MISUNDERSTANDING EVIL

Iconoclast ^ | May 12, 2003 | Murray Soupcoff (The Iconoclast)

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST DAILY NOTEBOOK....

Misunderstanding Evil ....



May 11 2003: Today's recommended reading is brief essay on the City Journal Web site by Theodore Dalrymple. The piece is entitled The Morality of Terror.

Basically, Dalrymple sums up his thesis in two cogent opening paragraphs:

At the recent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Malaysia, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammed Mahathir, said 'the causes of bitterness and anger . . . of terrorists should be identified and removed.' He added that people would not be willing to blow themselves up and kill others if they did not have a reason.

Indeed not: human beings always have a reason for behaving as they do. The question is not whether they have a reason, but whether the reason they have is a good one...

Theodore Dalrymple most obviously doesn't believe the terrorists' have a good reason. And he most definitely doesn't belong to the "We must understand the root causes" school of morality or foreign policy.

Yet, in contrast, the Malaysian Prime Minister's original remarks were sympathetically reported by the majority of the press in Europe and North America.

However, should that be a surprise? Opposing reactions to a host of Islamofascist terror attacks around the world in the last three years have underscored the great divide that separates the politically-correct proponents of an enlightened leftism of "tolerant" multiculturalism (and peace at any price) and those few of us still living in the real world.

No matter what the murderous provocation, the liberal-left tolerance crowd have still managed to find "root causes" for the actions of ethnic terrorists in such "blame the victim" standby's as injurious Western globalism, imperialism, economic exploitation, insensitivity and arrogance. And of course, once the left finds "roots causes," then it goes without saying that no guilt or responsibility can be assigned to the left's designated "victims" of such root causes -- even terrorists who may have just bombed, maimed or murdered innocent American, Israeli or Australian civilians.

In such cases, the victims of Western, imperialist perfidy may have indeed "lashed out" -- for example in the case of "acting out" post-colonial frustrations through the "bold" exploits of 9/11. However, their motivations and actions have been "misunderstood" by simple-minded, emotional souls such as you and me. For it is only by turning the other cheek and extending a hand of ever-tolerant understanding -- we are constantly reminded by empathetic and caring progressives -- will such irrational violence in the world be ultimately pacified and miraculously washed away.

Indeed, if proponents of unbridled capitalism are sometimes overly hung-up with the economic healing powers of Adam Smith's much-celebrated free-market "invisible hand," the liberal-left proponents of multicultural understanding show an even greater faith in the truly magical powers of tolerance, good will and empathy in calming the turbulent waters of international savagery -- no matter how twisted, demented, violent, manipulative or evil the aggressors are.

And yes -- just like that cerebrally-challenged warmonger, George W Bush -- we've gone and done it. We've used (gasp!) the much-maligned "E" word -- evil.

In fact, let's put our cards on the table. In our book, Hitler was evil, Stalin was evil, Pol Pot was evil, Saddam Hussein is (or was) evil, and the twisted Islamofascist mullahs, who in the name of G-d preach unprovoked terroristic murder against Western "infidels," are evil.

And that, folks, is what the great divide between today's pie-in-the-sky leftist-oriented multicultural apologists and today's conservative realists is really all about. Unlike utopian leftists, the realists recognize that humans from all cultures, religions and nationalities are capable of evil, capable of being seduced by the irrational dark forces of self-serving hate, vanity and suppressed violence that comprise an essential component of human nature (although granted, such dark inclinations seem to particularly predominate in the personalities of a dangerous few).

Of course, today's most brilliant academics teach us (and our children) that there is no such thing as good and evil, just structurally-situated morality. So, you might ask, how do we assess what is evil? ....

[Apolitical]

Putting the M back in Moral.

[MEG33]

A reason for terror ,yes..valid? NO

[Alouette]

'the causes of bitterness and anger . . . of terrorists should be identified and removed.'

Well, yeah, just eliminate all the Jews in the world. If that is all it takes to stop Arab Rage.

[nosofar]

"The bottom line is that there is always evil in the world. And it must be opposed with strength, firmness and (if necessary) force. "


I would add 'wisdom' to this list.

[MHGinTN]

Ahh, but evil also 'comes in on little cat's feet'. America is being inveigled to accept cannibalism as enlightened medical advance, but this seeping of evil is not blasted into our consciousness, it is slid in under the guise of 'utilitarian good'. What man when confronted with a life threatening disease assaulting his child would say no to taking parts from a 'not yet fully human' being therapeutically cloned for tissue match for his child?

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[F.J. Mitchell]

"If that is all it takes to stop Arab rage."

That wouldn't stop Arab rage-it would be only the appetizer for their gluttinous venting of Arab (Muslim) rage upon Christians.

[sheik yerbouty]

I would prefer enlightening the jihadists with the "light of a thousand suns"!