Evil Politics

People over the course of humanity’s long lifetime have wondered about our proclivity towards evil. What makes us evil? Are we evil by choice or by nature? How can a man become evil? These provocative questions are at the forefront of philosophical discussions all around the world. The author explains in detail, with examples through the ages, how and why man turns to evil and explore the consequences of evil actions.

In April 2014, the world awoke to the shocking news that the terrorist group Boko Haram had kidnapped nearly 300 school-aged girls and taken them deep into the forests of Nigeria. When veteran journalist Mellissa Fung travelled to Nigeria, she discovered that the scope of the kidnappings had been vastly under-reported. Hundreds—possibly thousands—more girls had been taken against their will and forced to become child brides to soldiers and leaders of Boko Haram. Some of the captives escaped and returned to their villages, many with children in tow.

In the Central American republic of Guatemala, government-sponsored torture and mass murder have reduced the Mayan Indian population to a despairing acquiescence. After 500 years of struggle, it seems as if the conqueror's peace can at last be proclaimed in the capital. Then a guerrilla leader whom the authorities have long believed dead springs mysteriously back to life. No loyal Guatemalan can identify him, and the government is compelled to seek help elsewhere.

Engaging the Evil Empire dramatically alters how we look at the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Tracking key events in US-Soviet relations across the years between 1980 and 1985, Simon Miles shows that covert engagement gave way to overt conversation as both superpowers determined that open diplomacy was the best means of furthering their own, primarily competitive, goals.

"Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them 'The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females.'"

On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court released two interlocked abortion decisions overturning the laws of all the individual states. Only one of the decisions, Roe v. Wade, tends to get much media attention, and it is popularly said that it grants a "woman's right to choose". But Justice Blackmun is in several places very adamant: Though it had been explicitly sought, he was not granting to women the "right to choose". In Doe v. Bolton, the second and often unexamined companion decision, Blackmun is explicit. The right he is granting is to the doctor.

Aaron Iturra was just 18 years old when he was found dead in his bedroom in Eugene, Oregon. Soon, the quiet community would be rocked and shocked by who was behind the killing: Mary Louise Thompson, also known as Gang Mom. An anti-gang activist, she was a modern day deadly Fagin, running her own gang of juveniles who preyed on the unsuspecting city.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.

A lively history of the Watch and Ward Society - New England's notorious literary censor for over eighty years. Banned in Boston is the first-ever history of the Watch and Ward Society - once Boston's unofficial moral guardian. An influential watchdog organization, bankrolled by society's upper crust, it actively suppressed vices like gambling and prostitution, and oversaw the mass censorship of books and plays.

The use of the term "evil" has become controversial. Many are reluctant to apply it at all - even to Adolph Hitler (psychological adjustment problems, you see). And while it is true that the word has been recurrently misused, if we abandon the idea that it is possible to commit a knowingly evil act, we must abandon our belief in free will. Consider the case of "Psycho-Cabbie"....

Published in 1886, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future is a work which expands the ideas on Nietzsche’s previous work, Thus Spake Zarathustra. The book comprises 296 aphorisms arranged thematically into nine chapters. In the preface, Nietzsche accuses past philosophers of dogmatism, and in the first chapter he claims that every famous philosophy is merely a personal confession.

Quizás sea en política donde el desarrollo de este fenómeno asentado en la última década en Occidente resulta más llamativo. Una representante pública entiende la destrucción de las infraviviendas de las personas sin hogar como un acto autopromocional. Otra aumenta su aceptación popular tras calificar de «mantenidos subvencionados» a los desfavorecidos afectados por una pandemia. Un alcalde se jacta de que no hará nada en absoluto por aquellos estudiantes y trabajadores que no pueden acceder a una vivienda digna en la ciudad que él gestiona.

Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.

We meet with evil in the ordinary course of experience, as we try to live our life stories. It's not a myth. It's a mysterious but quite real phenomenon. How can we recognize it? How can we learn to resist it? Amazingly, philosophers have not been much help. A Good look at Evil maps the actual terrain - of lived ideas and situations - showing how to recognize evil for what it is: The perennial and present threat to a good life.

Maureen Finn is at a White House ceremony honoring the memory of her father, Sean. Robert Novak is in New York, watching the event on TV—his gaze fixed on Maureen. Soon afterward, Novak approaches Maureen and hands her a photo of her dad in the company of Lee Harvey Oswald. When he tells her that her father was involved in the Kennedy assassination—and asks her to lend her professional skills to his investigation—she’s horrified and angry.

This is the shocking story of a doctor who was addicted to murder: a man who wickedly abused the trust of his patients with horrifying results. He was a pillar of the community: attentive, kind, never too busy to chat. Yet behind this charming facade lay the world's most prolific serial killer, with at least 200 victims. Small, bespectacled Dr Shipman was making house calls - and then committing murder with bloodcurdling expertise and professionalism. He saw himself as playing God.

An End to Evil charts the agenda for what’s next in the war on terrorism, as articulated by David Frum, former presidential speechwriter and best-selling author of The Right Man, and Richard Perle, former assistant secretary of defense and one of the most influential foreign-policy leaders in Washington.

What is good and evil? Francis Bacon felt that good and evil could be represented by colors, circumstances, and popularity.

Rookie homicide detective Malachi Wolf investigates a string of murders in Washington, DC and uncovers both a vigilante killer and a terrorist conspiracy-making himself a target. After his father's murder, Malachi abandoned his economics doctorate to become a police officer and protect the innocent. Now, he must solve his first homicide to prove himself worthy of the badge.

The stakes for being good and virtuous are the highest they have been in over 100 years. Depending on who you ask, if you make the wrong decisions today, you could contribute to destroying the earth, bring about the end of democracy, or go straight to hell. And, no matter who you ask, saying or doing what others consider inappropriate or evil could get you canceled and cost you your friends, your job, and your reputation.