The other day I remembered something my maternal grandmother used to say. Although she was born in Italy, she spoke English not with an Italian accent but rather with a western Pennsylvanian American-English dialect. I recall her using the term “kaka” to signify something one shouldn’t touch—or put in one’s mouth. I think she might even have used the expression to refer to poop. I was little, so the memories are vague at best, and she’s gone now, so I can’t ask her about the term. I can guess, however, that it derives from Greek kakós which passed through Latin to Italian to her English colloquialisms. And that surmise made me look at today’s bitter exchanges in chat and comment rooms on the Web and ask, “What makes people desire to harm others verbally, spreading kaka far and wide?” You, of course, might ask why I tie desire to kaka.
It isn’t a matter of what some put in their mouths as much as it is a matter of what intentionally comes out of their mouths that reveals an insidious malady of character and a connection to desire, in this case the desire to destroy the lives of others over differences of opinion and lifestyle, differences that might be at times be just a matter of degree and not of kind. Although I have characterized our milieu in many ways in other essays, I prefer here, therefore, to designate the twenty-first century as the Age of Cacoëthes.
I suppose that the modern meaning of cacoëthes as “insatiable desire” could be applied to humans of previous ages, maybe as far back as 200,000 to 300,000 years ago with the rise of our species. Certainly, desire has been the focus of discussion on morals and ethics since the Buddha called it the root of evil. But in some contexts “insatiable desire” seems to be a positive motivator, as it is when one has the desire to learn, to succeed for the sake of supporting family and friends, or to improve the lives of others or oneself. When insatiable desire turns on others or inward in self-destructive addictions or obsessions, it becomes, as the Buddha warns, the source of human ills.
And possibly a deep-seated understanding of desire’s inimical side is tied to the etymology of cacoëthes. The prefix caco does seem to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root language for “defecate.” So, the prefix is seemingly as old as language itself, and it might be an onomatopoeic and guttural utterance associated with defecating. Added to ëthes, the cognate of ethics, cacoëthes suggests the antithesis of what is noble, good, or moral. It is “bad ethics,” so to speak, which we commonly call “evil.” In its Greek form kakoēthēs means "ill-habit," "wickedness." In its Latin derivation, it came to mean “disease of character.” Could my amazingly articulate grandmother who had no formal education have been aware of the word’s philology? She definitely seemed to have commonsense about what was or was not good for me.
The sinister side to the word seems particularly applicable to those on social media, certain pundits on TV, some comedians, vociferous politicians, and activists who rail in ad hominems against the opposition regardless of the matter at hand. The “insatiable desire” that seems to dominate much of the electronically interconnected populace seems to be a desire for degradation and destruction of the character of others with whom they disagree.
You might have one or more insatiable desires. If you do have one, ask yourself whether or not it is a manifestation of ëthes or cacoëthes. If it is the latter, you need to hear my late grandmother’s warning and seek help because you have a “disease of character.” It might be as preventable as avoiding what you pick up. But like an addict living in a drug house surrounded by filth and other addicts and pushers, anyone who stays in such company finds no easy path to quashing the desire to harm or self-harm. The house of social media can be such a house; so much of it is covered in kaka that the dirt is difficult to avoid.
I suppose the best advice for rehab is to get out of the house of maliciousness and turn desire for evil into a desire for good. Or, if you insist on remaining in the house of cacoëthes, simply think “kaka” the next time you read a comment by a diseased character motivated by an insatiable desire to soil the reputation of another over a disagreement. Both my grandmother and the Buddha would be happy to know they prevented someone from touching kaka.
It isn’t a matter of what some put in their mouths as much as it is a matter of what intentionally comes out of their mouths that reveals an insidious malady of character and a connection to desire, in this case the desire to destroy the lives of others over differences of opinion and lifestyle, differences that might be at times be just a matter of degree and not of kind. Although I have characterized our milieu in many ways in other essays, I prefer here, therefore, to designate the twenty-first century as the Age of Cacoëthes.
I suppose that the modern meaning of cacoëthes as “insatiable desire” could be applied to humans of previous ages, maybe as far back as 200,000 to 300,000 years ago with the rise of our species. Certainly, desire has been the focus of discussion on morals and ethics since the Buddha called it the root of evil. But in some contexts “insatiable desire” seems to be a positive motivator, as it is when one has the desire to learn, to succeed for the sake of supporting family and friends, or to improve the lives of others or oneself. When insatiable desire turns on others or inward in self-destructive addictions or obsessions, it becomes, as the Buddha warns, the source of human ills.
And possibly a deep-seated understanding of desire’s inimical side is tied to the etymology of cacoëthes. The prefix caco does seem to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root language for “defecate.” So, the prefix is seemingly as old as language itself, and it might be an onomatopoeic and guttural utterance associated with defecating. Added to ëthes, the cognate of ethics, cacoëthes suggests the antithesis of what is noble, good, or moral. It is “bad ethics,” so to speak, which we commonly call “evil.” In its Greek form kakoēthēs means "ill-habit," "wickedness." In its Latin derivation, it came to mean “disease of character.” Could my amazingly articulate grandmother who had no formal education have been aware of the word’s philology? She definitely seemed to have commonsense about what was or was not good for me.
The sinister side to the word seems particularly applicable to those on social media, certain pundits on TV, some comedians, vociferous politicians, and activists who rail in ad hominems against the opposition regardless of the matter at hand. The “insatiable desire” that seems to dominate much of the electronically interconnected populace seems to be a desire for degradation and destruction of the character of others with whom they disagree.
You might have one or more insatiable desires. If you do have one, ask yourself whether or not it is a manifestation of ëthes or cacoëthes. If it is the latter, you need to hear my late grandmother’s warning and seek help because you have a “disease of character.” It might be as preventable as avoiding what you pick up. But like an addict living in a drug house surrounded by filth and other addicts and pushers, anyone who stays in such company finds no easy path to quashing the desire to harm or self-harm. The house of social media can be such a house; so much of it is covered in kaka that the dirt is difficult to avoid.
I suppose the best advice for rehab is to get out of the house of maliciousness and turn desire for evil into a desire for good. Or, if you insist on remaining in the house of cacoëthes, simply think “kaka” the next time you read a comment by a diseased character motivated by an insatiable desire to soil the reputation of another over a disagreement. Both my grandmother and the Buddha would be happy to know they prevented someone from touching kaka.
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