It's crazy (Rob's reflections)

Something I have found morbidly entertaining in East Asia is that whenever someone commits or attempts murder (including suicide) or causes some other atrocious, headline-grabbing spectacle, the news reports that the person was later determined to be suffering from a mental disease. When you press the issue further, you find that this is a society that believes you would have to be mentally messed up to do anything like that. It's a real, live Catch 22.
"Why did he stab his boss?"
"Because he was crazy."
"How do you know he was crazy?"
"Because he stabbed his boss."

Well, forgive my naivete, but could there be another explanation? Could the reason be (warning: four-letter word ahead) EVIL? For years I have brushed this off as an quirk of East Asian culture. But then, a few weeks ago, I read an opinion column on the Fort Hood shootings, and within a few sentences the author said he "takes for granted" that anyone who would shoot other people has a mental disorder. Have we gotten to that point? Has evil been factored out of the equation? How long until we realize that, without that component, the equation will never add up?

One thing I appreciated about George W. Bush was his unabashed re-introduction of the concept of 'evil' into public dialogue. He spoke of certain people, actions, ideologies and even governments as just plain evil. He also took a lot of flack for that, but I for one admired it.

C.S. Lewis, 60 years ago was writing about the danger of seeing criminals as nothing more than mental/emotional/social problems that just need to be 'fixed'. is it too early to call Lewis a prophet?