What About Evil?
Today, given all that’s going on in our country and the world, the word evil seems more appropriate than ever. Even I’ve started to use it. A development that surprises me, given that I’ve always thought the word as unnuanced enough for me.
Of course, as per Brodsky’s essay, evil isn’t always easy to identify. It will always surprise you and it serves to only make you more complacent. As you can tell, I’ve been reading as much as I can about this subject. I’ve seen it before, of course, and I know it’s not as simple as identifying a subsection of the world as evil then working to excise that. In fact, that attitude can be that which creates evil itself.
Reading Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem has also highlighted how easily evil thoughts can spread through a nation or continent. In this brilliant and controversial book, she looks at some of the attitudes that were prevalent at the time, even amongst those who were trying to do good in the face of such overwhelming evil.
One thing was that even well-meaning people had accepted the base assumptions of the Nazis: that there were people in the out group (Jews) who were worthy of being saved. Of course, once this premise was accepted, it means that there is something wrong about the out group to begin with. In other words, taking any moves to strip another group of its humanity is the wrong step to begin with. [1]
[1] So there’s evil in the world. Now what? After all, once you have identified it, it’s important to take steps to defeat it, to fight it. This doesn’t mean violence. In fact, it would appear that those who are evil and have power would be fine with that as they know just what to do then.
This is why non violence is a great method, another point that Brodsky makes. Note that this is not the same as doing nothing: it’s actively doing something instead of nothing. Something that will, ostensibly, highlight the belligerent party’s actions.
