Thinking Out LoudAfter the assassination attempt, Donald Trump posted on social media: “It is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win”.
Let’s talk about one of those idiosyncratically capitalised words: “Evil”.
Next week, CPX’s podcast Life & Faith will release my interview with Randall Sullivan, ex-Rolling Stones journalist and author of the new book The Devil’s Best Trick: How the Face of Evil Disappeared.
Sullivan argues that the modern age – sceptical of the supernatural or the existence of gods, angels, demons, and devils – disbelieves in the reality of evil. Instead, we explain it away as the product of bad parenting or an inferior education. Which might also be true – just not the full truth.
One manifestation of evil that Sullivan mentioned feels apt after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, and the war of words now erupting everywhere on social media, with blame, accusations, and conspiracy theories spreading like wildfire through the internet.
“I don’t know if you’re having the same experience in Australia, but the United States is the most divided, the most polarised, the most angry at each other it’s ever been.
A civil war is not an unrealistic possibility.
There’s so much hatred between the two sides and we’re almost split down the middle. It’s a frightening time for someone who’s basically a political centrist like I am.
If people realised that they had a common enemy, one who thrives on all this hatred that they feel for each other, it might do some good. It might bring some peace because we are all feeding that entity, that evil, and it’s not on our side.
It’s not on either side. It’s against us all.”