"I know, isn't she diabolical?"
The word summons to mind scenes from the worlds of comic books and early James Bond movies. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman...these virtuous beings routinely faced excessively creative villains bent on their destruction, sometimes to the detriment of the pursuit of world domination. These villains must have devoted many hours to brilliant and productive brooding, dreaming up insanely ingenious plots in order to destroy their adversaries through elaborate scenarios involving acid baths, slowly melting ice, laser beams, hypnotism, sharks in unexpected places. No contraption too complex, no price tag too high. But who has the time to be diabolical today?
Nowadays, we have plenty of examples of bad behavior, and some of them also involve delightful words. "Rapacious" comes to mind, as in Bank of America or Hedge Fund Manager. But in today's fast paced environment, efficiency has put diabolical out of business, making the pursuit of world domination so much less picturesque.
Maybe "diabolical" has a quaint and melodramatic ring to it because at its root is the devil (related words: devilish, demonic, satanic, infernal, fiendish, unholy) and no one really believes in the devil any more. Or, if they do, they are only too willing to make a friendly deal at the next crossroads...or better yet, via email on their Blackberry.
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