--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: To speak evil' is to speak this fateful…" description: "\"“To speak evil' is to speak this fateful, paradoxical situation that is the reversible concatenation of good and evil. That is to say that the irresist..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0b/jean-baudrillard-1500_apocalypticism_to-speak-evil-is-to-speak-this-fateful-p_1404288.jpg" --- # To speak evil' is to speak this fateful, paradoxical… ![“To speak evil' is to speak this fateful, paradoxical situation that is the reversible concatenation of good and evil. That is to say that the irresistible pursuit of good, the movement of Integral Reality - for this is what good is: it is the movement towards integrality, towards an integral order…” quote by Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0b/jean-baudrillard-1500_apocalypticism_to-speak-evil-is-to-speak-this-fateful-p_1404288.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0b/jean-baudrillard-1500_apocalypticism_to-speak-evil-is-to-speak-this-fateful-p_1404288.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0b/jean-baudrillard-1500_apocalypticism_to-speak-evil-is-to-speak-this-fateful-p_1404288.jpg) > ““To speak evil' is to speak this fateful, paradoxical situation that is the reversible concatenation of good and evil. That is to say that the irresistible pursuit of good, the movement of Integral Reality - for this is what good is: it is the movement towards integrality, towards an integral order of the world - is immoral. The eschatological perspective of a better world is in itself immoral. For the reason that our technical mastery of the world, our technical approach to good, having become an automatic and irresistible mechanism, none of this is any longer of the order of morality or of any kind of finality. Nor is to speak and read evil the same thing as vulgar nihilism, the nihilism of a denunciation of all values, that of the prophets of doom. To denounce the reality contract or the reality 'conspiracy' is not at all nihilistic. It is not in any sense to deny an obvious fact, in the style of 'All is sign, nothing is real - nothing is true, everything is simulacrum' - an absurd proposition since it is also a realist one! It is one thing to note the vanishing of the real into the Virtual, another to deny it so as to pass beyond the real and the Virtual. It is one thing to reject morality in the name of a vulgar immoralism, another to do so, like Nietzsche so as to pass beyond good and evil. To be 'nihilistic' is to deny things at their greatest degree of intensity, not in their lowest versions. Now, existence and self-evidence have always been the lowest forms. If there is nihilism, then, it is not a nihilism of value, but a nihilism of form. It is to speak the world in its radicality, in its dual, reversible form, and this has never meant banking on catastrophe, any more than on violence. No finality, either positive or negative, is ever the last word in the story. And the Apocalypse itself is a facile solution.”” [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The text argues that attempts to define good through integral reality become immoral, suggesting that both moral and nihilistic extremes miss the nuanced, reversible nature of reality. **In simple terms:** Defining good as absolute leads to immorality; reality is complex and reversible. Key Takeaway Question rigid moral binaries; accept complexity. Themes philosophy ethics nihilism reality postmodernism Mood critical introspective analytical Type theoretical philosophical critical When to use this quote - academic debate - ethical decision-making - media analysis - personal worldview - cultural criticism Key Concepts integral reality reversibility virtuality apocalypse form nihilism Questions to Reflect On - How do you navigate moral complexity? - Can you identify reversible aspects in your life? A Different Perspective The dense language may obscure practical application for everyday readers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Better world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/better-world/) [Beyond good and evil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beyond-good-and-evil/) [Eschatology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eschatology/) [Evil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evil/) [Evil Nihilistic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evil-nihilistic-4929589/) [Existentialism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/existentialism/) [Good and evil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/good-and-evil/) [Immoral Eschatological](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/immoral-eschatological-4929591/) [Immorality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/immorality/) [Last Word](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/last-word/) [Nihilism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nihilism/) [Nihilism Denunciation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nihilism-denunciation-4929590/) [Nihilistic Sense](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nihilistic-sense-4929592/) [Speak Evil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speak-evil-472964/) [Virtual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/virtual/) ## Related quotes > [Books on offer to preteen boys, for example, are all too often nihilistic, without a sense that the world is ordered and everything has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miranda-devine/books-on-offer-to-preteen-boys-for-example-are-all-too-often/) [Miranda Devine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miranda-devine/) > [“Now I shall speak of evil as none has Spoken before. I loathe such things as jazz; The white-hosed moron torturing a black Bull,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vladimir-nabokov/now-i-shall-speak-of-evil-as-none-has-spoken-before-i-loathe-such/) [Vladimir Nabokov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vladimir-nabokov/) > [As for monkeys, I would have five, and they would be named: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do Pretty Much…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tad-williams/as-for-monkeys-i-would-have-five-and-they-would-be-named-see-no-evil/) [Tad Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tad-williams/) > [“Speak of evil, and you summon it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rae-carson/speak-of-evil-and-you-summon-it/) [Rae Carson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rae-carson/) > [Be thou good thyself, and let people speak evil of thee; it is better than to be wicked, and that they should consider thee…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saadi/be-thou-good-thyself-and-let-people-speak-evil-of-thee-it-is-better/) [Saadi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saadi/) > [“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, it doesn't behoove any of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-cayce/there-is-so-much-good-in-the-worst-of-us-and-so-much-bad-in-the-best/) [Edgar Cayce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-cayce/) > [Save your skin from the corrosive acids from the mouths of toxic people. Someone who just helped you to speak evil about another person…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/save-your-skin-from-the-corrosive-acids-from-the-mouths-of-toxic/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Rohypnol](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jimmy-carr/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil-rohypnol/) [Jimmy Carr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jimmy-carr/) > [While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall, who, in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saint-francis-de-sales/while-extremely-sensitive-as-to-the-slightest-approach-to-slander-you/) [Saint Francis de Sales](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saint-francis-de-sales/) > [Don't mind those who speak evil behind you. They are behind you for a reason.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/don-t-mind-those-who-speak-evil-behind-you-they-are-behind-you-for-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-washington/speak-not-evil-of-the-absent-for-it-is-unjust/) [George Washington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-washington/) > [Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/diogenes/chilo-advised-not-to-speak-evil-of-the-dead/) [Diogenes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/diogenes/) > [Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil but then also do no evil.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-abraham/hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil-see-no-evil-but-then-also-do-no-evil/) [Amit Abraham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-abraham/) > [If you speak evil, you will soon be worse spoken of.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hesiod/if-you-speak-evil-you-will-soon-be-worse-spoken-of/) [Hesiod](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hesiod/) > [Don't speak evil of someone if you don't know for certain, and if you do know ask yourself, why am I telling it?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-kaspar-lavater/don-t-speak-evil-of-someone-if-you-don-t-know-for-certain-and-if-you/) [Johann Kaspar Lavater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-kaspar-lavater/) ## More by Jean Baudrillard > [“The whole gestural system of work was also obscene, in sharp contrast to the miniaturized and abstract gestural system of control to which it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/the-whole-gestural-system-of-work-was-also-obscene-in-sharp-contrast/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [“We will live in this world, which for us has all the disquieting strangeness of the desert and of the simulacrum, with all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/we-will-live-in-this-world-which-for-us-has-all-the-disquieting/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [Holidays are in no sense an alternative to the congestion and bustle of the cities and work. 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Farce that repeats itself turns to history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/history-that-repeats-itself-turns-to-farce-farce-that-repeats-itself/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [Perhaps our eyes are merely a blank film which is taken from us after our deaths to be developed elsewhere and screened as our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/perhaps-our-eyes-are-merely-a-blank-film-which-is-taken-from-us-after/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [If everything is perfect, language is useless. This is true for animals. If animals don't speak, it's because everything's perfect for them. If one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/if-everything-is-perfect-language-is-useless-this-is-true-for-animals/) [Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/) > [There exists, between people in love, a kind of capital held by each. 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That is to say that the irresistible pursuit of good, the movement of Integral Reality - for this is what good is: it is the movement towards integrality, towards an integral order of the world - is immoral. The eschatological perspective of a better world is in itself immoral. For the reason that our technical mastery of the world, our technical approach to good, having become an automatic and irresistible mechanism, none of this is any longer of the order of morality or of any kind of finality. Nor is to speak and read evil the same thing as vulgar nihilism, the nihilism of a denunciation of all values, that of the prophets of doom. To denounce the reality contract or the reality 'conspiracy' is not at all nihilistic. It is not in any sense to deny an obvious fact, in the style of 'All is sign, nothing is real - nothing is true, everything is simulacrum' - an absurd proposition since it is also a realist one! It is one thing to note the vanishing of the real into the Virtual, another to deny it so as to pass beyond the real and the Virtual. It is one thing to reject morality in the name of a vulgar immoralism, another to do so, like Nietzsche so as to pass beyond good and evil. To be 'nihilistic' is to deny things at their greatest degree of intensity, not in their lowest versions. Now, existence and self-evidence have always been the lowest forms. If there is nihilism, then, it is not a nihilism of value, but a nihilism of form. It is to speak the world in its radicality, in its dual, reversible form, and this has never meant banking on catastrophe, any more than on violence. No finality, either positive or negative, is ever the last word in the story. 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