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CounterPunch
November
22, 2002
On the Meaning
of Evil
by KURT LEEGE
'Evil' has been forefront in current affairs during
the last year. Al Queda is 'evil'. Saddam Hussein is 'evil'.
We fight an 'evil axis'. This is not new. The so-called fight
for 'justice' has been vetted throughout centuries within lexicon
of 'good' and 'evil'. This is the appropriate lexicon, however,
we seem to have forgotten the meaning of 'evil', and with it
the nature of justice. As a character on Star Trek once noted
'truth is in the eye of the beholder'. I find this to be a common
trait amongst those over-determined words that inform the meaning,
purpose and conduct of our lives. Not the least of these is 'evil'.
In its earliest uses, evil [ubilo(z)]
simply means 'overstepping one's limit'. It specifies no specific
crime, no proscriptive way of being. In that superficial sense,
we can understand the perspectival nature of the term. America
can rightly see those who stub the toe of its interests as evil,
and the converse--those oppressed by perceived American imperialism
rightly believe us to be evil. It is an equal opportunity word--it
has no interest, no fixed set of prosciptions. Thus, evil is
also in the 'eye of the beholder'. Unfortunately for those lost
to history, the idea this word conveys does have a specific historical
referent and a meaning deeper than the implications of its opportunistic
employment.
The first and most eloquent equation
of 'stepping beyond one's limit' and 'evil' rests in Pre-Socratic
Greek religion; and it is an idea that would shame both modern
moralists and imperialists. The solution of this equation is
moira. This word is commonly translated as 'fate' or 'destiny',
but its meaning within Greek religion, and ultimately the 'democratic'
miracle of Athens, is far deeper. Moira as traced through the
early poets and philosophers rests on two precepts: Limit and
equality. Each being has its specific share constituting its
limit, but each share is also equal to all others--limit itself
is the very equality of beings. As opposed to a Post-Socratic
idea of 'limit' as that life which falls within a proscribed
set of predetermined social or moral relations, 'limit' in its
original sense means acting with reference to the equality of
beings. This is the notion that was birthed by Athenian democracy,
nursed by 16th century humanism, and came of age with the struggle
for human rights. 'Evil', according to this definition, is simply
acting against the equality of beings.
The Greeks had another positive word
to describe this 'acting toward the equality of beings'. It became
the founding principle of Athenian 'democracy': isonomia. Literally,
equality before the law, isonomia resembles the constitutional
precept of 'equal protection under the law'. However, it has
greater reach. On the one hand, 'before the law' implies a spatial
relationship. We are 'before' the law, as if it were an edifice.
The 'law', in this sense, is not understood as a bunch of fleeting
ideas imposed upon us by the whims of legislators, but the edifice
of the public itself. Being 'before the law' is being in the
living presence of the public, the 'we'. On the other hand [and
in a more primordial sense], 'before the law' has a temporal
meaning--there are principles prior to the 'law' in its spatial
[public] sense upon which that law is based and by which the
law comes to exist. The law has both a ground and a becoming--a
ground in what is prior to law and a becoming in its being taken
into the realm of the public, changing, growing and reflecting
what the public is. For the Greeks, equality predominates both
senses of 'before the law'. We are 'equal before the law' in
that equality precedes law and equality is what the law achieves
through the public.
Throughout all Greek literature prior
to Plato one can trace this radical sense of equality as being
the essential 'trust' of being. In all cases, breaking this 'trust'
required the ministrations of 'justice'. Justice itself was the
curative realignment to equality. Those who trampled upon the
basic equality of another [even the gods] would be brought back
to the order of equality by justice. Justice was not retribution,
punishment, or revenge, but rather a rectification, a refashioning
of the basic equality of beings. We often forget that our own
iconography has this vision of justice at its roots: the blindfolded
Athena with a balance on her arm. In this image, we see justice
as the process by which equality comes to be.
Contrast this with the ideas of 'evil'
and 'justice' as they are commonly parceled out today and we
find two angry, displaced children cut off from their history.
For most in America 'evil' is an action perceived to be against
our personal or collective interest and 'justice' means the elimination
of that threat [be it through death or imprisonment]. People
around the world wonder why we Americans fail to understand the
causes of anti-Americanism or in the more extreme case, terrorism.
It is precisely because in common parlance, we have lost our
historical footing when it comes to routine interpretation of
ethical norms. If we don't reattach ourselves to history, we
may yet lose a great deal more than we did on September 11.
Kurt Leege
can be reached at: noxes@nyc.rr.com
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November 14,
2002
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