Where's Evil?

“It’s that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side."

I recently reread Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night, a book about Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a WWII spy on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal.

Obviously a fiction, because who would think of ever persecuting Nazis?

Howard is writing a memoir about his life and looks back at the silliness of it all.

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting,” I said, “but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.

“Where’s evil? It’s that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side.

“It’s that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive.

“It’s that part of an imbecile,” I said, “that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.”

We hold up holy scriptures, signed treaties or the written law to justify our actions.

But evil isn’t somewhere “out there.”

True evil comes from within.