The evil eye - If looks could kill

You can knock on wood, pull your ears, spit and throw salt over your shoulders, but the Evil Eye is going to get you.

We all recognize those cheesy “Evil Eye” trinkets that tourists find so quaint, but did you know that there’s more to them than (no, not “meets the eye”) gimmick value? They are in fact part of an ancient superstition that runs deep in Turkish culture, and indeed in many other cultures stretching from Scandinavia to India, and even the Americas. The “Evil Eye” (or “nazar boncuğu” in Turkish) is actually an apotropaic talisman that is meant to ward off the supposedly harmful effects of an “evil” gaze, i.e. the look of envy – be it conscious or subconscious – that is often inadvertently bestowed by people upon those with enviable beauty, good fortune, or some other desirable trait. That’s why almost all Turks, regardless of education or socio-economic status, carry one of these blue, round, glass-made blue eyes somewhere on their person, usually in their pockets, hanging off a safety pin, and most probably given them by their mother.

The origins of the evil eye are Middle Eastern and thought to go back to the Sumerians. The supposed effects of being the victim of the evil eye is always associated with desiccation of some sort, something which causes babies to suffer diarrhea and vomiting, infertility in men, drying up of fruit-bearing trees, and preventing cows from producing milk. To carry an “evil eye” amulet is therefore meant to ward off these malicious effects of an “evil” gaze, thus preserving the “wetness” and “moisture” of living things and that which is vital for survival – especially if you live in a harsh, arid climate. In modern Turkey, the “boncuk” (talisman) meant to ward off the evil eye (“nazar” in Turkish) is always represented as a blue eye (same in Greece). Thus, whenever someone says something good about someone else, or their kids, or their car, anything, it’s always followed by a fake superstitious spit (or series of fake spits) and a “nazar değmesin” (“may it not attract the evil eye”).

So what makes grown people – often educated and worldly – have such deep-seated superstitious beliefs over something that seems as trivial as a mere glance? It actually makes a lot of sense, because it comes down to a simple realization: people lie to your face when they say anything good about you, because they’re actually jealous of you and secretly get off on your misfortune. “But what if they’re your friends?” you ask. This is the case especially if they’re your friends, because we don’t just have friends as support or for companionship, we have friends as something to compare ourselves to and compete with – which is why nobody wants a loser or a dork for a friend, no matter how nice or interesting they may be. Therefore, when friends get really good jobs or nice girlfriends/boyfriends, you’re jealous of them, and when they screw up you’re secretly satisfied by it (even though you’d never admit it to yourself out of shame).

And so, in light of this universal and pathetic – although natural and unavoidable – human psychological trait, the evil eye is an ingenious invention, because that which nobody dare speak of or face is dealt with instead through a universally recognizable sign that takes upon itself the shame and fear we actually find within ourselves every time we’re jealous of our friends or feel a sudden slight glee – schadenfreude – deep in the darkest recesses of our psyche whenever one of our friends screws up something good they had going for them. The “Evil Eye” thus actually psychologically soaks up our fear of others’ envious feelings toward us (by us believing that it’s actually soaking up the evil feeling – or evil gaze – itself), while at the same time conveniently helping us avoid an honest confrontation with our own insecurities, by becoming a ubiquitous totemic idol to which we collectively ascribe magic powers that are fed by our own desire to remain unconscious of our personal inadequacies, while also equally apportioning out to everyone else the individual guilt each of us feel for such shameful and egotistical feelings which we have no control over. In other words, thanks in part to the “nazar boncuğu,” we can all live more or less civilly with each other without having to openly admit that we’re actually all a bunch of selfish, inadequate, insecure, egotistical, envious, competitive assholes – which of course we are. We thus crucify the evil eye instead for the sins of our hypocrisy.

Just as money is a commodification of human relations of labor (which we need because nobody is willing to work for nothing, because we are all fundamentally lazy and would rather not do anything for anyone unless we got something for it in return – and because we’re even too lazy to deal with barter because we’d rather carry a coin in our pockets than wheelbarrow live chickens to a market), so too, the “nazar boncuğu” serves as a commodification of human relations of shame at how envious, competitive and selfish we are toward each other – which is perfect, because then we can all go on being a bunch of immature, insecure assholes with total impunity, free of any unsavory impulse to edify ourselves or better our lives through honest psychological introspection.

However, there is another way out of dealing with this infantile and embarrassing superstition without having to spit, pull your ears, knock on wood and wear a stupid glass bead with an eye on it. It’s very simple, although its success involves everybody being able to work toward its adoption as a categorical imperative. It’s not even that complicated. Are you ready for it? It’s a little concept called: WHO GIVES A FUCK WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK?