Mean, violent people were once thought of as evil. Now they're almost universally thought of as sick. A little tinkering with their carburetor, perhaps some counseling, perhaps some chemicals properly applied - they'll be fine.
Everything can be fixed, even evil.
Absurd!
It took a while to convince people that evil was just a form of mental disease.
Modern convincing started in the early twentieth century with the pop canonization of psychology. It was enhanced by medical successes in treating bodily illness.
If the body could be fixed then couldn't the mind be fixed, as well? Well maybe. . . Why not? Sure. . . I guess.
And so it went, from plausible possibility to foolish certainty.
Now that evil is unthinkable, mental illness explains it all. We can't really blame mean, violent people for their behavior. It's not their fault. They just need help. Something happened to make them behave badly; some sort of abuse when they were young, some sort of biological malfunction - nothing that science, drugs, and proper counseling can't correct. Right?
If that's true, then why are there more mean, violet people on the streets now than there were before? Why are the therapies so often unavailing?
Maybe the cause isn't as important as the effect.
Thousands of decent folks are hurt, killed, or their belonging destroyed, by mean, violent people every day. The victims don't much care how the mean and violent got that way. They just want them off the street. They'd like them off the street permanently. If not permanently, then confined, indefinitely.
It wasn't too very long ago that such thinking was considered common sense.
I recall an old B&W Western: A callow, sobbing youth was brought-up before the Judge:
"I understand son. You fell-in with a bad crowd.
I guess you were a good boy before all this. None of that changes the facts. You've been caught rustling horses with these other outlaws. I'm sorry for you son, but now we have to hang you".
Oh, how awful. Surly the boy could have been redeemed. He might have turned his life around. He might have become an honest, productive citizen.
Or, he might have become better at not getting caught.
He won't steal any more horses.
There's the hard truth of the matter. Is it better for society to understand wrongdoing or is it better to cut it off at the root? Well . . . well . . . Oh dear . . . couldn't we do both?
We do both now, though we do quite a lot more to understand the mean and violent than we do to get them off the street. Shouldn't we get them off street first, then try to understand them. Wouldn't reversing the emphasis be better. First remove the problem, then treat those who might be treatable.
The question of evil verses mental illness is
academic.
The question of the public good is practical.
The question of a medical fix for all of life's troubles
is theological.
Judging by the extraordinary number of ads on TV for pills, potions, and prescriptions, we have become a nation of Pharmaceutical worshipers. Is everyone really that sick, or is it something else? How did we ever survive before all these pills were available?
Recreational drugs was a problem for many people. Medical drugs seems to be a problem for nearly the entire population. Most of us seem under-the-influence of multiple chemicals all day, every day.
Are all these chemicals working cooperatively or are they working at cross-purposes.
How can anyone know? Is "Better living through chemistry" a sunny road to the future or is it a siren song
to ruin?
The answer hardly matters. The die was cast
long ago.
I have no doubt evil exists. It's possible to combat evil. It is not possible to fix evil.
This world is full of woe. So it has always been.
You may choose to think of evil as mental illness. You may choose to think of illness as chemically fixable. There's some truth in both
Very little changes whichever way you think.
We're left to do the best we can.
Good luck.