Almost-Evil People and Others

[kokopelle]

I finished reading Al Franken's book, "The Truth with Jokes". The book leaves me dispirited about the motivations of the leadership of this country. The abuse of power and money is amazing. I am left wondering if the combination of Republican politicians and big-business is evil incarnate.

To paraphrase a LJ friend, it is a mistake to mistake stupidity and laziness for evil. I would add the some more reasons for a fuller list of "almost-evils".

Reasons to be Almost-Evil:

• Stupidity
• Laziness
• Greed
• Fear in the face of peer-pressure
• Habit

Many of these require a motivator, a person who introduces life's options leading to an evil end. Who corrupted all those involved with the debacle of the Iraqi "rebuilding"? Who enabled so many to abuse the system for personal and company gain? What drove these people? I believe that something truly evil is at their heart: ideology. Those embracing ideology did not care about greed. Greed allowed other to be manipulated. They were not lazy. It took lots of energy to wage the evil war on a daily basis. No, they instead had an ideology that bolstered and drove the evil ways.

It is for this reason that I distrust ideological people who have power and wish to use it. The almost-evil people only use power for their relatively petty ways. I wish this were the case for the ideolog. Instead, these people are parahuman, holding themselves above the desires and obligations of their fellow man. I can only ask, who do these people think they are? What can be done? Do we have to embrace our own corrupting ideology in defense? Sigh...