Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

People who aren't evil take the first step into evil because people are mean I guess. Human evil is so complicated that in my opinion it can only be broken down to its simplest pieces. I think it is first important to give the definition of evil, which is "profoundly immoral and malevolent". This definition gives us an idea of how bad it is, "profoundly" so. As in, not letting somebody in in traffic probably couldn't be considered evil. Human steps towards evil usually start in a desire, probably something that they don't have and want really badly. Examples of these things could be money, fame, sex, power, or a variety of other things. Power, money, and fame in Macbeth's case are what sent him down the path towards evil. Macbeth had plenty of these before murdering Duncan but still decided his hunger for these things was insatiable. An example more realistic to us in a similar fashion would be an attempt on the life of a US President. Even though the assassin wouldn't then become president, he would immediately gain prestige and fame as the man who tried to kill the leader of the free world. Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wilkes Booth, John Hinckley Jr. are all names immortalized in American history. But, had these men not killed/tried to kill Presidents, they would have been nobodies, lost to the passage of time. 

The consequences of evil change depending on the type of evil. There's evil as is just heartless, where you might choose to step on another employee and be cruel to them because it'll help the first employee get a promotion or an extra bonus. But some evil causes prison time, or societal shame in the case of a crime like murder. But in the case of internal consequences humans can be crushed by evil acts that they did to forward themselves. There are of course exceptions in this, like psychopaths in that they don't feel guilt like the rest of humanity. They don't understand normal sympathy and empathy and often are bold and egotistical. But normal humans, like Macbeth can go crazy because of the guilt of evil. Macbeth breaks out in fits remembering what he did or had done and it causes him to fall into a dis-associative state and talk to things other people can't see or see daggers that may or may not be real. It can cause insanity to do these things and then have to live with them afterwards. 

In conclusion, people who are evil either can't control primitive desires (Id) or want something and either don't have the understanding that it's wrong to do or don't care enough to worry about the repercussions.