Coming To Terms With Evil

We have lived through the year 2021. Will 2022 be better? It is eighty years since 1941. Eighty years ago we were in the midst of World War II. But at that time we were also in the midst of the Nazi effort to annihilate the Jewish race. In the years after 1933 the Nazi party succeeded in engineering a change in the world view of millions of people that some individuals that made up the human race were sub-human and did not deserve to be treated any differently than we treat the animals we consume for food. Such sub-humans could be tolerated only to the extent that they had some utility. Otherwise they did not deserve the least consideration. Indeed, they did not deserve to live. As the government of Germany and later Austria, they brought such a viewpoint to be the law of the land. They had a long list for inclusion, most particularly Jews. But they also included the old and sick and those born with infirmities that might be difficult to treat.

What was even more important, they persuaded millions people around the world where the Nazis were not the government, that such a view could be legitimate. By the time they had successfully extended their reach, many of the subject peoples they ruled were willing participants in the project the Nazis had launched to eliminate Jews from the face of the earth.

This was not a new concept. It was unique in that it was not based on a perceived direct benefit, but was inherent in an ideology alike to a religious doctrine. We know that all religions have at some time been totally intolerant of the existence of differing views. We all know that the idea behind slavery has this concept at their base, and this has played itself out in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and in America. It was in 1619 that America decided to engage in the practice of slavery, of human bondage. Since then, almost, human bondage, and racial inequality has been inherent in its laws, its courts and in its practice. Its persistence in America has been a shocking contradiction of the founding principles of that democracy. Fighting the dehumanization of its colored population has taken generations, and is evidenced in the toll of corpses on American streets appearing to this very day.

When we see evil, we have to call it out, whatever the price!

Like a virus, the idea that other humans could be considered sub-human, can be spread like a disease. With this as a founding principle, all the worst evils inherent in the human experience can be envisaged. Now, only eight decades after the horrors of the Holocaust reaching its fullest expression, with the struggles of colored peoples in America to achieve full equality seeing better beginnings, we are facing a renaissance of the worst evils of this virus infecting millions in America.

In America, the nature of the body politic is evolving. Differing attitudes to family planning, or lack thereof, have resulted in Whites in the U.S.A. having lower birth rates than do those who may be termed Colored. Immigration to America from countries less favored from an economic or social stability point of view, has tended to favor origins populated by Colored peoples. The result has been that population shares are tending more and more to equality in numbers with Whites in the U.S.A. This has a political dimension because the current majority is becoming, has become fearful of losing the political power it has always assumed it had. Given the evil intentions some of the more nationalist among us have, and fearful that they will be repaid in kind, they are bending every effort, while they can, to undermine the democratic process that might express the political priorities of those who have been discriminated against by the majority for years.

In an atmosphere fraught with fear, particularly that on the part of the less educated, and perhaps, the less economically advantaged, those with a political agenda tend to seek out scapegoats at whose door the fears of these elements can be directed. Immigrants will be targeted, people of color will be painted as sub-human, as a prelude to raising fears for the safety of loved ones. Anti-semitism has been commonly-used to rail against economic exploitation really authored by those leading these elements toward subversion and violence for their own purposes. Former president Trump has used this vehicle, as his support among even traditional Republicans has melted away consequent on his failures. He has sought to make common cause with those among the disaffected who either traditionally supported the Democrats or have never voted. He has struck a chord among the Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists open to the wildest of imaginings. The fringe has become mainstream among one-third of the electorate.

Threats of violence are being used against citizens engaged in the ordinary tasks associated administering an orderly society. Those who seek to undermine law and order accuse those seeking improved policing of undermining law and order. And many in the ranks of the police are taken in by the rhetoric, particularly among those who have a track record of abusing police powers. Abusers of the law have faced inaction by those in authority, further encouraging those abusers. Law abiding citizens are beginning to feel insecure owing to this development and fearful in pursuing their law-abiding roles.

The face of evil that we thought was rampant only in a few far-away places is obvious again on America’s streets. Some would say it has never gone away.  What is obvious is that the lies are winning over converts who do not question the filth they are fed. Repeated often enough the lies become truth to many who do not question even when what they hear is irrational. What are Americans going to do about it?What is the world going to do about it?