Evil is as Evil Does

It was Forest Gump who said, "Stupid is as Stupid Does."

One of those logical-illogical words of wisdom. I’m not sure where Forest would stand on the subject of evil. It’s one of the troubling mysteries of the universe that puzzles and disturbs me to no end.

There are numerous hot issues that sway people back and forth from the left and right in the political sphere, including abortion, taxes, national defense, education, the death penalty, the space program, religion, morality and Affirmative Action. Even in my naive youth, for the 20 years I considered myself liberal, the one thing that kept me up late at nights and constantly disturbed me was the existence of evil. How one recognizes and acknowledges evil in 2012 is half the battle between liberals and conservatives. The other half is how to confront evil.

For diehard liberals, evil might not even exist in their eyes. Not that they don’t recognize evil “acts," but they will not attribute the evil act to an evil soul of a person. In the eyes of many liberals, evil is often the fault of others, who “made them do it,” or “drove them to be evil.” 

It’s difficult to attribute their evil actions to an evil soul because they suspect humans are born “good or neutral" and it was their environment which drove them to evil. Besides, evil is a theological term, and this is downplayed or ridiculed by the left. (“Oh those religious fanatics – pay no attention to them.”)

Whether one is born evil, becomes evil or commits an evil act is arguable yet it does not disturb me any less - nor does it change my mind on the best way approach evil. First, fight it. Then punish it. 

Fighting evil on the global scale means to confront evil people, evil regimes, and evil groups. Confronting them in modern day 2012 is more complex than it was in the 15th century. All humans on mother earth are connected in numerous ways, and as much as I’d like to suggest, “kill all evil people,” it’s not as simple or clean as one would like.

Nonetheless, I’d prefer a hawkish government that is ready and willing to confront evil on a daily basis. I’ve always enthusiastically admired the old Jewish proverb, “If someone comes to kill you, rise up earlier and kill him first.”

President Bush was ridiculed for using the term, “Evil Doers.” President Obama seems to choke on the word "evil" in the few times he has reluctantly mentioned them. Heaven forbid he would ever mention evil and radical Islam in the same sentence!

In 1983, President Reagan referred to the USSR as an Evil Empire. I was a 24-year-old liberal and went along with the press and Democrats that said he was a fool for potentially inciting our good-willed neighbors of the Soviet Union. Looking back, I now salute Reagan for having the moral clarity to say that. If just once President Obama would call radical Islam an evil doctrine, I would tip my cap and give him a salute. 

In punishing evil, I have always and continue to passionately support capital punishment. There are more than a few reasons why citizens are against the death penalty. First is that it’s inhumane. Second, it’s not our position to play God. Three, it’s disproportionably unfair to blacks. 

Inhumane? To me it’s inhumane to not put to death a convicted evil-doer of a heinous crime. It's not our position to play God? Read the Old Testament. There is an even bigger and more logical claim to support the death penalty when playing the God card. Unfair to blacks? This is arguably untrue, but let’s go with this as a truism and say, 'Okay – no death penalty for blacks, but let’s pick up the slack and put more whites to death for their evil acts?'