The nature of evil

[Dilettante]

Evil is a slippery concept. When's the last time you heard it used seriously? Did you mock the person using it? For me, it was George W. Bush, and yes, he was mercilessly mocked. Which is not altogether a bad thing, but still: evil is a tough word to use in today's society.

Part of the reason we have an aversion to the word is because it represents extremism, and that's a major no-no in a society as cosmopolitan as ours. By saying something is evil, you're categorically ruling out some sort of accomodation, any kind of compromise. And in a society with a dozen faiths and philosophies, that kind of unyieldingness leads to tears and blood.

The word 'evil' is also highly offensive: telling someone you think they're evil is pretty much equivalent to telling them to 'go to Hell' and just as likely to be well-received in polite debate. It's no wonder you rarely hear polite people say it anymore.

I wonder how many people believe in it, either.

I'm a liberal, and I'm religious, which makes me an endangered species these days. The two are quite compatable most of the time, but there are a few areas where I need to do a lot of thinking. One of them is evil. I'm very optimistic about human nature; I think human beings can become perfect, and that we have the potential to solve all of humanity's problems as technology, education and wealth continue to grow at record paces. I'm also a little worried about society, however. All too often these days it seems we neglect our poor, our single mothers, our handicapped and gays; all too often we're willing to let someone else suffer so we can enjoy our standard of living. And all too often we seem to believe that evil is a thing that died out with the abacus.

Virtually all of us, if presented with a grinning, bloody man about to rape a child, would happily skewer him on the spot. We'd all like to say we'd stand up to a terrorist if we saw one. But how often do you get into that situation? Real life is rarely so black and white, and evil is often hard to recognize.

Most people, I think, would agree that Hitler was evil. Many would agree that Stalin was evil as well, although there are sympathizers for both men. From there it gets murky. Was Mussolini evil? Atilla the Hun? Caligula? Pol Pot? Osama Bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? George III? George W. Bush? As you go down the list, more and more people will disagree with the label - perhaps for good reasons. It's hard to judge someone's morality; we're not them, we're not in their position. Was it their fault, or were they raised that way? Did they avoid further bloodshed by being cruel? Were they insane? Does that matter? It's hard to say for sure.

Looking at the list leads me to another, troubling conclusion. All the figures I listed off are famous, powerful men. Sure, there's the occasional serial killer (Lizzie Borden springs to mind), but if we add up all the serial killers and all the dictators in the world, we're talking about such a tiny fraction of the population that it might as well not exist. Does that mean evil is irrelevant?

The late pope John Paul II, in one of his last encyclicals, castigated western Catholics for being 'cafeteria Christians', simply picking the parts of Christianity they liked and leaving the rest behind. He decried this as part of the moral relativism that was taking over western culture: the idea that other beliefs or actions we ourselves would regard as immoral can be justified as part of someone else's beliefs. There's some good in this: how else could gays and lesbians become accepted if we didn't accept that 'our' view was the only one? Would we receive immigrants at all if we forced them to abide by our views? The founders of our countries would probably spin in their graves at how our views today have changed from theirs in only a few centuries (if that). However, in other ways it can be a bad thing. Is female circumcision ever justified? Ethnic cleansing? The United Nations says no. If you can accept that another country can be doing evil, what about another person? Where do you draw the line?

If I believe that some things are good - charity, compassion, education, fairness, tolerance and more - then I have to believe that there are opposites, too: greed, selfishness, ignorance, injustice, extremism and more. In a way, by recognizing those things as evils, I'm helping to strengthen my own morals. Without evil, good has no meaning.

I'd be interested in what other people have to say about evil.