In August 1914, Solzhenitsyn writes a scene where a character confronts Tolstoy on “his insistence that love is the only proper response to evil”:
“You say … that evil does not come from an evil nature, but out of ignorance. But evil refuses to know the truth. Evil people know better than anybody else just what they are doing. And go on doing it.”
Evil also needs willing accomplices – media personalities, politicians, donors, generals, police, supporters who simply … believe, but especially all the little men and women tired of being little, perhaps wild in their daydreams of power and stature, who have felt the craving to be the bitch-bastard over all … well, maybe some would do, a few at least … and who arrive at the Big Man’s door carrying their hatred and flattery alike, what they hope is a sufficient weight of both, as if fumbling lumpy grocery bags about in their overloaded arms.
When the door opens, they know to smile and say, “We want to be chosen. We too are innocent. The rest are scum. We know that what you say, day by day, is true. We only want to serve you.”
