abject

Abiectus is a Latin word that comes from the verb open, which can be translated as "deprave" or "humiliate". The concept came to our language as abject, an adjective whose first meaning mentioned by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) refers to the one who is mean or evil.

For example: "We have a moral obligation to fight this abject regime that despises human rights and makes citizens live in unworthy conditions", "The town police station is run by an abject man who is not interested in enforcing the law", "The abject behavior of the player must be sanctioned by the club".

Abject is something that generates contempt. Suppose a person he catches a dog, tortures it, then kills it, and finally publishes images of the process on social networks, where he celebrates his own actions. The behavior of this subject, without a doubt, can be described as abject.

The rating can also be applied to individuals who carry out outrageous or harmful actions. If a judge dictates his rulings according to the bribe he asks of the accused, he may be defined as an abject man. A judicial official is expected to act in accordance with the provisions of the law: He who moves away from the legislation and also incurs a crime with his actions, cannot deliver justice. That is why the judge who works on the basis of bribes turns out to be someone abject, despicable.

The adjective it even applies to more abstract issues, such as a government, a project, or a context: "The cut announced by the authorities is abject since it leaves thousands of people without social coverage".

It is worth mentioning that the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy includes a second meaning, according to which the term abject can describe a person who has been humiliated or whose pride has been hurt. However, it is a meaning that has been deprecated.

The word abject, as well as most of those that serve to elaborate its definition, belongs to a group of very subjective and difficult to use accurately. At first glance, the image of an extremely vile and despicable person seems straight out of a fairy tale, as if it were the antagonistic character who wishes to subdue the entire kingdom to his twisted will.

However, it is not necessary to get to fiction or the most horrendous cases of violence in the newspapers to use this adjective. We are surrounded by evil, and many times we support it, whether we are aware of it or not. On the other hand, this assessment goes hand in hand with a simple question: is it possible to be "very good" or "very bad"?

To answer it, let's look at the following two examples of good deeds: a person rescues a badly injured bird and takes it home until it is completely healed; Someone else brings food and water to an abandoned cat, but does not bring it to live with her. Is it possible to rate the degree of goodness of each case? Both people show compassion, so that should be enough to determine that they are "good." However, they surely have negative attitudes in their day-to-day life, and this makes the assessment of their moral.

In the case of evil, it seems easier to qualify two given cases: a person who mistreats an animal will surely be described as worse than another who simply steals a mobile phone. However, shouldn't the evidence of their "badness" suffice to show that neither is good? Obviously not, since the human being can reach levels of corruption and lack of empathy terrifying, and that is why it is necessary to have the adjective abject, to describe those whose actions cannot be justified in any way.