical sense, but in the deepest metaphorical sense of the word. Woven into the very fabric of our being, as though encoded in the double helix of our DNA, are two fundamental forces: the good gene and the evil gene. Not mutations. Not aberrations. Both native. Both permanent. Both ours.
This is not a flaw in our design it is the design itself.
These two forces exist in a constant, dynamic tension within every human soul. The good gene carries within it the impulses of compassion, sacrifice, creativity, love, and the drive to build. The evil gene carries something equally powerful selfishness, dominance, destruction, and the seductive pull of unchecked power. Neither can be removed. Neither can be fully silenced. They are two voices in the same body, two hands on the same wheel.
The critical question, then, is never which gene exists it is which gene is allowed to lead.
When the good gene holds its ground, it doesn't eliminate evil it governs it. It channels the raw, aggressive energy of the evil gene into ambition, competition, and the will to survive, while keeping its darkest impulses in check. Balance is maintained. The human being becomes capable of remarkable things.
But when the good gene surrenders when it grows tired, is deceived, is slowly worn down through trauma, ideology, greed, or despair something deeply dangerous occurs. The evil gene does not simply fill the vacancy. It expands into it. It colonizes every corridor of the self that the good gene once occupied. And in that expansion, a transformation takes place that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
This is where evil madness is born.
It is not ordinary wickedness the small cruelties most humans are capable of in moments of weakness. This is a systemic takeover. The individual, now fully in the grip of the evil gene, becomes a kind of amplifier broadcasting their darkness outward, affecting those closest to them first, then rippling further into communities, institutions, and if the individual holds enough power, into the world at large. History is littered with such figures. But so are families. Workplaces. Neighborhoods.
The tragedy is that the surrender rarely looks like surrender. It disguises itself as strength, as certainty, as righteousness even. The person who has let evil take the driver's seat often believes with absolute conviction that they are the hero of the story.
And perhaps the most sobering thought of all: the good gene's subservience is always a choice — conscious or not. It happens through the small abdications. The compromises that seem harmless. The moments we choose comfort over conscience, power over principle, silence over truth. Evil rarely seizes control all at once. It is invited in, gradually, one small surrender at a time.
This is why the oldest wisdom traditions of humanity across cultures, across centuries have always framed the moral life not as a destination, but as a daily practice. A constant, active choice to let the good gene lead. To resist the abdication. To keep the right force in the driver's seat, even when especially when it is costly to do so.
We are not good or evil. We are the ongoing, unfinished negotiation between the two.✍🏽
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