Ohka:

I agree this article is lame, but ignorant of what exactly?

How is one "actively evil"? Is that like sexually active?

Personally, I believe “evil” is a matter of reference. Where do we get our notion of evil? Rock and roll used to be "evil" for godsake. I am not a religious person, but even the bible’s (particularly the first testament) representation is quite murky. For example, in the story of Abraham god seems quite evil in this one. Even the story of the flood and Noah seems pretty damn evil. To me the world isn’t as black and white as many here would have us think. It is clear that you think the US military to be evil, but what about those that they fight? Are they evil, they kill people too, as a matter of fact they intend to kill people. Is merely killing people evil? Is this killing ever justified?

To me the idea of good and evil is a tough one that breaks down in most scenarios. The world is not good and evil, black and white, but just opposing forces that through conflict complement each other. One thing I have noticed is that those that claim to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what is good and what is evil are usually those that cause a lot “evil” stuff.

Woah! Look, nothing gets my goat faster than someone bitching about "moral relativism"-- usually meant as any view of life that does not follow their dogma. But there is evil shit in the world, my friend, and a person who denies a clear case of same is just being the banal shitbag of which Arendt complained.

I mean, roast and eat a baby and tell me that's not evil. Or, try a more common activity-- use a drone to drop a missile on a bunch of folks and roast babies that way. It's evil, buddy, and the fact that the people dropping the missile and the ones ordering them to do it and the ones who designed and built the missile and those of us who paid for it and those of us who sit silently back while this is done with our money and in our name don't consider themselves evil, or who think they have a really really good reason to have done something that horrific, doesn't matter. In fact, I kinda think that's where the "banal" part comes in.

Seems to me the only thing that prevents people from recognizing the evil that permeates our lives, and which is, sadly, perhaps the very foundation of how we operate and consume in this world, is the fact that full realization would be simply too psychologically destructive to bear.