Money is hardly the root of all evil. The blindingly insatiable desire for absolute power is perhaps a more qualified candidate. Greed would be a shoe in for second place. While money may seem the root of all evil to many, it behooves them to take a moment to define evil, and more importantly, the inevitable nature of money in modern society and throughout civilization.

Evil suffice to say is bad. It's immoral, it's wrong, it's anything that seems unfair, unjust, cruel, and at times just downright annoying. It is usually associated with the supernatural or the divine. But when one considers what evil means to even atheists less inclined to believe Satan exists anymore than God, Allah, or Yahweh, evil is still very real.

In addition to a number of definitions, evil in the secular sense can be defined as the knowing and willing intentional harm or cause for suffering inflicted by one being upon another for personal gain. For those who inflict harm or suffering solely for their own amusement, evil may not be as accurate a term as insane or demented. Usually people who cause pain and suffering upon others for their personal satisfaction, are either clinical psychopaths, schizophrenics or sado-masochistic fetishists. Even then, these people usually harm just one other person or animal, at most a small group of people. It never fails when a school campus killing occurs, as evil as the perpetrator may seem, and as unforgivable as the act may be, they are usually, almost like clockwork, mentally unfit or deranged.

However, when one considers history's most evil doers, Hitler and Stalin usually come to mind. Yet they weren't as driven by money as they were by power. They were also hardly mentally unfit to rule. No one manages to achieve such heights of totalitarian absolutism over millions of others, especially thousands who are much smarter, without knowing precisely what they are doing. Luck usually is on the side of these ultimate evil-doers, but so is lucidity.

It's debatable as to who was thee most evil per se between Stalin or Hitler. If one were to judge by the number of dead, perhaps Stalin would top the list with a figure of about 20 million deaths of Russians, his supposed own people, during his regime's reign. Some historians have even tallied the count at 60 million. During the 1930's famines caused by his repressive reforms of collectivization, around 6 million alone are estimated to have died of starvation. Some Russian historians attribute

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