The cancer of destruction is an evil thing

It’s a miracle of microsystems that complement each other and co-operate for the purpose of the whole, and the same miracle is repeated in all higher organisms, and micro-organisms as well. The same principle seems to apply to worlds, the galaxy, the universe, the cosmos – everything that is, great and small.

This makes it all the more tragic when parts of the organism turn against others. The huge variety of genetic mutations that lead to the formation of cancer cells is part of such a tragedy, when – far from co-operating – the body’s own cells turn against it and compromise its viability.

In the Facebook combox a couple of weeks ago someone took me to task for calling the coronavirus ‘evil’; it was, they wrote, just doing what comes naturally, which – in the commentator’s view – was an entirely neutral thing.

The question here is whether ‘evil’ only has to do with matters that are intended or carried out with a purpose. The writer is suggesting that if you can’t find someone to blame who could have chosen to do differently, thus avoiding the evil, then the situation is at worst neutral.

While I don’t doubt the good intentions and sincerity of people who think this way, I take the view that human society is never going to put right the various agents that work to break it down if we are only looking for people with bad intentions or wrong choices.

I doubt if anyone set out to create the devastation caused through the recent explosion in Beirut, but I am sure that the devastation was evil, just as I am sure that much of the previous destruction of that city’s structure, wealth and culture was caused intentionally by people who thought they could trample over the lives of others because they wanted to establish what they saw as a greater good.

Just as in the body, so in human society, the cancer of destruction is an evil thing. Coronavirus is not the only virus to use and then destroy its hosts. The current tragedy of human life is the result of our own ingenuity being unintentionally (for the most part) used in ways that compromise and threaten to destroy the planet’s capacity to sustain life.

If we can’t identify and name the evil, we won’t even start to work out how to overcome it. Evil is by no means limited to beings like us who can decide and choose. But when the evil is identified we can choose and decide to do something about it.

The progress that has been made in the past century to overcome the evils of poverty and disease is largely due to people who have worked quietly and tirelessly to find solutions, improve education, and change attitudes. They have laboured quietly while others have sought (and received) public acclaim.

The biggest evil we face today is the constant distraction from what is really important, and the consequent failure to build up what Pope Paul VI in 1970 wisely called a ‘civilisation of love’, where each person, each system, each institution, works for the benefit of all.

Keep safe and keep well.

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