The events of the last two years have often made me think about the dying concept of evil. I say "dying" because the political-correctness police have restricted the idea of evil to religious circles. No person or group is evil; their tactics may be immoral, but they can be explained rationally. We are led to believe that any of us could be evil monsters if given the right set of circumstances.
Really? Could I be the next Josef Stalin? If the answer is yes, then there must exist in me the ability to shut out compassion, kindness, loyalty and honesty---all things I hold dear. If the answer is no, then how did Stalin (or Hitler or Pol Pot) become the person he was?
The answer most given (in my experience) is that men who oversaw genocide had to approach it over time. Saddam Hussein started out as a hit man for the B'aath Party. Josef Stalin rose to power one murder at a time. Both of them had horrible, deprived childhoods. Modern thinking will tell you that both of these men are/were products of their environments.
While nuture undoubtedly plays a part in the development of tyrants, there must be something more. All of us know victims of childhood abuse and neglect; none of us knows any maniacal mass murderers. So that leaves us, in my opinion, with one glaring option: there is something called evil. We can argue about where it comes from and if it is the manifestation of a supreme evil being; none of us will ever know the answer.
I think modern society discounts evil because to acknowledge its existence is to admit that there are forces in the universe which might be divinely inspired and not the result of some natural force. It also means that some people are better than others in terms of behavior and morality; this is unacceptable because it might lead to (gasp!) finger-pointing. But I believe we will be a better society once we again accept the concept.
Posted by Matthew at November 3, 2003 01:10 AM