What is evil? For the average person it’s a difficult concept to explain but most of us know it when we see it. Every once in a while there’s an event which strikes the collective consciousness in such a way that it becomes deeply symbolic. Sometimes these events symbolize ultimate good, and sometimes they symbolize ultimate evil. The public is affected by these things in ways they didn’t expect and might not even comprehend, but they are archetypal and profound nonetheless.
In the wake of Donald Trumps election victory and the jubilant celebration some people might overlook one of these recent events; the state assassination of a man’s pet squirrel and the national anger that followed. Why does the death of a squirrel matter? It’s not only about the squirrel, it’s about the context and what it means for our civilization at large.
In a progressive controlled county and a progressive controlled state (New York), Mark Longo ran a legal animal sanctuary for abandoned and injured animals. He promoted the sanctuary on social media with videos featuring his long time pet, Peanut the Squirrel. Longo rescued Peanut after his mother was killed in an accident and he raised the animal for seven years.
Peanut became internet famous as the mascot for “P’Nut’s Freedom Farm”, and he was clearly never a threat to anyone. So, why after seven years does the New York Department of Environmental Conservation suddenly target Mark Longo for a criminal raid which resulted in the seizure of some of his animals (including Peanut) which were then immediately euthanized?
The State of NY indicates that SOMEONE made multiple reports against Longo, accusing him of violations including keeping animals with rabies. They also claimed Peanut had bitten people. No evidence has been presented to show these accusations to be true. And, as with all government bureaucracy, the state sent thugs to terrorize the poor man and his family instead of simply talking to him.
Whoever set Longo up did their homework, because accusations of rabies lead to the immediate death of an animal. The CDC requires that an animal be put down before samples can be sent for rabies testing. Peanut never had a chance.
So far there is no confirmed information on who actually lied and set up Longo for the raid. What we do know is that the person responsible for greenlighting the raid is State DEC officer Karen Przyklek (yes, an actual Karen).
Regardless of who swatted Longo and his animal sanctuary, it was the State of New York and the DEC that was responsible for handling the case and they did so in the worst way possible. According to Longo they treated him like a drug dealer and then they killed his beloved pets without telling him and without due process. Longo and Peanut were guilty until proven innocent.
I have to say, when it comes to my pets I take a hard line position: They are a part of my family. Hurt my pets and I’ll hurt you. I don’t care what the law says. I don’t care about your rationale. Retribution is coming.
I think there’s a lot of people out there that agree with this sentiment and most of them are conservative. There is also clearly an element of government overreach here that made the death of Peanut a catalyst for political debate between conservatives and progressives over state power. Leftists love the state and defend it blindly. Conservatives are suspicious of the state and seek to contain it.
But there’s something more going on underneath the surface that I want to address, and that’s the emotional and spiritual side of injustice. Why target Longo? What was he doing to anyone? As far as I can tell he was bringing happiness to people while giving a home to animals in need. Why target a loved pet? What motivates certain people to do these things? What motivates the government to do these things?
I have pondered these questions for many years and like most people I first turned to innocuous explanations. Maybe these terrible situations are a result of simple misunderstandings? Maybe the complexity of bureaucracy leads to unintended consequences? Maybe the system is broken but the people within it generally have good intentions?
None of these things ultimately explain something like the killing of Peanut. Instead, I can only come to one conclusion: There are very evil people in the world and the state often colludes with those people to destroy good things. Their goal is to seek out any and all goodness in the world and suffocate it. And this is what has so many people upset about a pet squirrel.
One of my favorite television shows of all time is a series from the 1990s called ‘Millennium’ starring Lance Henriksen. The show explores the idea of physical evil; not evil as an archetypal concept or a social disease, but evil as a tangible predatory entity and how it seeks to destroy mankind.
In that series one of my favorite episodes is called ‘A Room With No View’. A character by the name of Lucy Butler (Lucifer), kidnaps and imprisons promising children with unique qualities. She then psychologically tortures them until they agree to give up on their dreams. When they promise to turn to a life of mediocrity, she sets them free because they are no longer a threat to the machinations of evil.
For me this depiction of evil was a revelation. It wasn’t the usual cackling, mustache twirling devil of most popular media, trying to get people to commit a mass shooting or commit suicide or start a world war. Rather, this was a subtle and insidious evil that inspires people to simply give up trying to do good. This devil wasn’t a reactionary randomly attempting to create chaos today; he was planning generations ahead and making the future increasingly less hopeful.
It’s the kind of thing we see from narcissists and psychopaths all the time – That desire to extinguish positive motivation and leave the people around them in drudgery. That malicious drive to make good people stop doing good things and grinding them down to nothing over the course of years or decades. Evil is often subversive and it plays the long game.
When I hear progressives defend the state of NY and their actions against Longo, I can’t help but be reminded of the idea of evil as a subtle living force. I saw a lot of leftists on social media trying to diminish public concerns about the event by making false comparisons. They say conservatives “care more about a dead squirrel than they cared about the death of George Floyd.”
I say yes, we do, because Peanut the Squirrel was more valuable to the world than George Floyd.
Peanut was doing good. Even though he was just an animal he was doing far more good than the majority of leftists combined. We’re worse off without Peanut, we’re better off without career criminals like George Floyd. And I think it says a lot about a group that idolizes a man who robbed a pregnant woman at gunpoint while they simultaneously ignore government abuse of power when it’s inconvenient for their political agenda.
My feeling is that, for whatever reason, Mark Longo and Peanut caught the eye of evil people and those people saw a positive social effort that they immediately wanted to snuff out. And one thing I’ve noticed about evil people is that they gravitate to other evil people. They seem to find each other in a crowded room. They work together across great distances and help each other in the destruction of innocents. (How else do you explain the rapid spread of trans indoctrination of children, for example?)
In other words, when you set out to do something positive for the world or enact legitimate solutions to real problems, just understand that you WILL eventually be targeted. You probably won’t know why. It probably won’t make any logical sense. And it will be people you’ve probably never met in your life or people that you barely know. Maybe they’re demons in disguise. Maybe they are possessed. Maybe they symbolize a twisted test to see if you’re truly dedicated to your cause.
When these challenges arrive and evil seeks you out, know that it will use whatever means at its disposal to sabotage you and that usually includes government. To confirm how evil your society truly is, all you have to do is determine who the government chooses to help and who the government chooses to hurt. If the government regularly comes to the aid of people with ill intent while stepping on the necks of those with pure hearts, then you know that your society is on the doorstep to hell.