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An Education in 'Evil' pp 83–106Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Politics of Evil

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures ((PSEF))

Abstract

The politics of evil refers to an invocation of evil in political rhetoric against a person or group that, intentionally or otherwise, stifles democratic debate, and can promote hate speech such as George W. Bush’s reference to the “Axis of Evil.” Labelling a group as evil taps into powerful imagery from religion, popular media, and other cultural sources. Drawing from a qualitative study with Grade 11 students and the concept of order-words from Deleuze and Guattari, this chapter examines the power the label of evil has in the context of the study of historical and contemporary events.

An earlier version of this chapter was published as: van Kessel, C. (2017). “A Phenomenographic Study of Youth Conceptualizations of Evil: Order-Words and the Politics of Evil,” Canadian Journal of Education, 40(4), 329–355.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    καλός κ ̓αγαθός (full form: καλός και αγαθός) is the masculine, singular, nominative form, and thus, the endings of the words would be different when referring to: other genders, in the plural, or when the phrase functions differently in a sentence (e.g., the nominative form as the subject of the sentence versus the accusative form as the object in a sentence).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Cathryn van Kessel

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  1. Cathryn van Kessel
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Correspondence to Cathryn van Kessel .

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van Kessel, C. (2019). The Politics of Evil. In: An Education in 'Evil'. Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16605-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16605-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16604-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16605-2

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