Pretending it doesn’t exist isn’t the answer. Ignoring it isn’t the answer. Confronting evil – often ruthlessly – is the only way to ensure good prevails.
If you look at events around the world with a sick feeling in your stomach, it’s because you’ve picked up on the deeper truth behind the headlines:
Evil is winning.
Much of the world is turning against Israel, as the psychopathic tactics of genocidal Hamas terrorists successfully manipulate people into blaming Israel for what Hamas set in motion. Anti-Semites – echoing the same genocidal rhetoric of the fascists of the 1930s – are being given free reign to spread hatred and terror.
Ukraine is struggling on the battlefield, as ammunition shortages caused by political weakness, pro-Putin fifth columnists in our midsts, and a weakness of will among the West are taking an increasing toll.
China’s malign influence continues to go largely unchecked, and feeble efforts to address the infiltration of our democratic institutions collapse (just look at the ‘inquiry’ into interference in our democratic institutions in Canada, which has witnessed the exit of many groups most at risk from CCP agents as the inquiry seems designed to help China rather than stop China’s interference).
And more subtly, our own belief in the ideas of democracy, individual freedom, and the values that built Western Civilization has been eroded by both the far-left and the far-right, leading to a situation in which the most successful nations are the least confident in themselves, and the most brutal authoritarian states are brimming with confidence and have put us on the defensive.
Underlying all of this is a simple yet profound realization:
The Western world has forgotten how to deal with evil.
Think about it for a moment, and you’ll realize how true this is.
Notice how people simply put evil out of their minds and don’t even try to fight it, and instead look to put all the pressure and blame on a ‘safe’ outlet.
Again, once you see it you can’t unsee it.
Look at how Hamas is able to openly state that they want to commit genocide, openly admit they want to maximize the deaths among their own people, and repeatedly reject peace deals, yet pressure is instead applied almost entirely to Israel – the nation that was attacked – to end the war and thus keep Hamas in power.
Look at the lengths with which pro-Putinists go to ignore the fact that the war in Ukraine could end if Russia simply withdrew back within their own borders. You’ll notice that many blame literally everyone else (NATO, the European Union, the WEF, the US, etc.) for the invasion of Ukraine other than the country that actually caused it – Russia.
Look at how little our own government does to protect Chinese & Iranian pro-democracy voices from retribution by the CCP & Iranian Islamist regime. Agents of hostile foreign powers are allowed to operate almost with impunity and threaten people within our own country, thus spreading the power of their fear-based dictatorship across the world.
And look at how badly the West – especially Canada – has allowed our military might to deterioriate. We have acted as if building weapons and having the capacity to kill is simply no longer necessary, which is a grave mistake in a dangerous world and could only happen if a society has collectively lost the understanding that evil still exists.
Over and over again we have chosen the path of putting evil out of our minds, and then applying pressure to those who are good. We focus on every minute flaw of good nations (corruption in Ukraine, some far-right elements in Israel), while giving a free pass to the almost pure evil nature of their opponents (Hamas is a gang of literal genocidal psychopaths, Putin has unleashed a horrific blood-sacrifice to fulfill his imperialist obsessions of wiping out Ukrainian identity).
A useful way to think about this is to try and imagine what would happen if either side got what they wanted.
If Ukraine got what it wanted, they would simply return to the borders they had in 2014 before Russia invaded.
If Russia got what it wanted, Ukraine would cease to exist as an independent nation state, millions would be ‘reeducated’ to think they were Russian, millions of children would be kidnapped, hundreds of thousands would be tortured, hundreds of thousands of the Ukrainian ‘intelligentsia’ would be massacred, and the stage would be set for a Russia vs NATO conflict.
If Israel got what it wanted, it would be left alone to continue building a prosperous, free, and advanced society.
If Hamas go what it wanted, there would be another Holocaust, with Israel completely destroyed and millions of Jewish People killed.
This is the difference between good and evil. Good isn’t perfect. Good isn’t without mistakes. But good ultimately does the right thing even from a position of power, while evil grabs for power in order to commit atrocities on a massive scale.
How to deal with evil?
Here’s where it gets difficult for many in the Western world.
We have known relative peace and prosperity for so long that many understandably want to hold on to the world that existed in the past and hope that evil will just go away.
Once we accept that evil exists, and that evil isn’t going away, we then face the question of how to deal with it.
And the answer isn’t a nice one.
To deal with evil, the free world must retain the capacity to kill, and must use that capacity to either dissuade aggression by authoritarian states ahead of time, or to put it down swiftly when it arises.
It’s that simple.
Evil regimes use war, or the threat of war, to get what they want.
Yet, as evil and intimidating as they are, even the worst regimes are still just made up of human beings.
They still get up in the morning and put their clothes on.
They still have to go to the washroom.
They still have to eat.
They still have to sleep.
And – aside from the most fanatical and insane – they still want to live.
We must not be fooled by the intimidating aura regimes create around themselves. They do this to distract from the fact that they are nothing more than a collection of human beings, and ultimately as vulnerable and fragile as any democratic nation.
Thus, to confront evil, we must have the power to kill.
We must build weapons.
We must train people to use those weapons.
We must have the capacity to deliver those weapons and deliver our fighters to the battlefield.
We must make evil regimes understand that we have this capacity, that we are willing to use this capacity, and that they will suffer immensly if they try to spread their evil around the world.
In the best case scenario, our possession of the credible capacity to kill will dissuade aggression and help maintain peace. If that doesn’t work, then having that capacity at least enables us to fight and win a war.
Both are better than the third possibility – lacking the capacity to kill and thus being destroyed by evil regimes that have the capacity we lack.
This all may sound harsh and utilitarian, but it is simply how the world works.
If we want to confront evil, if we want to ensure that ideas like freedom, democracy, and human rights survive now and long into the future, we must rearm and prepare for war.
There are moments in history when evil can’t be talked down, can’t be dismissed, and can’t be appeased. There are moments when evil must be confronted with resolve, resolve backed by credible military strength.
Now is one of those moments, and we must act accordingly.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – AI
