Once again, the arguement arises, what is Evil, and whatever it is, the Americans got it wrong. A Canadian engaging in the usual sport of second guessing us, this time the globe and mail.

It is often hard to take evil seriously: When Ronald Reagan spoke of the "evil empire" in 1984, or when George W. Bush referred repeatedly to "the evil one" and "the evildoers" two years ago and briefly and regrettably tried to locate an "axis of evil," the words made these presidents sound childish and pathetic. Shouldn't world leaders have a more nuanced view of morality?

Oh, that's how it works.......The Soviet's weren't the Evil Empire. The North Koreans, Iraqi's and Iranians were all just nuances and shades of grey, just subtle missunderstandings of perception. The author has the understanding of a child, he rejects the religious then scrambles to define and name something that's already as old as time.

The American concept of evil, rooted deep in the old theodicy of religion, is in danger of preventing good from being done. This is no longer, in most respects, an evil of big men with big ideas. Once the last of the big tumours have been eradicated, Mr. Rumsfeld's underlings must face the much more patient, gentle and expensive work of allowing the dank layer of fungus to evaporate from otherwise decent and good societies.

This is the mind of secular philosphy, that it's less a matter of Evil than of cultural conflict and poor education. In the rush to distance themselves from the religious they make the fundemental mistake of thinking they have come up with a shiney new idea. Not so new, not so shiney. Lord Chamberlain probably thought as they do, Hitler can be "managed".

You have to have way too much education and a strong sense of selfhate to believe that. Some people, some ideas are just damaged goods, utterly beyond of any serious consideration. We know it when we see it. The graves, the bodies, the haunted children. His redefining evil as something that just happens to ordinarily good people like the flu or a cold is slanderously stupid. If it were true we would have seen a rash of confessions and suicides from among the Nazi's, the Soviet's and now the Taliban when forced to face what they had done.

We haven't.

They ran and hid when not caught out and exterminated, then pecked from the sidelines, killing, bombing, making more orphans, more sorrow. Evil isn't something that can be talked away or convinced that violence isn't the answer.

Common people aren't so foolish. After having seen some of the things they have done, the horror they leave in their wake, only a really stupid man could say that they are the same as we. That it'll all be better from just some kindness and understanding. The last century has taught us different.

It will not end until the excuses stop, till the handy reasons for sitting on their hands go away. There aren't any observers, no safe seats in this, if you don't support the fight then you give the evil your support by default, I should think an educated person would realize that.