Snopes reports- "If I Were the Devil" is a form of social criticism, an essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization (and the United States in particular) and lead it down the path of darkness — before delivering the catch that all the steps listed are phenomena that are already taking place in the world today. It was written and popularized by national radio commentator
and syndicated columnist Paul Harvey, who from the mid-1960s onwards featured it in both media many times over the course of his long career, periodically updating it to incorporate current trends.
In an odd twist, though (and the reason this item is rated as a "mixture"), one of the most widely Internet-circulated versions of "If I Were the Devil," as reproduced in the "Example" block above, is not from Paul Harvey. Although it is clearly inspired by and in the spirit of Paul Harvey's essay of the same name, it bears virtually no textual resemblance to the original — while it is similar in structure and theme, not one of its lines appears in any of various forms of the essay which Paul Harvey presented to his audiences over the years.
Read more at
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/devil.asp#ZTw1UBiISxwAKX3C.99
