DUMBFOUNDED
BY EVIL

Topics: Evil; Hatred; Human Condition; Human Nature; Inexplicability of Evil; Sin; Violence

References: Romans 1:18–32; 3:9–20

Former United Nations leader Kofi Annan traveled the world visiting areas of some of the worst violence and cruelty in human history. He often wonders about man’s cruelty to man. “I’m still struggling with evil,” he says. “I still don’t understand how there can be so much evil.… You look at the impact; you see young people who have no hope.”

Annan is most puzzled when he comes face-to-face with evil. Recounting his meetings with former Serbian leader and indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, Annan says, “Milosevic will talk about the days when he was a banker here in New York City. He speaks English, sounds like a rational, reasonable person, and yet he is capable of all sorts of acts. How do they do it? How does someone behave like such a normal human being and suddenly turn so evil?”

—Joshua Cooper Ramo, “The Five Virtues of Kofi Annan,” Time (April 9, 2000)