I think evil is best defined as a state of action than a state of being. Cruelty is evil. Walking up to a stranger, insulting them, demeaning them, then shooting them in the back is evil. It's really hard to pin down a physical person as evil; they invariable see themselves as good, and often act in surprising ways. Even the most evil person can do good things. Even the best person can fall prey to the temptation of evil.
My claim is that things can only be classified as evil by the evil of their actions. This is not to say a person is completely defined by their actions, but that their actions are the only things that may be called evil. People are inconsistent, even the most incorruptable evil doing unexplainable acts of compassion. The greatest evil are the hypocrites, those that act good in public, but execute their evil in the safety of privacy.
No, I cannot define people as evil, but I can define their actions as evil. I cannot say I hate Hitler, that I want Stalin to never have been. But I can say that I never want the terror and horror they did to have been done. If Hitler had made it as an artist. If Stalin... um... had made a successful career in sock weaving, I would be perfectly happy.
It is not a quality of them that I have a problem with, it is the actions they did, the people they hurt, the atrocities that were committed. They just happen to be at the center of it, and the cause. Beyond that, I hold no argument against them.
I oppose with all the resolve I can muster every single evil thing that I can hope to stop. That is why I will fight tooth and nail not to go to war, or on a battlefield. In my mind, the killing and dying in battle is more evil than the dubious cowardice of hiding from the ones who would harm. I oppose evil. I oppose Nazism. I oppose religious war. I oppose war. But I don't oppose any specific person.
That's the secret, the reason behind the pitifully explained words in the Christian bible. "Love thy enemy." Love your enemy, not because God told you so, but because it is their actions, their undeserved freedom to commit crimes against humanity that should be focused on. There is nothing a bad guy hates worse than people who won't hate them back.
Hatred is a weakness, a terrible weakness, that allows people to get away with doing bad things because they are labeled as evil. Loving the one who harms, while stopping them from harming is the best thing you can do, and it is the thing which will drive your enemy deliciously crazy with frustration. It is a defense that cannot be fought by actions of evil.
Evil cannot survive compassion, conservation and strong conviction. But it is important we remember that no matter how much consideration we give people labeled as evil, we must not allow them to do evil. Once evil people are taught that doing evil is not tolerated, you may be surprised how vulnerable they really are, and how loyal they can be.
Now that I think about it, to label an action as evil may be more difficult than I first imagined. Is abortion evil? Is the act of a woman working evil? Is prayer in a heathen religion evil? How about assisted suicide?
Many actions have not been agreed upon towards being good or evil. Many actions already agreed upon are horribly mistaken. Simply going with a majority isn't the solution to defining evil actions from good. But I will admit that every action is only as evil as we agree upon.
I'm not exactly sure how to define evil, but I still stand by my point that it is an adjective that labels actions, not people, not things. There are no "bad" days; there is no bad weather; there are no bad people. It is what happens that's bad. Defining which actions are evil is beyond the scope of this essay.
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