The Return of Good and Evil

The Wall Street Journal ^

[VinnyTex]

Hooray for Bush's moral clarity--but beware of hubris.

Thursday, February 7, 2002 12:01 a.m.

The puzzle is this. More than a week after he lit the inflammatory phrase "the axis of evil" and watched it soar into the sky, President Bush has been receiving remarkably little criticism for the "evil" bit, and barely more than that (from Madeleine Albright, after all) for the "axis" part.

[jimkress]

WOW!

What an amazing article!

Thanks for posting it.

[anniegetyourgun]

Amazing how we can go from the Maddy Notsobright nomenclature of "states of concern" to "evil axis" so quickly. Just wish it hadn't taken 9/11 for libs to get over their pantywaist language problems.

[BlueAngel]

Bump!

[Common Tator]

This article is made up of a thinking mans arguments. It is far more simple than these convoluted statements infer. When the threat is to others,and not Joe Public, Joe is not concerned. Joe can tolerate and even accept and preach the softer words of tolerant diversity.

But when Joe sees his own a$$ in mortal danger, Joe wants the bad guys wasted before night fall. When Joe's a$$ is in danger his idea of a fair trial is for the troops to aim before they shoot the damned terrorists.

[SuziQ]

Michael Novak is an awesome writer. I like his idea about how our country is founded with a system of checks and balances because the Founders knew that we were HUMAN and could be tempted by power. That is the biggest difference between our system of govt. and that of the Muslim ruled countries. The followers of Islam don't have the notion of 'original sin' thus believe that their leaders, since they know the Koran and read it daily, will only do good because they are doing the work of Allah (as told to the people by the Mullahs). So the people don't see any need to scrutinize or even question what their leaders do, and they accept, without question, everything that is said 'in the name of Allah'.

We in the West, who have been raised with the tenets of Christianity (even if some are NOT Christian) don't believe that every political leader is good, so we'll be vigilant.

[ladyinred]

President Bush, like President Reagan before him, tells it like it is. Obviously, the American people like that considering the polls.
I personally loved his "wanted dead or alive" quip about OBL!

[zarf]

"The final enigma of history is therefore not how the righteous will gain victory over the unrighteous, but how the evil in every good and the unrighteousness of the righteous is to be overcome."

We need to be less critical of other societies and begin to hack away at our own sewage...Our Jerry Springer mentality is evil. We export this crap and it earns us no friends.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

We need to be less critical of other societies and begin to hack away at our own sewage..

You don't mind if we fight the enemy at the gate in the process, do you? Some of those people we are critical of are trying to kill all who are not like them, especially Americans.

[JMJ333]

ping!

[JMJ333]

This is an excellent article. Thanks for posting it.

[JMJ333]

Trust me when I say you'll like this article. Its worth the read.

[JMJ333]

Most of what passes for relativism today is fake. Your average relativist is only a relativist when she is trying to discredit your standards.

In a nut shell.

[Judith Anne]

I agree, this is really a terrific article.

[Gershom]

Bttt. Great article!

[185JHP]

The potential for evil exists in all people. Some societies - like ours - do a better job of controlling it. Reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in the Saturday Evening Post described the problem - and RR called it what it was. However, if you ponder "How could people support such evil?", reflect that after 1,000 years of perfect government, there will be people who take the side of evil when they get the chance...

[zarf]

Not at all, we need to kill all the bastards. The point is that we must come to terms with our own sewage and not become obsessed with a primitive "america good, they evil" gorilla mentality.

We do piss many conservative societies off with our cultural elitism...in fact, elitism would be justified if it added value...unfortunately, being overseas quite a bit myself, I'm embarrassed by much of the pop cultural garbage we export. I've seen first hand the resentment it breeds.

we need to come to terms with that reality.

[JMJ333]

So good I had to bookmark it! =)

The theme of the article should be shouted from the rooftops. The death of relativism can't happen soon enough for me. Lots of work to be done, especially when you consider the libertarian mindest that is so prevalent nowdays.

[jwh_Denver]

Good God. This article is good but not "excellent". Some of you posters need to put down your comic books for a month or so and read some stuff that makes you think. Think and Grow Rich, and I don't necessarily mean money.

[Michael Barnes]

Well put..Kudo's.