Good and Honest People Can Do Evil

 

A poem for Bastille Day about how idealistic ends can inspire brutal means:

 

Good and honest people can do evil
As just ends can inspire brutal means.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Calculating what might be the level
Of suffering the greater good redeems.
Good and honest people can do evil

As well-honed ideologies give ample
Right and cause to murder for one's dreams.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

Romantic as the idealistic rebel,
Tyrannical as truth splits at the seams.
Good and honest people can do evil,

Reducing life's complexities to simple
Slogans that are best conveyed by screams.
In politics, a saint can be a devil,

More saint, more devil, a hammer on an anvil
That shapes the willing faithful into fiends.
Good and honest people can do evil.
In politics, a saint can be a devil.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Cantus Firmus Monks. By Doug Maxwell, Media Right Productions. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/goodan.html. For more poems for Bastille Day, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/bastilledaypoems.html .