Evil

Anyone with a scintilla of perception knows that there is evil about us, but few will admit it--at least expressed that way.  The term is too old-fashioned, too Puritanical,  too restraining to the modern cultural liberal. I, here, present a counterpoint.

A modern dictionary search of the word shows that it is now nuanced into near-meaninglessness or even the precise opposite of its earlier meaning.  Evil, now so reported, is ‘sickness’ or ‘being unlucky’ or ‘offensive’ or ‘not in high esteem’ or ‘rude’ or, in the Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, ‘excellent’ (Can you believe it?). Or how about this: Dictionary.com gives as its number one ‘example sentence'-- ‘Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil.’   Talk about calling ‘black’ ‘white’!  Dylan said 'the times they are a-changing.’ Indeed they are. I say let's change them back. 

In the older sense (and still in the fundamental sense in the better dictionaries and for those with common sense), and in my sense, the word means ‘extreme moral wickedness,’ cruelty, or the causing of suffering by someone insensitive to the condition of one so evilly acted upon.  And so I would call kidnapping, rape or sexual abuse, emotional abuse, slaving, torture, terrorist activity, or the like, the epitome of evil.  It is this I inveigh against today.

Facile arguments to excuse the perpetrators of these kinds of evils cannot be countenanced with easy psychological explanations  or labels such as the person being ‘mentally ill’ or being sociopathic or, now in the law, being a ‘blameless predator.’ No. Sickness is a condition; evil is a behavior. It is not simply a thought. Evil is conduct, a matter of choice.  Sickness happens; evil is inflicted.  Sickness should be treated; evil must be fought. 

From where does it come?  It doesn’t come from poverty, or lack of education, or disadvantaged circumstances—as lamentable as these conditions might be. (Most of the great historical ‘lights’ to the world came from these conditions, and much of the world still lives in what we might call poverty conditions or lack 'higher' education and they are not evil.) 

No, (and now I know I will be dismissed by many) I believe it comes from a person’s allowing himself to be influenced by the adversary of all righteousness, even Satan.  Yes, I believe in the devil as I believe in God, or love, or gravitation or light or many things that influence us daily. C. S. Lewis explored this notion in his popular book The Screwtape Letters.   Many things we cannot see, or touch, or easily measure influence us for good or ill.  Satan is a powerful, unseen, negative influence and he encourages to do evil.   

As a Christian (or as a Jew) I believe there was a ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ that could be partaken of, and in that it was partaken of by our first mortal parents and brought evil into the world.  My faith teaches us that it gave us the the alternatives necessary for moral choice. Evil—Satan’s curriculum and modus operandi-- became the attractive alternative, the counterpoint, the opposition to that which was declared, by God, to be good or right or acceptable.  War, for the souls of men, was declared. 

Mankind was given a choice--good or evil; thankfully we were, and are, being encouraged to choose the right by the scriptural standards and guidelines that have been given to us.  Those who have chosen wrongly and who have reinforced their wrongful inclinations to the point of acting upon them to the injury of the innocent, to the degree we read about in the daily news with the shootings, bombings, abductions, etc., have engaged in the blackest evil and become criminal and must be removed, permanently, from society. They have forfeited their right to ". . . liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--and maybe even "life" itself.

No, I am not tolerant of that which is intolerable. Evil which causes suffering or defilement of mind or body and which is inflicted upon the weak or innocent is intolerable — is evil and beyond the pale.