Nerve Endings Firing Away

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We have all heard the continual rhetoric on the battle against evil. The world is not safe anymore but as a matter of fact, it never was. If you lived in any city that had more than a million people, chances of you being shot, run over or mugged was high and the world is getting urbanized rapidly, further dispelling the notion that you are safe. The latest specter of death and fear hanging over Americans is merely an atmosphere catering to the reelection of George W. Bush. His axis of evil is well-documented trio consisting of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea; one already has been dealt with but is a greater threat than ever. But strangely these three seemingly evil powers are clubbed together under a generic evil brand although their misdeeds might vary largely from each other. Also a few decades back or rewind back a couple of world wars; the axis of evil had three completely different nations, all of which are allies of the same country that subjugated them. Doesn’t the definition of evil depend on who is doing the division and context of the age we live in?

Robert Wright in Foreign Policy compares good and evil in the trilogy, Lord of the Rings in which hobbits, elves and men fought against the clearly evil looking Orcs led by the vile Sauron.  But at the same time, the good people were subject to the power of the ring, consummated by the desire to possess it and sparking the evil within leading to corruption of power. What was clearly good had soon transcended into the realms of evil, so does the war on evil ever end? Enemies are continuously cultivated as it become increasingly difficult to appease everyone and whenever anyone stands up with an opposing view, that view is deemed evil. At the same time, in the other camp the righteous side is considered to be overpowering and hence evil. Fareed Zakaria at NewsWeek talks about the fall of communism and hence lack of an opposing thought in today’s political stream; leading to anti-Americanism. There are entire books, academic articles, and dissertations written to explain why America is so hated in spite of the good they have been doing throughout the world. No other country contributes more toward relief in developing countries or considers mediating between feuding global powers. Explaining that anomaly is beyond the purview of this post.

Evil constantly evolves and emerges in different forms; not always discernable to all as a potent threat. The threat of Pakistani-inspired jihadis to India may not seem as evil as the evil of radical Islamists in Basra who are killing innocents everyday. Fundamentalist Islamists may be the evil today but there might be a different evil tomorrow. Terror always exists in society. Without it, we would never know what peace would be like. As a plaque at Georgia Tech proclaims – For those who fight for it, freedom has a flavor, the protected will never know. Let us live with it and yet enjoy life. The war on terror will never be won but that shouldn’t stop us from fighting it.

by Patrix | on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 11:05 pm | Current Affairs . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.