Ya know, I think the question of whether evil is a psyop would be answered if possibly the most important and enduring story of the old testament is true, that humanity made a conscious choice to take the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good & evil because we were tricked by some non-human entity.

I believe Eden is a metaphor for actual reality here on earth prior to our species choosing to arrange our lives in the way now known as “civilization”…which is largely driven by the fear of death, which I imagine was completely different—our irrational emotional attachments to it most likely non-existent.

So much can be projected on to the motivation for Eve’s choice to take the fruit (defy God/authority, give in to temptation of the serpent, character flaws, etc)…not to mention Adam’s choice to follow her lead, but stripping it of any of that leaves the (objective…at least to the story…) truth that prior to a certain point in time, humans lived without “knowledge of good & evil”. Pandora’s Box is the same story, right?

If you agree with this, then doesn’t the question become: can we exist in the reality as it is now, having eaten the fruit and opened the box, WITHOUT acknowledging its existence?

Which to those that’d argue it is not even a thing, that it is just a psyop or errant thinking…the same question would be that since we created “evil”, it’s just in our mind, can we live in a reality where we remove from our collective mindset…so that it manifests in a new (actually old…ancient) arrangement for human life?

Phil strikes me as a smart guy.

Your post brings me back yet again to Abraham, Isaac, and poor Ishmael.

Ishmael is and was a victim of the establishment. The only "evil" he was guilty of was being born out of turn, being robbed of his birthright by angry parental figures.

Being driven out of Abrams camp along with his mother Hagar, is a dark mirror of the Edenic expulsion of adam and eve.

The oasis was like Eden in miniature, the camp, a house that is portable.

We see as the Israelites get closer and closer to establishing themselves in Canaan, the needs of the establishment overshadow basic humanity.

As the wars grow, as bodies pile up, civilization must "reinvent the wheel" ie "redefine good and evil".

As Phil points out we have come full circle and have learned no lesson as a race.

Well the thing it is, it is possible to rationalize and even justify nearly any self-destructive act or idea. I believe that makes the concept of evil very useful, if not necessary, in the existence we find ourselves in.

While I believe that removing the emotional attachments that go along with the label of evil is absolutely essential in solving any problems we face, and even more vital is the relentless search for true purpose behind its existence (rather than writing it off as “just evil” for the sake of it)…completely denying that evil* exists outside of ourselves is counter-evolutionary. The psyop would be convincing us otherwise, that it’s ALL within, all just our perception

*relative “evil”, external forces/consciousnesses/beings that would cause harm to humans, regardless of intent…which is more than likely “good” to it/them