Cesare Borghia, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin are all examples of evil personified. At least if we define evil as individuals, physical or spiritual, who have caused the unhappiness, misery or death of many people. Jung meant, interpreted freely, that evil comes from our shadow. If the shadow image is too dominant a dark chaos will be the result.
When Quattroporte measures perceived levels of evil Vladimir Putin almost reaches the levels of Stalin. Putin, however, is working frenetically to darken the image of himself and in a month he will probably catch up to his idol “the man of steel”. The distance to Bin Laden is not insurmountable either. Interesting to note, in these Easter times, is that Judas is still counted among those deemed truly evil. No one comes close to Hitler. Not even the Devil.
Below you see some of the most prominent leaders of the evil empire. Based on social media and the Internet. Measured globally and in the English language.
What we analyze in this image is of course the perception of evil. The question is if you or the brand that you work for are considered evil, perhaps even a Judas-company? If perception aligns with reality, i. e. that you and your company are committing evil deeds there are two paths to choose from. The first is simply to stop with the evil. Become good and do good things, solve wicked problems etcetera. This is easier said than done. If the evil deeds, for example corruption, are pervasive in nature it will take long term work involving the board and leadership of the company. Morally corrupt people and activities have to be replaced somehow.
The second path is trying to change this image using disinformation/white-washing. This is the most common strategy today and usually takes the guise of plans of action, phony heads of sustainability and large communication efforts. In the long run a very destructive strategy given that lies have a shorter shelf-life than the truth. If, however, you are part of the group where the image and reality do not align, i. e. you are perceived as evil but are actually decent (think Biden) you are faced with a perceptual problem that can largely be handled with communication.
Evil has always existed as an antithesis of good. It is our task to counter the powers of darkness with any means available to us. Both in large and small. Even a small hell on earth is one too many.