Beyond Left and Right: What Two Deaths Reveal About Us All

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” - Mary Shelley

The murders of Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and conservative activist Charlie Kirk are more than tragedies. They are warnings. Both lived on different sides of the political spectrum, yet both were silenced by violence. Their deaths remind us that the dangers we face in our divided culture are not about left or right, but about what happens when dialogue collapses.

​Mistaking Evil for the Good We Seek
Mary Shelley’s words cut to the heart of these moments. Few people wake up wanting to commit evil. More often, they are convinced that their actions serve a greater cause. That twisted conviction, mistaking harm for justice, violence for righteousness, is what turns ordinary men and women into perpetrators of tragedy.

In these assassinations, the killers likely believed they were protecting something: their ideology, their values, their identity. Instead of creating safety or meaning, they destroyed life. They mistook destruction for “the good they seek.”

The Culture of Speaking Over Listening
We live in a culture that rewards volume over reflection. Social media algorithms promote outrage. Politicians win by landing the sharpest soundbite. Talk show hosts thrive on never letting silence linger.

But when speaking becomes our default, listening disappears. Without listening, empathy withers. Without empathy, the “other side” becomes an enemy. Once we label someone as an enemy, the leap to justify harm is frighteningly short.

The Cost of Not Hearing One Another
Melissa Hortman and Charlie Kirk represented very different political visions, but the same root cause sits beneath their deaths: the refusal to hear. The shooters were not monsters from birth. They were people who allowed anger, isolation, and ideology to drown out any possibility of listening.

When we stop listening, we no longer see humans. We see threats. We see villains. We see targets.

Choosing to Listen Before It’s Too Late
If Shelley is right, that no one chooses evil for its own sake, then there is hope. The antidote is not shouting louder, but pausing to listen. Listening does not mean agreement. It does not mean surrendering convictions. It means recognizing that even those we oppose are, in their own way, chasing happiness, safety, or meaning, however misguided.

When we truly listen, we can see where their pursuit went astray. And maybe, just maybe, we can prevent more lives from being lost to the illusion that violence is ever the path to “the good we seek.”

Editor’s Note
A few days before the murder of Charlie Kirk, I was on a backpacking trip with Father Mike, a practicing priest and a close friend. Late at night, as we sat around the campfire, our conversation turned deep. At one point Father Mike said, “No man chooses evil because it is evil.” The words struck me then, but in the days that followed they carried even more weight. What was meant for deep thought in the glow of a campfire became a haunting reminder after these tragedies. Curious about its origin, I did some research and discovered it came from Mary Shelley. That search led to this article. We have to do better. I believe it starts with listening.

Author

Ben McMillen