Georgescu '61 reflects on evil

 

The author: Chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam, a network of commercial communications companies, Georgescu was elected to the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2001. He also is the author of The Source of Success.

 

The book: Imprisoned in a Romanian labor camp as a child and separated from his parents for eight years, Georgescu reflects on the nature of evil and goodness, his understanding of God, and other philosophical and spiritual questions. He recounts his own journey — the horrors he experienced in Romania, his emigration to the United States at the age 15 knowing almost no English, and eventually becoming CEO of Young & Rubicam. He explores how individuals can make daily choices that lead to good. “Evil is woven into our past, as a species, but it doesn’t need to be a part of our future,” he writes.

 

From chapter one: “The day they took my father away in 1941 must have felt like any other day. I was a little two-year-old, full of fun, living with my brother, Costa, and my grandparents in the Romanian village of Lipova in Transylvania, where Romania shares its border with Hungary. My parents, still in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, had sent us there for our safety. So when the police arrested Rica Georgescu at his home, I was far away, probably playing with toy soldiers in my grandfather’s enormous library or helping my brother water the rose garden. …”

 

Review: “Georgescu has struggled ‘to understand why evil pervades so much of human behavior,’” wrote Publishers Weekly. “As Georgescu searches for answers, his image of God changes from the bearded, prayer-granting dad in the sky to a neuter, benevolent force, offering each and every person, no matter the religion, a constant choice for goodness.”