My Epiphanies Are Your Inanities

We've had it wrong the whole time.
Always assuming that evil, though charming,
Will still be recognizably evil.

Creating explanations;
maybe we like bad boys because they are forbidden.

But the devil doesn't walk as Loki
Nor offer a Port salut across a room as Dr. Lecter
Nor sneer, nor jibe, nor scorn, nor jeer
Nor offer secret danger lurking near

Evil is Cary Grant. Evil is the Ideal made Real. It doesn't require negotiations or hesitations, twists and secrets before giving you Everything You Need. No translator needed. Straight line no exchange and gooooooo.

 He's Cary Grant. He's there with your martini, ready to rub your feet. He is beautiful and strong and suave and competent. He is kind but also challenges you. He makes you laugh.

Oh, that whole Evil part, darling. Can't be helped. In my blood you know. Love you.

And you actually want to believe it's that simple. If he's not really such a bad guy, just has this one flaw.

and OF COURSE you are thinking this,
because this is C.ary F.ucking G.rant
Are you kidding me?
Who wouldn't think about this?
Are you feeling okay? Do you know where you are?
Because that is Cary Grant, right there,
so. . . what were you saying? Because, you know, Cary Grant over there.
Are arguments are invalid because Cary Grant.

Because Cary Grant, that's why.

And that's why we gotta wake up. We thought the devil was Gabriel Byrne.
It's so much worse than we feared.