The Wicked

Every wicked man is right in his own heart.

So says the Russell Crowe character in 3:10 to Yuma, and he attributes it to the Bible. Well, maybe, but I can't find it. Still, it's an interesting idea, and who better to apply it to than G. W. Bush. Bush was recently asked how he can keep his spirits up in the face of all the adversity and criticism he receives. "Because I know I'm right."

It's relatively easy to be cocky when things go well, but it takes a true virtuoso of cockyness to maintain his spirits when the whole world has seen that he has been right less often than a stopped clock. Selective or drug addled memory can play a role: that C- in economics becomes a B. Even so, in his heart, if any, can he really have any doubt as to which team he is playing for?

Hannah Arendt famously looked at the "banality of evil." Perpetrators of the most monstrous deeds learn to think of themselves as just doing a dirty job. We look into the heart of darkness and see, what? Resentment and envy, maybe, but mostly just incompetence and dimwittedness. It's a disappointment, I suppose. We want Voldemort to be larger than life and he turns out to be smaller.

Proverbs 28:16

The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor: but he that
hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.

I can't say that I find Adam Clarke's commentary on Proverbs 28:16 to be particularly literal, but he does nail Bush:

The prince that wanteth understanding ] A weak prince will generally have wicked
ministers, for his weakness prevents him from making a proper choice; and he is
apt to prefer them who flatter him, and minister most to his pleasures. The
quantum of the king's intellect may be always appreciated by the mildness or oppressiveness of his government.

He who plunges his people into expensive wars, to support which they are burdened with taxes, is a prince without understanding. He does not know his own interest, and does not regard that of his people.



UPDATE: Perhaps 21:2 was the verse in question:

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.

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