Since last autumn, we have been hearing the word evil and the phrase evildoers used on an almost daily basis--most often by our nation’s politicians but also from some other folks in the world, our enemies and allies alike. Aside from the subjective nature of an idea such as "evil," in the current context, the use of this word interests me very much.

I recently heard a media pundit make an intriguing reference to Voltaire’s views regarding evil in the world. Now Voltaire was one of the great thinkers of the "Enlightenment," a period in history during the later part of the Eighteenth century characterized by the philosophical questioning of the religious and political dogma of the day. Voltaire espoused freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, and opposition to the "cruel caprices of unenlightened monarchs," to militarism and to slavery.

Voltaire was clearly a deist, yet he was not thrilled by organized religion. Anyway, the reason why the talking head brought up this great mind of the Enlightenment is that Voltaire spent a considerable amount of time thinking and writing about the nature and origins of evil in the world. In fact, at the time his writings displeased those in power to such a degree that he was exiled from his native France on more than one occasion, as well as being thrown into the Bastille not once but twice.

The commentator referenced one of Voltaire’s greatest works: Candide, published in 1759. It is a story of a gentle yet unfortunate man, who is abused in the most unfortunate of ways by fate. Yet all the while he clings desperately to the belief that we live, in the "best of all possible worlds." This entertaining tale attacks the arguments of Leibnitz, a noted German philosopher and mathematician who preceded Voltaire by a generation or two. As an aside, there is still some argument among philosophers as to whether or not Leibnitz appropriated the ideas of another philosopher of his day, Spinoza, however that is a tale for another time. Anyway, Leibnitz said: "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Now Voltaire had a problem with this, and with how he perceived the Church to be endorsing this stance, and thereby, by association seeming to be telling the faithful that we should grin and bear our "crosses," for our reward is in heaven. He and other enlightened thinkers did not believe that man should be content with the lack of freedoms noted above.

But back to the television commentator, you see he was attempting to connect Voltaire’s views regarding addressing evil in the world, as articulated in his story "Candide," to the efforts currently being taking by the United States to mitigate the violence in the Middle East. Voltaire’s position was that evil is eternal, yet that does not imply that we should give up attempting to address it. Voltaire used a garden as a metaphor for illustrating this point-even though we know that weeds will always come back, we should not give up pulling them, for if we do, there can be no garden (a good life). On this basis the pundit implied that we should not disparage the Bush Administration’s attempts at promoting peace in the Middle East.

While I certainly understand and appreciate Voltaire’s garden metaphor, as it relates to Collin Powell’s Middle East "peace mission," it seems to me that it does not hold. In response to terror attacks upon our nation, we have been (rightly or wrongly so) waging "war" on Afghanistan now for many months. And since Israel is claiming that their current "war" on terrorism is in response to on-going terror attacks against their country, I do not see a fair basis for our President to call upon them to stop their "war."

It seems to me that if Collin Powell’s mission is about tending the garden of world peace, he would have made the trip months ago, when most of the nations in the region were asking our President to send him there. But that did not happen, and at the time it seemed to me as if the administration was content with letting them battle it out. Only when the oil producing nations in the effected region began to make ominous noises, and in some cases actually stop supplying oil to us, did the President send Powell. No, I do not believe that this is a case of tending the garden, it seems to me that this is a case of minding our oil supply.

I wish that Voltaire were alive today. I am sure that he could provide us with fascinating insights into this situation, and perhaps even some much needed clarity. But he would also probably find himself in jail (again) for speaking his mind. For gentle reader, based upon my understanding of the "course of human events," it seems to me that some things never change.