The eminent moral philosopher Susan Neiman shows how naming and confronting evil is essential for preserving democracy in an age of demagogues.
"Possibly the best book title of 2026, I couldn’t agree more with philosopher Susan Neiman’s rehabilitation of the word evil, a very useful and necessary descriptor for the times we are living through. Setting millennia of moral philosophy against the livestreamed degradations of the 21st century, Neiman calls it as she sees it, and in so doing traces the dark path that has led us to this evil moment in history." —Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub
Call It Evil is a bold reckoning with one of the most fraught words in our vocabulary. Far from being a religious or outdated concept, evil is a vital lens, Susan Neiman argues, through which to understand the threats we face today.
Neiman is one of our most important philosophers, and one of the world’s leading thinkers on the nature and question of evil. She opens this sharp, revelatory work with the idea that the reelection of Donald Trump is the outcome not simply of political and economic forces but the erosion of values that have been subject to derision for more than a century. She goes on to show how we have been quietly bombarded from all sides with messages that undermine basic moral principles. Misreadings of Adam Smith and Charles Darwin have led to a view of human nature we now accept as common sense: ideals are for losers, or for politicians who wish to deceive them. Neiman then explores how that ancient view, first formulated by pre-Socratic philosophers, has been steadily promoted by corporate interests and (pseudo) scientists in the modern era. Drawing on history—from European fascism to the moral failures of recent U.S. leaders—she demonstrates how the normalization of evil corrodes trust, destroys justice, and endangers our future.
This is a book for readers who refuse to accept moral confusion as the price of political life, and who believe that confronting evil is the first step toward renewing it.
David, sounds like an interesting book. Do you have it yet? It sounds a little like a book that came out a number of years ago on the subject of evil, "The People of the Lie" by Scott Peck. I'll have to see if our library has the Susan Neiman book.
ReplyDeleteI have preordered it. The release date is 9/15/2026, so it should appear on my Kindle tomorrow. She has previously written at least two books on evil: Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (2019) and Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy (2002).
ReplyDeletePossibly a companion read: End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. Excerpt in The Guardian today about the tech bro obsession with ditching the planet to create their own kingdoms in bunkers, on islands, or in space.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/13/end-times-fascists-essay
Snip:
... we are up against an ideology that has given up not only on the premise and promise of liberal democracy but on the livability of our shared world – on its beauty, on its people, on our children, on other species. There is something treasonous in this. Treasonous not to an abstraction like a flag or a nation, for we are not nationalists. But treasonous to the unspoken pact made with the web of life that sustains us.
They are traitors to creation, to the wonders of here.
St Hildegard of Bingen would agree:
Delete"Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars.
Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings.
Now, think.
What delight God gives to humankind
with all these things. . . .
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it. For
without we cannot survive."
That quote from St. Hildegard is beautiful.
DeleteThe tech bros fantasy of ditching the planet is bonkers. They don't have anyplace else to go. I can't figure out if they've gotten too involved in gamer/sci -fi fantasy, or if they are cultists like those Heaven's Gate believers in the 1980s who were going to hop on a comet. Or something.
The world would be better off if they did hop a comet and leave earth alone.
DeleteKatherine, I read the People of the Lie but don’t remember much about it, except that it was depressing
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I read People of the Lie. I think I gave my copy to the Friends of the Library sale. As I remember, Peck was a psychiatrist and tried to somewhat describe the evil state of mind.
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