I believe there are two kinds of evil in this world.
The first and most common type was well described by Hannah Arendt in Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. This is the evil of the functionary or civil servant who abdicated moral responsibility for his actions and was “just following orders.” This is the evil that helps us understand many of the large-scale atrocities of modern civilization.
I also believe that there is enough evidence in this world to justify a belief in another kind of evil–something demonic, supernatural, and otherworldly. Until today, I believed Senator Ted Stevens was the embodiment of this kind of evil–a real-life Gozer the Gozerian walking the halls of the Hart Senate Office Building.
But now, after listening to this audio clip of Stevens talking about Net Neutrality, I’ve decided that he’s really just a sad and senile old man. Stevens is Captain Queeg and he’s missing his strawberries. The people of Alaska should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to reelect him, only to make a public spectacle of his declining mental state.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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