J.K. Rowling is awesome and I agree with her rebuke of Rupert Murdoch. However, I don’t agree that the world is divided into “good” and “evil” the way this article suggests (“we fail to recognize the evil behind the attacks for what it is: pure evil”). Good and evil are what we use to describe the world to children in fairy tales. Grownups need to have a more refined/mature/nuanced understanding of the world. If we just ascribe the acts of these people to the fact that they are “evil”, we fail to examine further the reasons for doing what they did. I am not saying that there is any reason that could be given to justify killing people, but if we don’t take the time to understand WHY they did it, we will never be able to prevent it from happening again.
Yes, I agree with you, Shaney.
AND, fairy tales are necessary because they address the good and evil which co-exist within every human being. They are speaking directly to our unconscious mind (every character in a story are various aspects of one’s psyche), full of paradox and things our conscious mind finds difficult to accept.
A person who cannot integrate their own inner evil will (unconsciously or not) will find the need to project it onto another, and feel justified by eliminating him/her.
This dynamic also happens on a collective level, so when groups or countries follow one extreme interpretation of what is “good” then the polar opposite will arise (to maintain balance, or wholeness) unconsciously–and they will not realize their own evil.
It is most evident in extremes–the Catholic priests are a perfect example of “pure” people doing evil things to innocent children, and then still not being able to own it.