The concept of Evil is an evasion

A week of remembrance marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz last month had me thinking hard about what we mean by Evil. ‘Evil’, that is, when used with a real or metaphorical capital letter. You cannot join discussion of the Holocaust without hearing the word again and again. And indeed, what other words are available when we want to express complete horror? ‘Regrettable’? ‘Immoral’? Such vocabulary won’t do the job. Only ‘wicked’ and ‘sinful’ come anywhere near, and all are allied with what Evil, as a proper noun, tries to capture.

‘Evil’ eschews any notion of understanding or explaining, and sits uneasily with the idea of rectification, compensation or apology. It’s hard to reconcile even with thoughts of forgiveness. And ‘Evil’ brushes aside the possibility of miscalculation, error, ignorance or accident. ‘Evil’ is so much more than mistaken judgment, lapsed attention.

Perversely, there’s something positive about the word. Study its use (for instance in popular newspaper headlines or politicians’ responses to terrorist incidents) and you get the sense of some kind of cosmic force, a living thing, a malign spirit.