The Face of Evil.

My political beliefs are based on humanism (doing what is good for humans, based on what humans actually are) in the form of utilitarianism. I think things should be organised in such a way as to make the largest number of people as happy as possible. Since we aren't able to read minds as yet the best way we know to determine people's happiness is for them to tell us what they want in order to be happy, and the easiest way to provide a means to reach these individual goals is to give people the freedom to go and do what they want.

Three weeks ago I was as happy as I have ever been. My responsibilities were few, I lived in a beautiful place, I was carefree. Today I am tired, frustrated, annoyed, trapped, devoid of hope. What made the difference? His name is Larry.

What is evil? From my political belief based above evil is what prevents people being happy, prevents them being free to do what they want. I want to sleep and Larry prevents it. I want to sit down and relax, be stress free, have a jam sandwich. I don't like to tell people what to do I'm a believer in freedom. Yet I spend hours every day in a running mantra of "No, no, leave it, down! Good dog, no!, leave that, leave it, good dog, LEAVE IT!" Right now Larry is lying unconscious next to me, which should be ideal, but I know that every second he sleeps now is two seconds of energy when I am exhausted, which poisons this moment. The alternative to chasing Larry around is to put him in a barred crate (as recommended by all professionals). Larry hates this, and I can understand why, a child seperated from its family and put in a jail cell with no apparent reason (as close a human analogy to the situation as I can find) would be immediate cause for outrage and criminal prosecution.

Larry whines. He has a vocalization specifically designed to communicate distress and frustration. It is very effective. It's the main reason I know he hates being imprisoned in a crate, because of the almost constant whining. But Larry is not just inconsciously evil, he is cunning. Larry is very smart, to our knowledge he had been housebroken in four days, an astonishing rate. That was until we found his secret area. He knew he should go outside, but sometimes it is cold and wet and he prefers not to go outside, so he crapped in secret. As part of the whole housebreaking program I look closely to see if Larry wants to go outside. Him sitting by the door and whining seems perfect for this. For eight hours yesterday Larry had a routine, he would come up to me sit down and sigh. Ten seconds later he would go to the door, sit and whine. He would do this continually until I went outside with him which I did on probably twelve occasions during this time period. He peed three times, the other nine times he was deceiving me, lying to me in order to get outside. Once outside he would cross the street to see if the neighbors dog was there (it wasn't) and then he would try to drag himself desperately back inside for the routine to start again. I was being trained to be his servant.

Larry is never satisfied, just exhausted, and then for only three hours at a time. If you feed him this is an immediate signal for him to whine and beg and harass for more food. If you give him a chew toy he will be interested for perhaps five minutes for a grand maximum of two days and then will never touch it again, but pillows, blankets, clothing are all infinitely fascinating. Larry simply has no concern for any other creatures feelings. He will steal things, he will lie, he will chase our cat to play despite the hissing and scratching. Larry is an entirely non-moral creature, a sociopath. His only concerns are personal pleasure and power, the fact that I care whether he is miserable or not gives him an enormous advantage in our struggle.

Larry is amoral, a liar, a cheat, a sociopath, a vandal, cunning, and he is making my life miserable. Clearly he is the Face of Evil. I wonder if I'll love him in three months?