Sartre and Evil: Guidelines for a Struggle
Sartre and Evil: Guidelines for a Struggle
Synopsis
Excerpt
An American said to me one evening, "After all, if international politics were in the hands of well-balanced and reasonable men, wouldn't war be abolished for ever?' Some French people. present said that this did not necessarily follow, and he got angry. "All right," he said in scornful indignation, "go and build cemeteries!" I, for my part, said nothing; discussion between us was impossible. I believe in the existence of evil and he does not. Jean Paul Sartre in "Individualism and Conformism in the United States." 1945
We also believe in the existence of Evil, not only as an abstract concept, but rather, as a description of concrete events in the world: this drunken father who is brutally beating his daughter, that judge who favors the rich and the powerful, this envious woman who spreads lies about her rivals. Many concrete manifestations of Evil, however, cannot be attributed to one single person. They are results of our political systems, of our manners of governing the world, and of our ways of relating to other human beings: the rampant destruction of the rain forests, the greedy exploitation of millions of peasants and laborers, the prevailing oppression of women, the killings in Cambodia, in Afghanistan, in El Salvador, in Guatemala, and yes, in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. These many instances of Evil profoundly disturb us. We strive daily to struggle against them, at least in our own backyard. The humility and feelings of impotency that often accompany these struggles have led us to agree with Sartre that "the . . .