The Strange Tale of How We Came to See the World as an Eternal Battle Between Good and Evil
On September 30, Vladimir Putin gave a fiery speech about the Satanic West and Russia’s fight to overcome Evil (New York Times, September 30, 2022, “With Bluster and Threats, Putin Casts the West as the Enemy”). He also announced that the four regions of Ukraine that Russia had occupied were now formally a part of Russia. What does this rhetoric of Good vs. Evil mean and how did we come to the place where everything needs to be characterized in extremes?
When the United States moved into Afghanistan over twenty-one years ago the same language was used. After twenty years, the United States has withdrawn from Afghanistan and the new Taliban regime is struggling to build an inclusive government and meet its people's needs. Russia has invaded Ukraine and images of death and destruction along with increasing allegations of war crimes have become the new normal. At the same time, there is polarization taking place across the planet with incredibly diverse countries divided along tectonic plates of identity, history, nationality, language, culture, and ideologies.
This trend has been active for many years and the divergence became pronounced following September 11, 2001, when the US responded to unexpected attacks by intervening militarily in Afghanistan and Iraq. As the…
